Read the London Sunday Times for a profile of Judd Apatow, whose movies have grossed nearly a billion bucks.

For Apatow, becoming a stand-up comedian was actually more than a dream. It was, from the time he was eight or nine, a geeky obsession. "Before VCRs, I would tape the television series Saturday Night Live with an audio-cassette recorder and then transcribe it," he recalls. In his teens, he got a job as a dishwasher in a comedy club; then in high school on Long Island, he started a radio show called Club Comedy so he could interview comedians.

He goes into some detail on his standup comedy experience. (Far from burying his standup past, he goes to some lengths to mention it when he does print interviews or panel on the talk shows. We recall Apatow being a regular emcee at the Melrose Improv in 1993.)