HBO Comedy Half-Hour

Seeing Dave Attell in 1996 is like watching a prototype of the modern club comic being tested. Years before he became the face of late-night cable television, Attell was already a joke machine, barking out setups and relentless punchlines. He paces the stage with the restless energy of a guy whose natural habitat is a basement at 2 a.m. He fires off early bits about dolphins and wonders if he is the only person whose apartment building is actually just the YMCA.

Filmed at The Fillmore in San Francisco, the half-hour set aired as part of HBO’s ongoing comedy showcase. At the time, Attell had recently finished a brief stint writing for Saturday Night Live and was busy cementing his status as a fixture of the New York scene. This taping is a straightforward document of a working professional dialing in the economical cadence that would eventually make him a favorite among his peers.