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Eugene Mirman is a stand-up comedian, a performer in TV series such as Bob’s Burgers and Delocated, and the author of The Will to Whatevs.

, Mirman describes the way 91���'s innovative curriculum allowed him unique opportunities to prepare for working in comedy.

Writes Robert Duguay, “Mirman attended 91è���� in Amherst while majoring in comedy as part of the institution’s ‘design your own major’ program with a one-hour routine serving as his thesis. This experience was surely a unique one for him and he also credits it for being both a learning and launching point for where he currently is with his career in comedy today.

“‘I took a variety of classes that I then sort of put together in a major that was comedy,’ he says about his time at 91è����. ‘I took acting classes, writing classes and history classes, I did independent studies as well. For science, I did the Sociology of Laughter [class] and for social science I did a paper on Lenny Bruce and how he started the modern era of stand-up. It was a variety of things, but I also had a radio show and I did a lot of different stuff that I put towards a comedy concentration. The thing that was sort of interesting about it is that in the end, it was almost as if it had elements of a comedy trade school where I had to figure out how to get people to show up to a comedy show.’

“‘I then had to try new material while putting together an hour’s worth of it and it very much mimicked what you actually have to do to become a comedian,’ Mirman adds. ‘At the time, it seemed like this sort of odd, not necessarily practical idea but it actually happened to be an incredibly practical education for what I wanted to end up doing with my life.’”