Joshua Lyons Gondelman (born January 15, 1985) is an American author, comedy writer, producer, and stand-up comedian.[1][2][3] He was a supervising producer and writer for Desus & Mero on Showtime.[4][5] He was previously a writer on Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. He is also known for co-creating the parody Twitter account @SeinfeldToday.[6][7]
When he was 19 years old, Gondelman began doing standup comedy in Boston. He did stand-up in Boston for seven years and occasionally returns.[14] After college, he worked as a pre-school teacher[7][15] and taught elementary school Spanish.[16] In 2011, Gondelman moved to New York City, where his then-girlfriend lived, to pursue stand-up comedy.[2]
During this time he also began doing freelance writing.[17][2] He co-wrote his first major story, "Both Sides of a Break Up", with his ex-girlfriend; it was published in New York Magazine in 2012.[2][18] In 2013, he wrote a story for Esquire describing his experience running in a Tough Mudder race in which he was sponsored by Wheaties in exchange for monetary compensation from General Mills and Zeus Jones.[19] He has also written for McSweeney's, The New Yorker,[16] and The New York Times.[20]
In October 2015, a book co-authored by Gondelman and Joe Berkowitz entitled You Blew It!: An Awkward Look at the Many Ways in Which You've Already Ruined Your Life, was published.[2][21]
Stand-up
As a stand-up comedian, he has opened for John Oliver, Jen Kirkman and Pete Holmes, and also performs regularly at New York City venues.[22][23] Eve Peyser has said that during his stand-up, Gondelman "radiates humility and a relatable, everyday awkwardness alongside fierce confidence and wit."[22]
Everything's The Best, his debut album, came out in 2011. His second album, Physical Whisper, was released on March 18, 2016.[14][24]
In 2010, he won the Laughing Skull Comedy Festival[25] in Atlanta, Georgia. In March 2016, he made his late-night television debut on Conan.[26] He made his network television debut in January 2018 on Late Night with Seth Meyers.[27]
Gondelman also was a stand-up consultant for the final season of "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel."[28]
SeinfeldToday
In December 2012, Gondelman created the Twitter account "SeinfeldToday", along with Jaclyn Moore, formerly of BuzzFeed.[29] The account posted humorous tweets reimagining Seinfeld characters in modern-day situations.[30] As of October 2015, the last time the account was active, it had more than 900,000 followers.[31] At the 6th annual Shorty Awards in 2014, the account won an award in the "#Fakeaccount" category.[32]
Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
In 2014, Gondelman was hired by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver as the web producer for the show's first season, and became a staff writer for the second season.[2][14] In 2016, he won a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series for his work on the show.[33] He and the writing team of Last Week Tonight won this same award in 2017, as well as a Writers Guild of America Award in 2017.[34][35]
Desus & Mero
In 2019, Gondelman left Last Week Tonight to become a senior staff writer and producer on Desus & Mero after the series moved to Showtime.[4][5]
Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me!
Since 2019, Gondelman has been a regular panelist on the NPR show Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me!.[36] In March 2023, Gondelman was the guest host filling in for Peter Sagal while Sagal was on paternity leave.[37]
Gondelman, Josh; Berkowitz, Joe (2016). You Blew It!: An Awkward Look at the Many Ways in Which You've Already Ruined Your Life. New York: Plume. ISBN978-0-147-51580-3. OCLC910009187.
Gondelman, Josh (2019). Nice Try: Stories of Best Intentions and Mixed Results. Harper Perennial. ISBN978-0062852755.
^ abcDorval, Mike (14 March 2016). "07 – Josh Gondelman". Bombing with Mike Dorval. Rox Labs. Archived from the original(Audio podcast) on 24 September 2017. Retrieved 25 May 2016.
^Douglas, Nick (2017-12-11). "I'm Comedian Josh Gondelman, and This Is How I Work". Lifehacker. Retrieved 2018-01-15. For this special video installment of How I Work, we visited Josh in his Brooklyn home to talk about his Emmy-winning TV work, the process of writing his second book, how he keeps it together on tour, and how he knows when to quit.
^Gondelman, Josh (18 March 2016). "Physical Whisper". Rooftop Comedy. Archived from the original(audio) on 28 January 2018. Retrieved 23 September 2017.
Michael Brumm, Nate Charny, Aaron Cohen, Stephen Colbert, Richard Dahm, Paul Dinello, Eric Drysdale, Rob Dubbin, Glenn Eichler, Gabe Gronli, Barry Julien, Jay Katsir, Sam Kim, Matthew Lappin, Frank Lesser, Opus Moreschi, Tom Purcell, Meredith Scardino, and Max Werner (2014)
