It’s Never Too Late to Quit Your Day Job and Become a Stand-Up Comic
The New York Times
Shaun Eli Breidbart was a banker on Wall Street for 19 years but he gave up a lucrative career in favor of happiness.
“It’s Never Too Late” is a series that tells the stories of people who decide to pursue their dreams on their own terms.
When taking the stage outside of New York, the stand-up comedian Shaun Eli Breidbart will often start off with a joke: “Hi, I’m Shaun Eli and I’m so happy to be here. But I’m a New Yorker — I’m happy to be anywhere I can park for free!”
Mr. Breidbart, 59, was a banker on Wall Street for 19 years, the last 13 in fixed income portfolio management. (“The easiest description of that is turning a big pile of someone else’s money into a slightly bigger pile of someone else’s money,” he said.) By New York standards, he had a fairly relaxed life, typically working 9 to 5. By choice, he said he always worked for companies that didn’t work him that hard but they also didn’t pay him that well. That was a good trade off.
