All comedians are, in a way, anarchists. Our job is to make fun of the existing world.
Comedians take a neat situation and turn it into a mess. And in my books I do the same thing, but it’s the other way around. I like to mess around with mess. A mess is only a mess because someone tells you it is.
Anyone you give a ton of money to is going to go slightly crazy. I don’t think comedians are particularly special in that regard; they just are better or more vocal in their expressions of their craziness.
Comedians don’t have a monopoly on suffering. But creative people are sometimes fortunate enough to be able to incorporate their most traumatic experiences into their art.
The young comedians always ask me, ‘What’s the secret for staying around?’ I tell them, ‘There is no secret – just stay around. Longevity is the most important thing.’
I think it’s important for comedians to do our little part. I don’t do it carelessly. I do it thoughtfully. I don’t try to just shock. I try to make a statement.
That’s why modern corporate movie making has become so laborious that comedians are kind of kicked out by 50.
People want their actors to do comedy, too. They don’t want any comedians next to the actor. They want one solo hero and want to see everything in him.
You could have a room full of the best comedians in the world and, for some reason, Chris Farley would take the cake. He was that good, just naturally. God’s gift.
I’ve never felt any sense of kinship with other comedians; they’ve always seemed too needy.
There are many styles of standup, but the comedians I like are people like Dick Gregory and Richard Pryor. Because Richard Pryor told the truth. Chris Rock. I love Chris Rock. He’s funny, but he’s also poignant. He’s not there just to make people laugh; he’s there to make people wake up, too.
I don’t really get to see a lot of other comedians, because I work with the same people all the time. The guy I really like is Nick DiPaulo. I love Nick DiPaulo, but again, he’s a buddy of mine. But I liked him for a long time. I liked him before he was a buddy of mine.
Basically I try not to knock other comedians.
I love comedy, and I love listening to comedians talk.
‘Bunk’ is a comedy game show where, each week, three of my favorite comedians compete in a series of bizarre and meaningless challenges all for my entertainment. Ethan T. Berlin and Eric Bryant created ‘Bunk.’
People are born comedians.
I think that we’re in a really amazing time, where there are really a lot of really fantastic female actresses and comedians. I imagine there’s just a lot of opportunity for women to have powerful roles. Or it’s just that there’s more women writing TV. Women tend to maybe write strong women.
Why are we casting all these stand-up comedians to do ‘Breaking Bad,’ one of the most dramatic TV shows ever?
The first purpose of comedy is to make people laugh. Anything deeper is a bonus. Some comedians want to make people laugh and make them think about socially relevant issues, but comedy, by the very nature of the word, is to make people laugh. If people aren’t laughing, it’s not comedy. It’s as simple as that.
Comedians are obsessed with justice and the truth.
When I entered the industry in 1984, I was welcomed, no one pushed me away. I want the younger comedians to experience the same. They should feel wanted.
It often seems that, for whatever strange reasons, comedians, in addition to their formal performances, have more comic experiences in real life than other people do.
Before I started doing standup, I knew that I had what it takes to develop an act. I went down to clubs with not many people there, and I just worked on it, man. A lot of my friends are comedians, so that part had a lot of encouragement, even though the shows were very caveman-like.
Comedians, we’re just people who whine. But we happen to be funny when we whine.
For the most part, there’s not a ton of out and working trans comedians, or people who are visible.
It’s 103 comedians, or however many it is, and how would everyone tell it. It’s enough people of substance that it makes you think of the people who aren’t there that are alive.
We had one task where we had a yoga mat on a big hill and told them to get three yoga balls at the bottom of the hill onto the mat. We didn’t think that one of them would bring the yoga mat down to where the balls were, so that was a reminder that sometimes these comedians can be smarter than us.
When I hit the scene, there was Billy Connolly and Max Boyce. It was all mother-in-law and Irish jokes, and we broke the mould. Now there are thousands of comedians out there, and I don’t think I can be above it all.
I’m such a comedy fan that I just love laughing and so admire comedians who have brought me joy.
I’m happy to say that I’m a lesbian in the world. I know there are people who don’t want to be called women comedians, but I think it gives a path to the fact that we live in extremely patriarchal times.
I’m very adamant on social media about recommending comedians to people if they don’t know them. I think it’s so important to go see them.
Some comedians make a marvellous living doing material that is completely predictable, that reminds people of things that they already know or jokes that they are already familiar with.
My grandfather was running Hillcrest Country Club, and that’s where a whole group of Hollywood comedians hung out.
Harassment doesn’t just happen to ‘social observers’ and ‘comedians’ – women who express themselves publicly are reliably verbally attacked online and in person, not for their substance but for their form.
It is important to understand that there is no distinction between comedians and actors. All are actors.
It’s quite telling that the really big comedians – like John Bishop from Liverpool, Kevin Bridges from Glasgow, Peter Kay from Bolton – stand out with their strong regional accents.
Molly Shannon and I used to always talk about that we really felt strongly that we were comedic actors, that we weren’t comedians. You just played things real and the comedy came out of the context.
You shouldn’t listen to us at all if you’re looking for information. We don’t take ourselves seriously on any level; we’re just comedians.
Comedians are like pop bands. When you’re young, you have ruddy principles and don’t do old stuff because you don’t want to take away the purity of youth. But then as you get older, you look at The Rolling Stones and see what fun they have.
The demand for standup in the eighties was created by how easy it was to exploit ‘comedians’ and create very cheap television programming.
There is plenty of television. There are plenty of talk shows. There are plenty of comedians. But there is not plenty of worship of the true and living God.
I think, first of all, I don’t think people understand Ice Cube’s body of work. Ice Cube is a, and I hate to use the word ‘urban’ but – when you think of Judd Apatow, and a person who’s launched so many careers, Ice Cube has done that for so many comedians, you know?
I think sometimes comedians and entertainers and artists, sometimes they get onstage, and it’s all for what they want to do. I think you still need to do stuff for the audience. They’re the ones who are making it possible.
It’s important that comedians talk about difficult and dangerous subjects; you have to be very careful that you don’t just hear the subject heading and think, oh, this is bad, they shouldn’t be talking about that. You have to hear what’s being said.
As far as stand-ups go, I always loved Richard Pryor, Chris Rock, and Sinbad. Basically, I love black comedians because they’re the funniest. I wish I were a black comedian, actually.
The secret of comedy is don’t grow up. That’s why some comedians are a nightmare, because they never grow up.
Funny and sad are two sides of the same coin. I think that most comedians are able to tap into deep subject matter.
Comedians are not usually actors, but imitations of actors.
I know a lot about Jewish comedians.
There are a lot of great disabled comedians.
It’s also that comedians don’t have the kind of narcissism that actors have. They’re writers who perform their own material. It’s more interesting. And they’re sexy because they risk more. Stand-up comedians risk more than anyone.
Aditi is a comedy superstar over in India. She’s only one of three female English-speaking comedians in India.
Stand-up comedians say that anyone in the audience can be funny, but people paid to see us because we’re just a little bit funnier. In the same way, I think anybody can play music – in fact, I think everyone has music in them, but some of us can do it a little better.
Performers like Tommy Cooper, who are always getting things wrong, are much more endearing than comedians who are sassy and smart.
The worse things are on the world stage, the more fodder there will always be for comedians. But at the end of the day, I trust in my abilities to make comedy and create art, with or without Donald Trump.
Comedians’ first ten minutes usually stay with them the first several years of their career. It’s their mission statement. Their disclaimer that lets people know who they are. Or were. It’s also a good time to make fun of your name if you have a funny or strange one.
