Words matter. These are the best Josh Gondelman Quotes, and they’re great for sharing with your friends.
In my early years doing standup, I bombed a lot.
I’ve always been very un-fun. I’m a habit person. I have a very weak version of an addictive personality.
I live very gently.
I always loved jokes. It’s such a dumb, facile thing to say, but it’s true. I remember being a kid and getting those joke books from the Scholastic Book Club and loving comedy from a very young age.
I just loved jokes so much as a child. I remember wanting to perform at, like… age seven by reading from a kids’ joke book, and my parents being like, ‘That’s not what standup comedy is,’ and me being like, ‘Not yet it isn’t! I’m going to change the game.’
When you’re hot, you stride confidently down the street, extending your form to hail a taxi to take you from place to place. My body is designed for squeezing into packed subway cars and apologizing to those whose feet I clumsily step on.
I don’t want to have to be a teacher so I can be a comedian.
I remember, when I was a kid, my dad would subscribe to the BMG Music Club, and we got that initial 12 CDs for a penny… I think it was cassettes. Eight CDs or 12 cassettes, something like that.
My comedy isn’t clean; it’s just friendly. So I get asked to do a lot of clean shows. It’s like, ‘Oh, I have a clean vibe, but I say gross, weird stuff.’ It’s just, it’s very gentle the way I say it. It’s not upsetting or jarring to people, because I’m not very aggressive.
As a kid, I always loved Mel Brooks’ stuff – ‘The 2,000 Year Old Man’ record was something my dad put me onto.
I never assume anyone will see or like things I do, honestly!
There are very funny people who aren’t good at Twitter and people who are really good on Twitter where that’s the best or the only thing they do. There are some people I know that don’t write creatively outside of Twitter, but they’re so good at Twitter.
I’m not religious. But I’m also not spiritual.
A standup set ends on a buildup of tension and subsequent release for a big laugh.
I’m a big fan of saying the thing that is not necessarily sincere or earnest, but definitely honest.
Along with ‘Wet Hot American Summer’ and ‘The Room,’ ‘Lebowski’ belongs in the canon of nouveau cult classics.
Sure, sometimes I get teased for being the guy who likes everything, but I don’t think of myself as someone apart from this world.
I don’t court haters. I don’t thrive on people not liking things that I do. I treat people the way I want to be treated.
I drink iced coffee nearly every morning and many afternoons year-round.
I was a weirdo, but a well-liked weirdo.
Even under the best circumstances, speaking at your own wedding ceremony is a high pressure endeavor. What even constitutes a vow? I always picture them as exclamations you bellow at the sky.
The modern ease of catfishing has had the tangential effect of growing a cottage industry of websites offering the services of fake Internet girlfriends.
When I started out doing comedy, I was still in college and was working day jobs. I taught preschool for a few years. And then I got more into freelance writing. So stand-up has always been my primary independent creative mode of expression. I’ve done it my whole adult and young adult life.
I like comedy that’s very specific and isn’t afraid to lose people through its specificity.
I grew up in the Boston suburbs and inherited a stubborn New England refusal to acknowledge frigid temperatures.
I value niceness. But now, as a grown person, I value goodness above that. Because niceness doesn’t change anything, and goodness changes things.
My general advice for writers/comedians is, make stuff you like and are proud of. Put it in a place where people can see it, whether that’s onstage or on the Internet or wherever. Just do the things that make you happy creatively, and then show them to people.
I like to see my parents, and they like it when I’m around.
My mom worked as an education director.
I broke my wrist at summer camp playing a game called ‘volleybat,’ which was baseball but with a volleyball. It is as dangerous as it sounds.
What I try to do, what I attempt to do, is say things that I mean at least at an emotional level.
It’s a very lovely reputation to have – being a kind person. I try to live up to the fact that people think that about me.
I think the term ‘Twitter comedian’ can seem like a pejorative because it’s not a job, really, and there’s such a low barrier for entry to get started.
I’m skinny, but a soft skinny. I have strong legs, but my arms are like pea pods with single peas for elbows.
I don’t consider myself a nerd; I consider myself a dork more. I’m closer to a dork, if anything, just because I’m not good at stuff. I’m more like a failed non-nerd.
One great thing about going to a fashion event in the morning, especially in February in New York, is that the other attendees are dressed less like models themselves. A winter coat, it turns out, is a great equalizer.
Fact about me – I love jumping over/into things.
I played sports because I think it’s mandatory in the greater Boston area regardless of your aptitude. It’s like, well, what else would you be doing?
A vest, as a clothing item, always makes a statement, but depending on context, those declarations vary a great deal.
I love ‘Another Round.’ It’s Heben Nigatu and Tracy Clayton’s podcast that’s through BuzzFeed, and they’re real funny and really themselves. And I like it because it’s very funny, but it’s outside the realm of comedians talking about comedy.
My childhood friends and I would have been featured in ‘The Achievers: The Story of the Big Lebowski Fans,’ but I never signed the release form we received from the producers. I am both proud and ashamed of this fact.
Why is it okay to write a work of literary fiction where horrible, explicit things happen, where you can’t write a book of humor where silly, explicit things are happening?
I don’t resent at all people saying, ‘Oh, he’s like a sweetheart’… but within comedy, it’s a very funny way to talk about someone because it usually means they don’t have much of an act.
I grew up in Stoneham, a little suburb of Boston. It’s pronounced ‘Stone ’em’ because Massachusetts doesn’t bend to the will of ‘how letters are supposed to be said.’