Jessica Kirson

Jessica Kirson (born November 14, 1969) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and producer. Kirson is known for performing regularly at comedy venues in New York City — some of which include Gotham Comedy Club, Laugh Factory, Caroline's, and the Improv. Early life Kirson was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, and is of Austrian and Polish-Jewish descent. Her mother is a therapist who treated clients in Kirson's childhood home, which she has said has had a profound impact on her and her comedy. Kirson graduated from Columbia High School in 1987. She described herself as a 'major class clown' who loved to make people laugh. Kirson is the stepsister of both actor Zach Braff and writer Joshua Braff, whose father her mother married when she was an adolescent. With the intention of becoming a therapist, Kirson graduated from the University of Maryland in family studies and from New York University with a Masters of Social Work. She describes her studies as 'very helpful' to her crowd work and the business 'because a lot of those people are crazy'. After her university studies, Kirson turned to comedy, creating material and testing it out weekly in a class setting. She participated in open mics in New York in different venues. Over this time she worked as a bartender at a Houlihan's in Times Square and at an Upper West Side restaurant.