Show Notes
On this episode of Last Meal, I sat down with comedian Gary Gulman, one of the sharpest and most introspective minds in stand-up, to talk about how the thing that nearly ended his career became the source of his best work. Depression was not simply overcome, but got put to use.
Starting with his childhood as a mall rat in Massachusetts, we get into why he walked away from a career as an accountant, the mantra that carried him through years of creative failure, and the daily habits that turned momentum into a body of work.
Gary opens up about his breakdown between 2015 and 2017, the psychiatric stay that changed everything, and how depression rewired the way he writes and performs, shifting his comedy from observation to something far more personal.
We also lament on the small phrases from childhood that still shape who he is, and what he's learned about memory, regret, and what's actually worth spending money on.
Gary's memoir, Misfit: Growing Up Awkward in the '80s, and his HBO special The Great Depresh both dig deeper into the story we cover here. His new solo show, Grandiloquent, is currently touring theatres across the US.
This is a conversation about identity, memory, and what it means to turn pain into precision. If you've ever wondered what's actually going on in the head of one of comedy's most acclaimed writers, this one's for you.
Chapters 0:00 Introduction 1:45 Growing Up a Mallrat 9:29 Comedy: A Mirror or Escape? 12:56 Gary as an Accountant 19:47 Where People Go to Die 22:40 Momentum & Discipline 33:51 Sayings & Small Moments 40:58 Living With Depression 46:46 How Gary's Comedy Changed 57:54 Quickfire Questions 1:02:53 A Lasting Quote 1:05:28 Last Word
Special Thanks to Noam Dworman, of the best Comedy Club in the world - The Comedy Cellar - for use of the Village Underground. https://www.comedycellar.com/
Follow Gary: https://www.instagram.com/garygulman
Tour Dates: https://garygulman.com/
Misfit (Book): https://static.macmillan.com/static/fib/gary-gulman/index.html
Follow Tom: https://www.instagram.com/djhookie
More from LAST MEAL with Tom Nash
Recently I sat down with Gary Stevenson: former trader, author of The Trading Game, and the man behind Gary's Economics — to ask the question that drives everything he does: how much is enough?
This week I sit down with Steven Pinker — cognitive scientist, Harvard professor, and one of the most consequential public intellectuals alive — for a conversation that ranged from the architecture of power to the nature of free will, from the hard data on human progress to why changing your mind might be the bravest thing you can do.
Kenneth "Taco" Cockrell is a five-time space shuttle astronaut, retired US Navy fighter pilot, and cancer survivor who has confronted mortality more than once — and come out the other side smiling. In this conversation, Taco and I explore what happens to a man's sense of purpose, faith, and priorities when he's spent a career dancing with the edge of human existence.
Bill Perkins joins us on this episode of Last Meal to challenge everything you thought you knew about personal finance and life optimisation. As a successful trader, high-stakes poker player, and author of the groundbreaking book Die with Zero, Bill argues that our obsession with hoarding wealth often comes at the expense of our most valuable resource: time. This conversation dives deep into how to break free from the "autopilot" trap and start maximising your life experiences before it’s too late.
Tim Urban — creator of Wait But Why and the mind behind one of the most-watched TED Talks of all time — reveals why courage might be the most underrated skill for living a fulfilling life. Tim takes us on a journey from his transformative solo trip to Thailand at age 20 to the systems he's built to trick himself into being productive, exploring how the habits we fall into can either expand or shrink our experience of time itself.