While growing up in Syosset and Woodbury, comedian-director-producer Judd Apatow developed an obsession. He consumed all things comedy-related as a teenager and became passionate about the art form. This subject is well-documented in his new 576-page coffee table book, “Comedy Nerd” (Random House, $50).

In the book, Apatow, 57, describes his youth on Long Island and how his first exposure to stand-up comedy was at Westbury Music Fair where he saw Totie Fields, a friend of his grandparents. Young Apatow returned to the theater in-the-round to see legends like Don Rickles and Rodney Dangerfield .

As a teen, he worked as a dishwasher and busser at the East Side Comedy Club in Huntington just so he could see the comedians, and eventually he graduated to the stage. Today, he runs Ap

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