Todd Steven Glass (born December 16, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian.

Life and career

Glass was born and raised in the suburbs of

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Philadelphia ( ), colloquially referred to as Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania, most populous city in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and the List of United States cities by population, sixth-most populous city in the Unit ...

. He first began performing stand-up comedy in Philadelphia in 1982 while attending Conestoga High School. He made his earliest television appearances in the late 1980s on A&E's '' An Evening at the Improv'' and in the early 1990s on several

Comedy Central Comedy Central is an American Cable television in the United States, cable television channel, channel owned by Paramount Global through its Paramount Media Networks, network division's Paramount Media Networks#MTV Entertainment Group, MTV Ente ...

stand-up programs. He is Jewish and

dyslexic Dyslexia (), previously known as word blindness, is a learning disability that affects either reading or writing. Different people are affected to different degrees. Problems may include difficulties in spelling words, reading quickly, writ ...

. Glass is perhaps best known for his appearances as a contestant on the second and third seasons of

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. It is one of NBCUniversal's ...

's ''

Last Comic Standing ''Last Comic Standing'' is an American reality television talent competition show on NBC that aired from June 1, 2003, to August 9, 2010, and again in 2014 and 2015. Each season a comedian from an initially large group of hopefuls was picked as ...

'' and has appeared regularly on programs such as ''

Jimmy Kimmel Live! ''Jimmy Kimmel Live!'', sometimes shortened to ''JKL'', is an American late-night talk show, created and hosted by Jimmy Kimmel, and broadcast on ABC. The nightly hour-long show tapes and is based out of the Hollywood Masonic Temple in Hollywo ...

'', ''

Late Night with Conan O'Brien ''Late Night with Conan O'Brien'' is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the second installment of the ''Late Night (franchise), Late Night'' franchise originally established by David Letterman. Hosted by Conan O'Brie ...

'', '' Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn'', '' The Dennis Miller Show'', ''

Politically Incorrect "Political correctness" (adjectivally "politically correct"; commonly abbreviated to P.C.) is a term used to describe language, policies, or measures that are intended to avoid offense or disadvantage to members of particular groups in society. ...

'', '' Louie'', '' Tosh.0'', '' Mr. Show with Bob and David'', ''

Preston and Steve ''Preston & Steve'' is a morning radio, comedy, and variety broadcast on Philadelphia's active rock station 93.3 FM WMMR. The show features DJs Preston Elliot and Steve Morrison. The show originated at WDRE and then on Y100, both in Philadelphi ...

'' and had his own ''

Comedy Central Presents ''Comedy Central Presents'' is an American stand-up comedy television series created for Comedy Central. It is the network's main half-hour program which highlights either one or a series of stand-up comedians each episode. In 2011, the series ...

'' special in 2001. He co-hosted the podcast ''Comedy And Everything Else'' with fellow comics

Jimmy Dore James Patrick Anthony Dore (born July 26, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian, political commentator, podcaster and YouTube personality. He is the host of '' The Jimmy Dore Show'', a comedic political talk show on YouTube. Dore started as a ...

and Stefané Zamorano. Glass left the podcast in September 2009, and his departure was officially announced on the episode dated November 28, 2009. Since leaving, Glass has returned as a guest on several episodes. In 2001, Glass released his debut stand-up album called ''Vintage Todd Glass and Other Crap'' and was also featured on the two–CD set of the ''

Comedy Death-Ray Comedy is a genre of dramatic works intended to be humorous or amusing by inducing laughter, especially in theatre, film, stand-up comedy, television, radio, books, or any other entertainment medium. Origins Comedy originated in ancient Gr ...

'', a compilation album of various stand-up comics performing at the popular ''

'' comedy showcase at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles. His album ''Thin Pig'', was released on July 7, 2009, on Comedy Central Records. In August 2011, his

podcast A podcast is a Radio program, program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an Episode, episodic series of digital audio Computer file, files that users can download to a personal device or str ...

''The Todd Glass Show'' debuted on The Nerdist podcasting network. He hosts the show along with a regular lineup of guests and crew, including comedians Rory Scovel (and his wife Jordan) and Blake Wexler, audio engineers Katie Levine, Aristotle "Jet Ski" Acevedo, and musicians Lynn Shore and Joe MacKenzie, who write and perform many of the show's various "jingles" and audio cues. Glass also tours regularly.

Personal life

On April 16, 2010, Glass collapsed backstage at a Los Angeles comedy club Largo after suffering a heart attack. Glass appeared on '' The Bonnie Hunt Show'' only nine days later, talking about his recent "brush with death". Glass said he found out he had 100% blockage in his arteries and following an

angioplasty Angioplasty, also known as balloon angioplasty and percutaneous transluminal angioplasty, is a minimally invasive procedure, minimally invasive endovascular surgery, endovascular Medical procedure, procedure used to widen narrowed or obstructe ...

, declared that he was doing fine. Glass blamed these health problems on bad genetics. Both parents had a history of heart problems; Todd's father had his first heart attack at age 30 and died of a subsequent heart attack at age 46. On December 20, 2012, Glass talked about his heart attack on the '' Adam Carolla Show'', and said that he had lost 30 pounds since the incident. He had also stopped smoking (he previously maintained a "pack-a-month" habit), and that he had started taking the drug Lipitor to prevent further heart attacks. Glass

came out Coming out of the closet, often shortened to coming out, is a metaphor used to describe LGBTQ people's self-disclosure of their sexual orientation, romantic orientation, or gender identity. This is often framed and debated as a privacy issue, ...

publicly as gay on January 16, 2012, during an episode of '' WTF with Marc Maron''. The information had previously been known to friends and family, and Glass explained that he was worried about coming out publicly, but the recent string of

suicide among LGBT youth Research has found that attempted suicide rates and suicidal ideation among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people are significantly higher than among the general population. In the United States, one study has shown the ...

motivated him to do so.

Discography

Albums

* ''Vintage Todd Glass and Other Crap'' (2001) * ''Thin Pig'' (2009) Comedy Central Records—Digital Album * ''Todd Glass Talks About Stuff'' (2013) * ''Todd Glass: Act Happy'' (2018)

Compilation appearances

* ''

'' (2007) Comedy Central Records

Books

* ''The Todd Glass Situation: A Bunch of Lies about My Personal Life and a Bunch of True Stories about My 30-Year Career in Stand-Up Comedy''. Simon & Schuster, 2014. .

References

External links

* *
Todd Glass
on MySpace
The Todd Glass Show Podcast
{{DEFAULTSORT:Glass, Todd 1964 births 20th-century American comedians 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male actors 21st-century American comedians 21st-century American Jews 21st-century American male actors American comedy podcasters American gay actors American LGBTQ comedians American male comedians American stand-up comedians Comedians from Philadelphia Gay comedians Gay Jews Jewish American comedians Jewish American male actors Jewish male comedians Last Comic Standing contestants LGBTQ people from Pennsylvania Living people Male actors from Philadelphia