prior to acting, labeouf practiced comedy around his neighborhood as an "escape" from a hostile environment. at age 10, he began performing stand-up at comedy clubs, describing his appeal as having "disgustingly dirty" material and a "50-year-old mouth on the 10-year-old kid." he subsequently found an agent through the yellow pages and was taken on after pretending to be his own manager. labeouf has said that he initially became an actor because his family was broke, not because he wanted to pursue an acting career, having originally gotten the idea from a child actor he met who had things he wanted.