Jodie Sweetin Credits Bob Saget, Dave Coulier for Her ‘Confidence’ (Exclusive)

Jodie Sweetin’s Full House costars helped guide her both on and off the screen.

Sweetin tells PEOPLE that Bob Saget and Dave Coulier instilled “confidence” in her from a young age, always pushing her to try stand-up comedy.

“I have found a confidence, and honestly, it came from Bob and Dave,” Sweetin says of her comedy career. “It came from Bob and Dave all my life, encouraging me that I was funny, even when I was a kid.”

When the trio reunited on Fuller House in 2016, Sweetin says they would always find themselves huddled around telling “stupid jokes.”

“Stand-up comedians, I’ve grown up around them, and there’s nothing that makes me happier than sitting around with a bunch of comedians talking s—,” she says.

Along with the support from her former costars, Sweetin says she has simply “found a new level of confidence” on stage as she gets older.

“I think also being 43, I just don’t give a s— anymore, so I’m so much more comfortable in my own skin that there’s nothing that I am afraid to talk about or afraid to put up there or make fun of or poke fun at,” she adds.

In comedy, Sweetin says it’s important to have “the ability to let the air out of the balloon, even if you’re the balloon.” 

“Life isn’t that serious. It is, but we also have to find those moments when it isn’t and enjoy those,” she adds. “There’s plenty of those. There’s that part of me that’s like, ‘Everything’s burning down, and I got to be out in the streets every day.’ Then there’s a part of me that’s like, ‘Let’s do a comedy show.’ ” 

Between activism and comedy, Sweetin has a very “balanced” lifestyle, and she’s “having so much fun with it.”

“Humor is how I deal with life. Anything. Stressful situations, horrible things… I use humor to get through it,” she explains. “And so for me, I feel like comedy, humor is just as important as some of the more focused, political type of art that we talk about.”

“I think we need that balance to have fun,” she adds. “If we’re not having fun, what are we fighting for?”

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Sweetin, who played middle child Stephanie Tanner in Full House, had a close relationship with Saget, who played her dad, Danny Tanner. In January 2022, he died suddenly at age 65 after sustaining a head injury in a fall.

Coulier, meanwhile, played family friend Joey Gladstone. 

During a past appearance on Coulier’s podcast, How Rude, Tanneritos!, Sweetin admitted that her stand-up comedy adventures “weirdly happened, kind of, around the time that Bob passed.”

“You and Bob really gave me permission to have unfettered comedy, to just be funny and silly and say it and and to use humor to get through some really dark stuff,” she said.

Full House aired for eight seasons from 1987 to 1995. Sweetin reprised her role in the Netflix reboot Fuller House, which spanned five seasons from 2016 to 2020. Full House also starred Candace Cameron Bure, Lori Loughlin, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Ashley Olsen. Everyone, aside from the Olsens, returned in various roles for Fuller House.

Sweetin’s new Lifetime movie, Dateless to Dangerous: My Son’s Secret Life, premiered on June 21.