IN HIS MOST RECENT NETFLIX SPECIAL, 3 MICS, NEAL BRENNAN’S COMPARISON of his career to The Curious Case of Benjamin Button was hilarious and on the money. Like the fictional Button’s life, the comic’s stand-up career developed backward. Brennan’s first stab at stand-up, in his late teens, didn’t go so well, so he started writing for others, including Dave Chappelle: They co-wrote the 1998 film Half Baked, then co-created the Emmy-nominated Chappelle’s Show. Since then, he’s directed episodes of Inside Amy Schumer and Michelle Wolf ’s Nice Lady, as well as consulted on Ellen Degeneres’s Relatable. Eventually, he also returned to stand-up, and when his 2016 stage show 3 Mics was adapted for Netflix, he became a star. Now, he has a spot on the streaming service’s Comedians of the…
