So This Guy Walks into a Comedy Festival...

A comedy club is most often the province of the profane, which used to be a problem for 21-year-old Norwood native Dan Boulger. Though he can work blue with the best of them, he’s lanky and baby-faced, and audiences seemed uneasy hearing him spout filth. So two years ago he tweaked his act to break the ice. “I look like I’m 12” is now his opening line, which gets a relieved laugh. Then he tells a prison-sex joke.

But Boulger’s youth has served him well. Last September, as a Curry College student, he became the youngest-ever winner of the Boston Comedy Festival. That earned him spots on Comedy Central and HBO’s comedy festival in Aspen, and presented him with a career opportunity he couldn’t turn down. Boulger hired an agent and quit college, and is now doing comedy full time—traveling the country, waking up at 1 p.m., and telling jokes through the night. “It’s a laid-back job,” he says, then pauses to reconsider. “I’m not even sure it is a job.”