Aging & Wisdom Quote by David Steinberg

There’s a comedian’s sleight of hand in Steinberg’s line: he treats Hollywood not as a destination but as a punchline you accidentally walk into. The “never even occurred to me” is doing double duty. On the surface it’s modesty, a way of refusing the tidy myth that every ambitious performer always had Los Angeles in their sights. Underneath, it’s a quiet indictment of how the industry markets itself as inevitable while remaining, for most people, structurally unimaginable.

The East Coast/Hollywood split isn’t just geography; it’s a class-coded worldview. Growing up “on the East coast” signals a culture where legitimacy traditionally runs through clubs, theaters, and writing rooms, not studio gates and poolside meetings. In that context, Hollywood becomes “fantasy land” not because it’s glamorous, but because it feels economically absurd: a place where people “can actually make a living” doing something as unstable as comedy. That phrasing sneaks in the real shocker: the labor question. Not “can you get famous,” but “can you pay rent.”

Steinberg’s subtext is about access and imagination. If you don’t know anyone who’s made it, the path doesn’t exist; it’s folklore, not a plan. The quote also nods to a particular mid-century media moment, when Hollywood was still a distant machine to many East Coasters, before the internet collapsed the distance and made the dream feel both closer and more predatory. His tone stays casual, but the message lands: entire industries depend on seeming unreal until they swallow you.