<p>I have a funny feeling you haven’t a clue how hard it is to break into comedy in NYC. I also think you may not realize how many expenses other than rent you’ll have. Is Grandma going to pay for your monthly subway/bus pass? Is Grandma paying for your head shots? Is Grandma going to pay for your groceries? (If you want to do stand-up, it’s not as if you can promise to be home every night for dinner.) Is Grandma going to pay for your classes? Yep, from what I’ve heard, it’s almost impossible to break into stand up in NYC without taking some of the classes. </p>
<p>I have a young neighbor who is trying to do something similar. He lives in his family home, so no rent. He has a full-time entry level job with a local politician, which probably pays $35,000 a year, and he spends his nights and weekends trying to break into the business. I assume he’s pretty good. He’s now teaching some of the intro level classes at one of the better known places.</p>
<p>BTW, in addition to acting in our local community theatre through high school, where he got nearly every comedic role, he spent 4 years and got a degree from a LAC, where he was involved in improv and stand up. </p>
<p>One of the other “kids” from our neighborhood, now in her early 30s, is in one of the comedy troupes. Her parents paid for her studio apartment, but she has to pay the monthly maintenance. She’s done a few national commercials. </p>
<p>If I were your parents, I wouldn’t be against it at all, but I’d give you a year and insist that you figure out a way to cover the expenses yourself.</p>
<p>Free bump for the thread. There’s a lot of great advice on here, and I think what you’re trying to do is awesome. I’m rooting for you, let us know how it goes! </p>
<p>Whether or not you take a gap year, once at school you can still pursue your passion. Lots of schools have improv groups and standup comedy teams. D1 got involved in one at her school. They worked at a local comedy club and almost always commanded full audiences. </p>
<p>Just adding: BJ Novak: Harvard. Steve Carrell: Denison. Mark Maron: BU. David Letterman: Ball State. Larry David: University of Maryland. Jay Leno: Emerson. Jerry Seinfeld: Queens College. Johnny Carson: Nebraska. Joan Rivers: Barnard.</p>
<p>These are graduates; I’m not counting everyone who attended and dropped out. :)</p>
<p>"my brother graduated with a business degree, and he tells me that people who get english majors all end up becoming substitute teachers. how accurate is this?</p>
<ul>
<li>unless they go to Law school or Medical school or pursue anything else in a world, politics, business, whatever…or they might actually like substitute teaching that provides them with the flexibility in raising their kids (having, for example, high income spuse, would make it pretty ideal)</li>
</ul>
<p>There are other options for English or literature majors. John Guttag, who majored in English at Brown, is the former head of MIT’s Computer Science Department. John Gabrieli, who majored in English at Yale, is the director of MIT’s brain imaging institute (and an amazing psych professor).</p>
)</p>