After graduating from Emerson with a double major in mass communications and speech, Brill moved back to New York and decided he needed a real job. He quit comedy in favor of jobs in advertising and managing an electronics store. But in 1984, he was pulled back into the Boston scene when a friend asked him to manage a comedy night at a club called the Paper Moon. Brill broke tradition by booking a few comedians to do long sets, as opposed to the short showcase sets many other clubs were running. By 1988, after laying the groundwork for the Paper Moon to become the Boston Comedy Club, Brill found himself with a successful stand-up career.

In 1997, Brill landed a job warming up the crowd before the start of "The Late Show." He gained a reputation as a smart comic and took a chance in April of last year when he saw Letterman wasn't happy with the quality of the show's stand-up

CONTINUED...