We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Denny Glasser a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Denny, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to hear about when you first realized that you wanted to pursue a creative path professionally.
A couple moments in my childhood and young adulthood stick out to me when I first knew I wanted to pursue comedy professionally. First in elementary school, performing in the school plays and creating live laughter from the audience was electrifying to me. I began seeking more opportunities to get back on stage. Once more in elementary school while reading to the class (which typically gave me anxiety), I made my fellow students laugh over the way I was reading and an absolute calmness came over me as I heard the laughter that made me feel invincible. Later in high school (Junior year) my friends persuaded me to audition for Little Shop of Horrors as Dr. Orin. After getting the role and getting back on stage for the first time since elementary, I regained my love for the stage and making an audience laugh. I made the decision prior to graduating, because of these moments, to pursue comedy instead of going to college.
Denny, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?
At 19 years old, I moved to Chicago to enroll myself into The Second City. I chose Chicago because most of my idols from SNL came from the same pipeline there. That and because NYC was too expensive. So I moved from Ohio to Chicago, began taking improv, acting, and writing courses for the next several years. I graduated the Conservatory within 4 years of moving there and also managed to graduate from iO and ComedySportz as well. I took a few courses at The Annoyance but didn’t finish their program. My proudest moment from all of my training arrived when I put on a Solo show at The Second City, that ran for a month. I moved out to Los Angeles a year after the solo show and eventually graduated from the Groundlings Writing Lab program and focused most of my attention to stand up comedy. A couple proud moments include performing with Jay Leno and creating my first stand up special. Throughout my entire journey, I’ve always kept the faith of the plan in place for myself. My goal was to make it on SNL in my early 20’s. 13 years into the journey, I can confidently say, it’s more about the relationships that you make with others than the destination of where you think you’re going to. But along the way, it helps to be able to wear as many hats as possible. My ability to do all things comedy related has helped open so many opportunities for myself. Through writing, improvising, acting, and doing impressions- have truly opened many doors along the way.
Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?
To make it possible to live in Chicago by myself at 19 when I first moved there and also to put myself through comedy training, I accepted an overnight concierge job at a luxury apartment building. I started working 32 hours on the weekends and doing overtime throughout the week. I went on to work overnight shifts for the next 5 years and managed to squeeze classes and shows in between my work and sleep. The hiring manager, when I was first started, was confused why I was willing to work these crazy hours and in reply I said I’ll do anything for my dream. And to this day, that mindset has remained the same.
Are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?
Social media. It’s such a powerful tool in accelerating careers. I had an old school mindset early on in my journey which didn’t involve social media much at all. About halfway through my journey I started using it more and more effectively. To this day, I’m working towards building my following on Instagram, Tik Tok, etc, but had I placed an emphasis on it when I first started out, the potential for lighting to strike, could have came much faster.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://glasserdenny.wixsite.com/website
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dennyglasser?igsh=OGQ5ZDc2ODk2ZA%3D%3D&utm_source=qr
- Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/denny.glasser?mibextid=dGKdO6
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennyglasser?utm_source=share&utm_campaign=share_via&utm_content=profile&utm_medium=ios_app
- Twitter: @glasserdenny
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@Featuringdennyglasser?si=E8IwOi9KgOjnrfnq