I was a standup comic, which doesn’t necessarily mean you interact with people all that much. In fact when I did shows, I wouldn’t talk to the audience very much. Then my friend offered me a radio show, and I thought, you know, I’ll try talking to people and see what kind of interviewer I was.
Richard Lewis has this incredible ability to look like he’s just… you know it’s an act that’s been honed. What you have to do in standup is create spontaneity, somehow; even though you’ve done this act a million times, you gotta look like you’re almost just thinking of it now, to make it entertainer.
Technology can’t eliminate the need for people going to want to go out and see theater and standup comedy.
For me, standup will always be some part of my life, and other things will move around and find their place.
Podcasts feature comedians being as funny as they can be in a non-censored situation. It’s really akin to standup in a way. When you go see a comedian in standup, that is the most pure, unadulterated form of their art.
Most of what I like doing in performing is connecting with an audience. What’s the point of doing standup if you’re not doing that?
People see me on the ‘Daily Show’ or ‘About a Boy’. But the reality is that I only got into this business to do standup comedy.
Hopefully standup will become special again.
It’s important that when you do standup, you do small places like coffee shops and also big places like colleges. It helps you find the little nuances in your set that don’t work, and you can shave off the excess.
I’m in this for the long haul, I want to be doing this until I die. I am a standup comedian. I know a lot of people say I’m not, but I am.
I think when you write something as standup material, it forces you to think about how you’re gonna tell that story in one way, and then, when you get the opportunity to shoot it, you almost have to reframe how you go about it and rethink the entire process.
In my standup work, I always do these characters, older people who are just off to the side. It’s easier to write a story about the guy who made it to the top, but the middle is so much more interesting, so much more murky.
I really never had any ambitions to be a standup comic. I was talked into it by guys that I used to work out with.
I started out with comedy in college, but had my major in Recreation Administration – which meant I wasn’t going to get a real job – so I started doing a little standup.
