When I moved to New York, I was wide-eyed. I was nice to everyone, which comedians hate.
I guess as you get older you sort of see the mechanics, even with the best comedians. There’s admiration for people I admire, but it’s not guttural laughter. It’s a wry ‘Oh, well done, sir.’ But I sort of miss that slightly; I miss the raw joy of comedy I used to get.
Women don’t want to exchange places with men. Male chauvinists, science-fiction writers and comedians may favor that idea for its shock value, but psychologists say it is a fantasy based on ruling-class ego and guilt.
I certainly don’t think comedians are more depressive than any other walk of life. I have had clinical depression, as it happens. The stress of performing didn’t help, but it wasn’t about being a comedian in itself.
Blacks on prime-time TV are only portrayed as comedians – and often in no better a light than ‘Amos & Andy.’
For comedians, we’re all kind of tweeting our thoughts instead of spending time developing them. You can gauge how good a joke might be by how many times it gets retweeted, but it takes discipline to go back through the tweets and then develop jokes from them.
I love radio and have done a little bit for years – since ‘Workers’ Playtime’ in the 1950s. It’s also a good springboard for comedians.
That’s what all of us, as writers, actors and comedians, set out to do – shine a light on new perspectives.
I remember being captivated by Steve Coogan and Eddie Izzard and wanting to do what they did. That generation of comedians was my main influence.
Trinity Taylor and Ginger Minj both went on one of these big roast tours where the comedians all make fun of each other and I wrote their sets for that. Sometimes I help Monet X Change punch up jokes for her show, ‘The X Change Rate.’ I don’t charge Monet because she’s my best friend.
I thought comedians were the funny guy in the common room, not understanding that the flaws in my personality were actually the funny things about me.
As comedians, we all get into that mode of thinking of the worst thing imaginable – but you usually have the ability to pull back before releasing it to the world.
When comedians get successful, the fans that they have aren’t the fans they would hang out with. I don’t have that problem.
At one point when I was very young, when I was first starting out, I thought, ‘Well, one day I’ll be able to put all the music away and become a real comedian.’ But then I realized there are amazing musical comedians out there, that musical comedy is probably something I’ll always want to pursue.
Stand-up comedians have a very important relationship to Twitter. For them, it’s a place to try out material.
Coming from an immigrant background, where a lot of parents don’t want their kids to be comedians, success was just showing my mom that I could make a living. I was like, if I can get my mom off my back, that was my success.
I think people have a misconception about comedians and performers. All that stuff is serious business.
I always think everyone else is funnier than me. I look at other comedians and I say, ‘I wish I was that good.’ People think I’m funny, and I say, ‘I’m not.’
Interesting-looking people have always been comedians, and it’s rare that someone who has the choice to model ends up being a comic. Except for maybe Whitney Cummings, but that’s about it. That’s why she’s special: because she can combine it.
I remember 9/11; we had ‘Comics Come Home’ about a month after those events. That night, even the comedians were concerned. Would the audience be ready to laugh? It was a release for everyone.
I would love to do a serious period drama. Oh, absolutely. I mean, you’ll find most comedians want to do more serious stuff, most musicians want to be comedians, and most serious actors want to be musicians.
Compared to politics, I think sports is funnier, because it’s inconsequential. And politics can be real important and all that. The more pointless something is, the funnier it is, you know? And the more grave or important things are… You know, some comedians can get this disease where they get serious all the time.
I was always interested in comedy, like when I was 5 years old. I watched ‘I Love Lucy’ and ‘Benny Hill.’ I would always joke around with my sister. My mom was into comedy, too. She would go to the video store and get a couple of movies and some stand-up comedians’ tapes.
People love to make comedians out to be miserable, dark, twisted people. And I just – I think a lot of people struggle with depression and mental illness and have issues and problems within their family. The mailman has it. Your neighbor has it. It’s just that comedians have a microphone.
I feel like a lot of comedians do have that deep, dark thing. I have my stuff, but I don’t go to that dark place.
Whatever talent I had, I’m sure it helped that my parents were in the business and that I grew up around actors, comedians and directors.
We’re not scientific comedians, thinking like, ‘Things have moved on, we need to do this, we need to reflect the world in this way.’
Comedians who aren’t screenwriters are telling jokes that they themselves think are funny. They’re expressing their own view of what they think funny is.
You are not any different. You can do anything you want. So many times, I’ve been asked what I think of women stand-ups. If you actually look around, there are so many female comedians starring in the biggest TV shows.
Normal people don’t become stand-up comedians.
A lot of people, especially comedians, just feel like, ‘Oh, I can be charming and whatever, and have fun, and everybody is just going to like me.’ But you’ve got to work. There’s got to be a real work ethic that gets you better.
A lot of comedians get a bad rep once they have kids and that’s all they talk about, and people are like, ‘I don’t want to hear about your kids!’ I’m like, ‘Prepare yourselves. That’s all I’m going to talk about.’
I’m a comedian because I want people to like me. That’s really why all comedians are comedians.
Who knew Rob Lowe was funny? On ‘Parks and Rec,’ we’ve got some of the funniest comedy writers, some of the funniest comedians in the world working there. And if anything, we don’t just effuse to one another and be like, ‘Oh, Rob Lowe’s really funny,’ if he wasn’t.
The optimum frequency with which comedians should do a series is every year. I do one every three years. My audience is literally dying off.
I’m not a comedian, but I love the comedians who know when to get off the stage.
Even the best comedians aren’t always sure what is going to be funny, what is going to work. So that means they’re constantly and trying and failing in order to get there.
My favorite comedians are just presenting an argument, and they’re doing it in a funny way.
I can get where some scientists would say comedians are crazy. What you have to understand: A lot of comedians are dealing with a dark passion. A lot of these are guys coming from a tumultuous life, including myself. Some people need outlets, a way to express yourself.
You go to any Jay-Z concert, and he plays his hits. Comedians don’t have hits. You have to have a whole brand-new hour. You have no hits to rely on. It’s the hardest thing.
I spent seven years in clubs in England, Australia, etc. Not all comedians cross over to sell out in a theatre.
I like seeing comedians do stuff that I could never do.
Humor was a big part of my childhood. My family was full of comedians. We’d sit around the dinner table and try to one-up each other. It sometimes ended in tears, but usually in laughter.
I find my fans are really funny people. Most comedians can’t say that about their fans.
From the point of view of being in the public radar, comedians have less problems than other actors. Action movie stars like Stallone or Schwarzenegger usually attract the more aggressive fans.
Ever since I was a kid, I just loved those comedians on TV who would just have fun with the language.
Professional comedians, surprisingly, have a lack of humor. They’re insensitive to the insanity of our times.
It’s odd because some actors are very scared of comedians.
Comedians and impressionists used to be two different showbiz animals entirely, but now there’s no such thing as a comedian who doesn’t do impressions.
In terms of comedians, I loved, growing up, Jonathan Winters, Sid Caesar, Jackie Gleason, Phil Silvers, Carol Burnett, all those people.
There are comedians that I like. I think a lot of it, you just figure out on your own. It’s definitely one of those things that you get good at by doing it a lot. But I like Jim Gaffigan. Patton Oswalt. Janeane Garofalo.
It’s our hope that MySpace Comedy, much like Music and Film before it, will serve as a launch pad for up-and-coming comedians and as an attraction for the biggest names in the industry.
Comedy is something that I’m definitely looking to get into. I had a little taste of it and I do intend on going to classes for it because I think it’s a different muscle, and it’s hard to find female comedians.
Comedians want to be rock legends for a day – that sounds fun to them.
I’m actually a big fan of Kathy Griffin because I think she’s really funny. I think she’s really self-deprecating, which is something I like to see in a comedian. I think those are really the best comedians: people who can make fun of themselves.
