The Undeniable Joel Kim Booster

The actor, comedian, and writer has hit his career sweet spot: not "widely reviled on the Internet yet" but high on the authentic power of making people laugh.

- Kelly Stout

BACK IN COLLEGE, JOEL KIM BOOSTER WROTE A one-act play called Layover, about a guy passing through Chicago who gets snowed in after his ex-girlfriend has died by suicide. The guy bunks for a while with the ex's estranged sister, who is desperate to figure out who the dead woman really was. Booster was striving for emotional seriousness-depth à la "a nineteen-year-olds version of what fucked-up is." And sure enough, after the show a young woman came up to him so moved that she was in tears.

Booster had been performing his whole life, but until that moment he hadn't clicked into the power of dramatic writing. Nearly two decades later, with pride still plain in his voice, the thirty-six-year-old actor, comedian, and screenwriter clarifies: By the way, that serious play was actually pretty funny. But when you're nineteen, you think the most powerful writing in the world makes people cry.

It's not until you're a little older, when you've lived a little or a lot-and maybe built a career in standup comedy-that you learn the truth: The real power is in making people laugh. A genuine laugh, one that comes from deep down and takes your breath away, is something you can't fake.