Neal Brennan

Neal Brennan (born October 19, 1973) is an American comedian and podcaster. He is best known for co-creating and co-writing the Comedy Central series Chappelle's Show (2003–2006) with Dave Chappelle and for his Netflix stand-up comedy special 3 Mics.

Early life Brennan was born in Villanova, Pennsylvania, on October 19, 1973, the youngest of ten children born into a family of Irish Catholic descent. He lived in Villanova until the age of six, moving with his family in 1978 to Wilmette, Illinois. According to Brennan, his father's side of the family was funny, as were his five older brothers. He watched a large amount of comedy on TV during his high school years, often staying up late to see Late Night with David Letterman and The Arsenio Hall Show. He began as a doorman at the now-defunct Boston Comedy Club in Greenwich Village where he met frequent performer Dave Chappelle.

In the mid-1990s Brennan moved to Los Angeles. In 1995, he became a writer for the dating show Singled Out which was hosted by Jenny McCarthy and Chris Hardwick.

In 1997, Brennan and Dave Chappelle collaborated for the first time on the screenplay for the film Half Baked. The film was released in January 1998 and starred Chappelle, Jim Breuer, Harland Williams, and Guillermo Díaz. Half Baked was a commercial failure and received mainly negative reviews but has become a cult classic.

In a 2006 interview, Brennan referred to the period of the film's release as "probably the worst year of my life, creatively and personally."

Chappelle's Show Brennan and Chappelle came together to co-create, co-write, and co-executive produce the eponymous sketch comedy Chappelle's Show which premiered in January 2003. The duo wrote the show's sketches with minimal outside help and agreed never to divulge who was responsible for writing which sketch.

Brennan directed some sketches in the show's second season, including the sketch featuring Chappelle as musician Rick James. By the end of its second season Chappelle's Show was Comedy Central's highest-rated program.

Members of the musical group the Roots worked as music directors on the second and third seasons of the show. Brennan later recommended the band to Jimmy Fallon as his house band on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.

Chappelle's Show was doing well and Chappelle had signed a $50 million deal in 2004 to produce two more seasons, but he abruptly left the show in April 2005 prior to the premiere of the show's third season. As a result, the premiere of season three was delayed; Brennan compiled the remaining sketches and aired them in July 2006 as the "lost episodes."

The Champs podcast In 2011, Brennan, comedian Moshe Kasher, and DJ Douggpound (Doug Lussenhop) started a podcast called The Champs. Kasher said of the podcast: "It's Doug dropping sound effects and beats over me and Neal kind of hosting an hour of ridiculous chat. We have a rotating black guy guest, there's a different black guest every week." The podcast ended in 2016.

3 Mics In 2015, Brennan developed and performed a comedy show, 3 Mics, in Los Angeles. He brought it to New York City in 2016, opening on March 3 at the Lynn Redgrave Theater. The show features Brennan alternating between three microphones; he uses the first microphone to read one-liners from index cards, the second microphone to talk about dealing with depression and his relationship with his father, and the third microphone to perform traditional stand-up comedy. In 2017, 3 Mics was released as a Netflix original comedy special.

How Neal Feel podcast In 2019, Brennan and his friend Bianca Siavoshy started a podcast called How Neal Feel. The duo interviewed several of Brennan's friends including Jimmy Carr, Blake Griffin, Adam Levine, and Chris Rock on the weekly podcast that largely consisted of the duo talking about current events and their personal lives. Features on the show included Doc Watch, in which they discuss documentaries; Neal's Gon' 'Pologize, in which Neal apologizes for saying something offensive; Dumb Purchase, where Neal shares frivolous purchases; and Emails, a segment in which Bianca and Neal respond to questions and comments from listeners.

Unacceptable In August 2021, Brennan's one-man show Unacceptable debuted at New York City's Cherry Lane Theater with acclaimed magician, author, artist Derek DelGaudio as director. Upon the close of the show in November 2021, Brennan announced that the show would tour in 2022. It was released on Netflix in 2022, titled Neal Brennan: Blocks.

Blocks podcast In December 2022 Brennan started a new podcast (at the suggestion of his friend, Jimmy Carr) with an episode with David Letterman. It follows the same format as his Netflix special (of the same name) in that he asks his guests about aspects of their life that leave them isolated or lonely and how they overcome these “blocks”.

Other work In 2006, Brennan directed and co-wrote the made-for-TV movie Totally Awesome. He directed the 2009 film The Goods.

Brennan continues to perform stand-up regularly in the Los Angeles area as well as nationally. He has also appeared on Last Call with Carson Daly, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Lopez Tonight, and Conan. In 2013, Brennan directed 10 episodes of Inside Amy Schumer.

In 2016, he became a regular writer and contributor to The Daily Show as "Trevor's friend Neal".

On October 10, 2019, he was featured in a 30-minute YouTube documentary created by SoulPancake in collaboration with Funny or Die called Laughing Matters, wherein a variety of comedians discuss mental health.

Influences Brennan has said that his comedy influences are Chris Rock, but stated in November 2020 that he is no longer an atheist after using ayahuasca several times. Brennan is the younger brother of stand-up comedian and podcaster Kevin Brennan.

Filmography

Television

Film

Half Baked, writer (1998) The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard, director (2009) Get Him to the Greek, actor (2010) The Female Brain, writer, actor (2017) The Opening Act, actor (2020) Capone, actor (2020)