Seth Rogen's comic start

2 months ago 08th Sep 13:30

Seth Rogen says stand-up comedy kick-started his Hollywood career.

The 'Pineapple Express' actor discovered he had the ability to make people laugh when his mother encouraged him to join a comedy group as a teenager.

Seth enrolled with his friend, and current writing partner Evan Goldberg - with whom he developed scripts for 'Superbad' and 'Pineapple Express'.

He said: "I think my mom read in the paper that there was a class or workshop you could take, where they teach you to write a joke, and the loose structure of a stand-up routine. And you'd get there and people would laugh, or they wouldn't laugh.

"They were all adults, but it was a very non-threatening environment. Somebody there worked in a comedy club and said, 'Hey, if you want to do some more, then come up.' So I went along and, you know, the next thing you know you're doing stand-up comedy."

Seth insists the kind of material he used in his early routines is similar to the jokes and movie scripts he writes today.

He told Arena magazine: "'Pineapple Express' is kind of a college version of 'Superbad'. We wrote it when we were 18 or 19 years old, but no one would make it for about six years, until we had done a bunch of other stuff. With 'Superbad' people read it and said, 'This movie is insane.' "