Like many other touchstones of twenty-first-century pop culture 'The Sopranos' was hatched in the late Nineties predicting a future that never arrived. It was designed for a decade that would be just like the Nineties except more so in an America that enjoyed seeing itself as smarter and braver and freer than ever before.
When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own I was shocked.