Gary Gulman

Gary Gulman can stretch a typographical error into a multi-character saga. He speaks with deliberate enunciation, pausing to savor the sound of an antiquated word. He will imagine a 1970s committee tasked with standardizing postal codes, populating the scene with bickering bureaucrats and office politics. He paces the stage slowly, mapping out the story with his hands, acting out both sides of an argument over punctuation.

He is the comic other comics study for structure. He spent years posting daily writing tips online, acting as an informal professor for the scene. He plays theaters, but he retains the energy of a guy pulling you aside to complain about a grocery store policy.

He treats minor details like historical crises. He doesn’t just point out that it is hard to abbreviate the A-states; he acts out the boardroom panic when the workers realize they painted themselves into a corner. His 2019 special The Great Depresh aimed this same pedantic rhythm at his own severe depression and hospitalization. He brought the exact same annoyance to his psychiatric treatment that he usually reserves for font choices.

He grew up in Massachusetts and briefly played tight end at Boston College on a football scholarship. At six-foot-six, his physical size serves as a permanent visual contrast to his sensitive, highly anxious demeanor.