Eugene Mirman is funny. A seasoned comedian who performs regularly in New York, and has made appearances on LATE NIGHT WITH CONAN O'BRIEN, Eugene is a Russian-born, Boston-educated, local hero.

With Bobby Tisdale, Eugene hosts "Invite Them Up!" Wednesday nights at Cinema Classics in NYC. Each week, Eugene and Bobby invite a mix of comedians to do their thing onstage, with film clips and musical performances thrown in for good measure. Eugene is probably better known, however, for his website, eugenemirman.com which has been voted both best and worst website, depending on who you ask.

cm: You went to Hampshire College where students make their own curriculum.
em: Hampshire is an interdisciplinary school filled with hippies and hipsters who vie for power. Every year the balance shifts. I was right in the middle of the horror. It is like a mild Vietnam War with Frisbee. The good news is you can design your own major and so I did comedy.

cm: What did that include?
em: I took classes in writing, history, the rise of mass culture, sociology, video, acting, etc. And in many classes I did stuff related to comedy. I did independent studies on the philosophy of humor, physiology of laugher, Lenny Bruce and his impact on social norms, etc. I also had a radio talk show, did improv, wrote a humor column for my school paper, co-created a humor organization on campus. It was a good time.

cm: What books did you read?
em: I read random books on comedy theories. I think lots of random philosophers and psychologists had bits and pieces on humor. I would sort of seek it out. I remember that someone thought that humor was the conflict between a conventional and unconventional reality. (i.e., going to a movie alone isn’t funny, but going with a wolf is!)

cm: What was your final?
em: I did a one-hour stand-up act that I wrote, performed, promoted, and produced. (Like many of Hollywood’s greats, I wore many hats.) Weirdly enough, I actually learned a lot about running shows and promoting and stuff. And it helped for when I got out of school.

To get material for final project, I ran a comedy show in the basement of my dorm. But there were few other comedians. So I would get people to tell funny stories, try stand-up. There was a guy from a half-way house that was very funny and sort of unstable who performed. Some guy who was an activist who dressed in a potato sack and campaigned for Jerry Brown would perform. And students.

cm: Did you learn about stand up formulas?
em: I did learn about joke formulas and such. More from doing it, than in a class. But it’s nothing that people wouldn’t learn from trying to write jokes and doing standup.

cm: Would you ever write a book about your studies?
em: I probably wouldn’t write a book about it, because I would have to revisit lots of forgotten information.

cm: You ever fuck a girl from Smith?
em: I never did. Also, at Hampshire, we called it “making lovelies.” And whenever we did, we would sit in our rooms crying, and the next day try to change the world through the system!

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