Comedian Lucas Zelnick mixes personal with the political

Lucas Zelnick grew up when Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller and Owen Wilson were constantly topping box offices, a “golden age for comedy movies” like “Zoolander,” “Dodgeball,” “Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby,” “Step Brothers” and “Old School.”

He also grew up in Manhattan, the stomping grounds for “Saturday Night Live” cast and writers, improvisers and film actors. Even still, Zelnick never saw someone on the path to pursuing comedy. He always connected with people through his sense of humor and was considered the class clown in school, but because everyone he grew up with was becoming a banker, consultant or CEO, he thought that was his path too.

It wasn’t until near the end of college that Zelnick realized two things: It was hard to become a CEO, and as he got older, he didn’t feel like he was a serious person.

“I always assumed at some point I would be old enough that I was like ‘Oh well, the time for joking has stopped,’ ” he said.

But that moment never came. On a drive from Massachusetts, where he was attending college, to Hilton Head, South Carolina, Zelnick started thinking about whether he could pursue a form of creative expression like comedy or acting.

After graduating, he started doing improv. He found he didn’t like it and wasn’t good at it, but worked his way into standup from there.

Funnily enough, at a standup show in Charleston, South Carolina, a former teacher came to Zelnick’s show with a yearbook that showed Zelnick as most likely to be on tour as a comedian in 15 years. Fifteen years later, there he was.

“It reminded me that that’s how I was perceived as a young kid,” he said. “In college, I was a better student. If you’re the class clown in college, you’re kind of a loser.”

After graduating from Williams College, Zelnick applied to business school at Stanford, a move he now sees as a reaction to feeling a little lost after undergrad. He said there was little indication he could make comedy happen as a career, plus he wasn’t sure if the life of a comedian, with little structure, was right for him.

“It wasn’t necessarily a safety net,” he said. “It was more like an opportunity to take some time and think about all the different avenues that might be available to me.”

But after getting the ball rolling with his MBA, things started happening for Zelnick in the comedy world as well. At a show early in his career, Zelnick met comedian Jamie Wolf. The pair clicked and eventually rented an office space where they could write together.

One thing led to another, and the pair opened the space as Sesh Comedy, hosting shows and getting stage time themselves. Zelnick learned comedy was, in fact, the route he wanted to take.

“Then the MBA felt like not even a safety net, it felt like a waste of my time,” he said. “I found my calling, and the thing I’m going to put all my energy towards, and then I would be stuck in some class on stocks and bonds. I was like ‘Why am I here?’ ”

Zelnick and Wolf sold the club, but it continues to host comedy shows.

As he spent more time on stage, Zelnick developed sets that were a mix of personal topics and political issues he felt he had a unique take on. When UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed, for example, Zelnick wrote a joke about it because his dad, Strauss Zelnick, is a CEO.

“I was like ‘I want to write it from the perspective of someone who’s close to a CEO,’ which I know is a unique perspective,” he said. “I gravitate towards things that might be hot button topics that I can say something specific.”

In his experience in comedy, Zelnick has encountered a few comedians who feel comedy is not for a “New York City private school kid,” but, for the most part, fellow comedians like what he’s saying on stage and see him as just another comedian.

Comedian Ashley Gavin especially gave Zelnick support when he was first starting out. She encouraged him to post clips of his standup online and talked about building a fan base. She also brought Zelnick on the road with her and gave him an opportunity to do longer sets in front of bigger crowds.

Gavin, a former software engineer, helped Zelnick feel like he made the right choice in choosing comedy.

“Ashley was a really smart person who had a lot of career opportunities available to her and still chose comedy, and that was a resonant perspective as someone that had business opportunities, like an MBA,” he said. “It was like ‘OK, so you can choose comedy, and this can make sense.’ ”

Though he’s secure with the decision he’s made, touring can be brutal, and Zelnick is looking into acting opportunities that would allow him to spend more time at home with his girlfriend and their dog.

He’s also reminded of the Ferrell, Stiller and Wilson films that sparked his interest in comedy in the first place. This year, he’s acted in three forthcoming films: “Fade to Black,” “Offsite” and a to-be-titled movie for Hulu written by former “Saturday Night Live” writers Nick Kocher and Brian McElhaney.

He’d ideally play the “best, funniest, most improvised version” of himself on screen and is waiting for those parts to come in.

Until then, he’s back on the road. And what’s been on his mind lately? Oh, just guns, religion, politics.

“I’d love one day to be a good enough comedian where I can make talking about a chair funny, but right now, I’m gravitating towards the high-energy, high-consequence topics,” he said.