Elizabeth Becz is a comedian in Brooklyn. She grew up in Rutherford, N.J., and picked up playing the piano in middle school. Her teacher, Doug, introduced her to stand-up and would later ignite a passion. After working in upstate New York for o...

Matt Vita grew up playing in punk bands. He got a taste for comedy while doing humorous raps between bands at shows. Then about 10 years ago, he found an open mic. Since then, he's traveled all over the country telling jokes and founded the Ver...

Mike DiAlto started doing stand-up about 16 years ago after taking a class at the Comedy Cellar in New York City. He kept doing it in Philadelphia and has been running the mixed mic and comedy shows at John and Peter's in New Hope, Pa., for the...

Eric Basile started doing stand-up in Jamestown, N.Y., back in 2011. He moved to Buffalo in 2014 and has been there since. A film student at the University of Buffalo, Basile grew up on Saturday Night Live and sitcoms from the '70s, '80s and '9...

Matt Dundas started doing stand-up in a San Francisco laundromat in 2002 and then stopped. He started up again in Seattle, but stopped. It wasn't until he was in Washington, D.C., in 2013 that it stuck. He and his family are in Portland, Maine,...

Sari Beliak is a really talented writer and comedian in Phoenix, Ariz. She took sketch classes at Second City in Los Angeles and began writing for The Hard Times and the Reductress before transitioning her comedy chops onto the stage. She's bee...

Alice Duhon has a background in musical theater, but she transitioned to stand-up in Detroit at 29. She was taking a stand-up class and going through a divorce around the same time. She's spent the last two years working out material from Detro...

Myles Weber started doing stand-up in Vallejo, Calif., right out of high school. He convinced 30 of his friends from school and the gym to watch his first open mic and he's been at it ever since. Over the last seven years, he's recorded two Dry...

Josephine Rivera started doing stand-up about 2 1/2 years ago when she was 29. She moved from New York to Pensacola, Fla., for college and stayed put. She produces shows with Carson Tucker under Whippersnapper Comedy and they're working all ove...

Luke Thayer started doing stand-up in Indianapolis about 21 years ago. A year in, he and his wife, Abi Crutchfield, moved to New York City together, where they still live. He's been on Gotham Comedy Live, Fox, TruTV and The Food Network. He rel...

Jeremy Pryal started doing stand-up in Scranton when he was 17. He opted to stay out of the Marines and chase success in comedy. He spent eight years in Philadelphia before a bad set and the personal issues took him off course. Now married with...

Chris Dolan started doing stand-up at a comedy class at the Helium Comedy Club in Philadelphia when he was 46. He's been writing ever since. It's all thanks to his wife, who pushed him in the right direction. He's been able to find a home in th...

Bill Squire is one of Cleveland's best comedians and if he has his way, he always will be. He started doing stand-up in 2004 after leaving the Mormon religion. He spent 12 years working on The Alan Cox Show on WMMS in Cleveland. His latest spec...

Dana Charitonchick studied biology at West Chester University and had a career as a scientist before jumping into stand-up when she was 30. She's four years in and has her footing in the Philadelphia scene. She's been able to keep those worlds ...

Kevin Andrews started doing stand-up in Buffalo when he was 33 years old. He's about two years in, but he's already produced shows and works pretty consistently. It's a good thing his mom said she'd be disappointed if he didn't give it a shot. ...

Dan Turco started doing stand-up about 11 years ago when he was 25. He moved around a lot as a kid, but went to Eastern Michigan for college and settled in Detroit, where he's made his home in the comedy community. He's in his third year workin...

David Britton started doing stand-up at the Comedy Attic in Bloomington, Ind., about 13 years ago. He's in Schenectady, N.Y., now, where he's also acting, writing and directing. He produces comedy shows and gets on stage as much as he can. He w...

Gerrit Elzinga fell in love with stand-up early and got onto his first stage at 15 years old. He's been telling jokes for almost 19 years, despite being only 33. He's the house emcee at Dr. Grin's Comedy Club in Grand Rapids, Mich., and is hopi...

Zach Russell started doing stand-up when he was 21 and a student at Boston College. He moved to New York City after school and has been working all over the city and the East Coast. He grew up in Annapolis, Md., where I interviewed his friends ...

Zach Peterson has been doing stand-up for the last 17 years. He started in Omaha, Neb., and spent nine years in Chicago and one in Los Angeles before coming back home. He's 43 years old, but he can still play basketball and tell jokes, so he's ...

Dan Shelly has been doing stand-up in the Allentown, Pa., are for the last 16 years. He started in 2008, a couple years after starting riffing with a friend, Adam Yenser. He's been bartending for most of his adult life and spent a couple years ...

Angel Penn is a really funny comedian in Silver Spring, Md. He's been doing stand-up in the Washington, D.C., area for the last six years. He used to run Spaghetti on the Beach, an open mic, and he's currently co-hosting the Try Out Comedy open...

Ant Perez started doing stand-up in October 2020 in the Zoom days. He persevered and has flourished since getting onto a live stage. He's a regular feature at the clubs in the Virginia Beach, Va., area. A father of two boys, he was able to tour...

Caleb Goldberg has only been in the Rochester comedy scene for a couple years. But he really started in high school. He won two national stand-up contests while chasing college scholarships, then chased improv while in college. He switched back...

Aaron Rosen started doing improv back in 2013 and only tried stand-up a few times before going all-in on it in 2022. A teacher in Jersey City, N.J., he's a favorite among the students. He's a very talented impressionist, too, which helps. He's ...