Chris D’Elia knew he was funny, or at least, he knew he could make his friends and family laugh. He had gotten a few acting gigs, in part thanks to his father, director Bill D’Elia; sold a couple of scripts, but he really wanted to do stand up, he thought, have people pay attention to me.

In 2004, at 23 years old he went up at The Ha, Ha Cafe in North Hollywood, and did okay.

Two years later, he made a new years resolution to become a better comic through practice. He would force himself to go up on stage at least once a week.

He went up January 2, 2006, for, in his words, the ‘real’ first time. Then the 3rd, the 4th, the 6th, the 7th. And since then, the longest he’s gone without going on stage (even while working as a series regular on Whitney & Undateable) is 7 days in a row.