Judd Apatow shared one of his wildest childhood memories—shoving poison ivy up his nose, which led to what he jokingly called “gigantor chickenpox.”
During a recent appearance on Late Night with Seth Meyers, the King of Staten Island director and Comedy Nerd author reflected on the bizarre incident, laughing about how it effectively ended his dreams of becoming a child actor.
Apatow explained that back in “sixth or seventh grade,” he was eager to break into showbiz, even going so far as to get professional headshots in hopes of landing a McDonald’s commercial—or something bigger.
But those acting ambitions didn’t last long.
“I instantly had this terrible thing happen where, to make a group of friends—and girls—laugh, I shoved poison ivy up my nose,” Apatow recalled. “It seemed hilarious at the time, and then I kept putting calamine lotion on it.”
Things only got worse from there.
“It turned into chickenpox,” he continued. “So I had poison ivy and chickenpox at the same time, and the poison ivy medicine made the chickenpox turn into gigantor chickenpox. So I had all these scars all over my face, and that young kid’s career ended.”
Apatow’s new book, Comedy Nerd, released this week, is described as “an intimate, highly visual memoir” packed with never-before-seen photos and letters from throughout his decades-long career.
As a director, Judd Apatow’s most recent feature film is The Bubble, a pandemic-inspired comedy released in 2022. Since then, he’s taken on several executive producer roles, including last year’s Stormy Daniels documentary for Peacock.
