A gift for gab has opened all the right doors for comedian Steven Briggs.

His ability to tell a funny story off the cuff and in front of a crowd initiated him into the world of comedy at 19. His mom’s friend thought he was funny, so he took him to a comedy club in San Diego, only Briggs didn’t know such clubs existed.

“When I was younger my family didn’t let me watch TV so I didn’t know what stand-up was,” Briggs said. “My brothers and I told each other stories to entertain each other.”

When the host welcomed him on stage, he thought surely there was another Steven Briggs in the house. There wasn’t. So he got up, told stories about his strict, ultrareligious family that earned a positive response from the crowd, and got hooked on the feeling.

Briggs will perform Friday and Saturday at Loonees Comedy Corner.

That inaugural impromptu story led him to The Moth, a storytelling competition founded in New York City, where he won after his first time performing, a rarity at The Moth. Making it even more surprising, he showed up with a prepared story that didn’t fit into the evening’s theme, so he had to scrap it and once again wax extemporaneously.

The story he told was a doozy, about how he moved to Los Angeles and accidentally booked his first commercial. He’d been living in San Diego when a friend invited him to an L.A. party. At the party, he got to talking with someone who called him the next morning and told him about an audition for an ESPN commercial. Hungover, he made his way to the audition, signed in, met the casting director, started to say his name and lines and promptly vomited all over the room.

It turned out he was in the wrong room doing the wrong audition. ESPN was a few doors down. He went in, read for the role and landed the job.

“Because of that commercial I stayed in L.A.,” Briggs said. “They pay so much and anybody can do these, obviously. I just proved it.”

He still does commercials, though he’s also added writing commercials to the resume. He writes content for clients, takes the occasional acting job, such as the Netflix drama “Unbelievable,” and travels the world doing stand-up.

The smooth talker also stopped planning his stand-up sets a while ago. He found it was better to let the audience guide him into topics.

“I have crazy ADHD. I get distracted,” he said. “I see someone in the audience with something and have to know about it. I stopped fighting being regimented. It turned out to be more fun. People liked it more.”

That might cause severe anxiety in other comedians, but not for Briggs.

“I get more anxious if I’m too prepared. Stand-up’s not like a monologue or play. There’s no fourth wall. It’s broken and I can’t act like the fourth wall isn’t broken. Some comedians will act like the fourth wall isn’t broken and act like they’re doing a Shakespeare play, but for me it doesn’t feel right.”

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