ComedyNerd: 13 Comedians Who Had Mentors We Didn’t Know About
Sure, there’s no comedy school, but apparently there are lots of apprenticeships.
![ComedyNerd: 13 Comedians Who Had Mentors We Didn’t Know About](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/0/8/806408_320x180.jpg)
Comedy kind of seems like a solitary affair … but, it turns out, many big-name comedians wouldn’t have gotten where they are without mentors. For example:
![COMEDY NERD Liz Miele got a kind of surprise mentoring from George Carlin himself. As a young comedian, she wrote to 40 established ones-only two contacted her, and one was Carlin, who even gave her a call. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/2/0/806420.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Tony Hale learned a lot from Jeffrey Tambor on Arrested Development. S AMY STREAMY ARDS AWARDS STREAMY S AAYY AWARDS. ARDS Hale was very new to the business with Arrested and Jeffrey scared the crap out of him, but Tambor also taught him about being funny. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/8/806418.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Aziz Ansari says no-one taught him more about being funny than Amy Poehler. Funny on-screen, anyway-plus, he says she was a leader on set and ran Parks and Rec with such class. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/2/1/806421.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Chris Rock wouldn't be where he is today without Eddie Murphy's involvement. When Rock was 19, Murphy took him to Hollywood and got him a job writing on Beverly Hills Cop II. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/9/806419.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Tiffany Haddish says that Kevin Hart is kind of like an older brother to her. He's mentored her and checked on her just like a big brother would, she said (even though he's just a few months older). CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/7/806417.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Во Burnham got the chance to work with Judd Apatow when he was 18. rizo. dation fo He'd written a script that Apatow ended up working on too - it didn't get made, but he says the mentoring was invaluable. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/4/806414.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Richard Pryor and Dennis Miller both got mentored by Sammy Petrillo. Petrillo was Jerry Lewis' double, and also did on-stage comedy in a double act with Suzie Fiore. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/6/806416.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Trevor Noah has had plenty of comedy mentors, including, say, Jay Leno. Leno told him to not to stop touring because, he says, it's like a muscle that you might not be able to rebuild. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/5/806415.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Charlie Chaplin's mentor was a little-known actress called Mabel Normand. Well, little-known today, anyway - she was better known in her day, and she directed some of his movies. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/3/806413.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Kevin Hart got mentored by Keith Robinson when he just started out. n Robinson told him to use material drawn from himself, even if it seems to bomb at first. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/2/806412.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD David Brenner (guest host of the Tonight Show) mentored Richard Lewis. Не even gave Lewis a loan so he could afford to quit his job and start a new comedy career. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/1/806411.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Without comedian Tony Woods, Dave Chappelle wouldn't be who he is today. Woods was so influential that, when Chappelle got the Mark Twain prize, he told Woods I was trying to play like you. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/1/0/806410.jpg)
![COMEDY NERD Turns out, Garry Shandling was kind of a mentor to Judd Apatow. Shandling got Apatow a job writing jokes for the 1991 Grammys, which Apatow called the biggest break of my career. CRACKED.COM](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/0/9/806409.jpg)