After being sober for around three years, Norton obtained his GED and attended Middlesex County College with the aim of pursuing a law degree and becoming a lawyer, but quit after one month. He earned a B grade in English and fails in Problems and Statistics, Science, and Western Civilization. At 18, he took up work in a copper company, operating a forklift to unload boxed tubes of copper from trucks, which he remembered as being "awful". He was fired from the job at age 23. Norton collected unemployment benefits for several years, pretending to look for work while doing sets in local comedy venues, before he decided to pursue comedy full-time.