I’m not a comedian who wants to spend far too long on stage.
A lot of stand-up is talking about your perspective in the world and your experiences in life. And I think it takes any comedian a while to find out what their thing is, or what they feel good doing on stage.
I think having an outsider’s viewpoint is interesting and good, especially for a comedian.
There are some actors who have an interest in comedy but they can’t say this openly. They do feel insecure about the comedian walking off with all the applause. In fact, I have seen my lines being changed and scenes being reworked to suit certain actors.
We are living in the machine age. For the first time in history the comedian has been compelled to supply himself with jokes and comedy material to compete with the machine. Whether he knows it or not, the comedian is on a treadmill to oblivion.
Aside from Joan Rivers and Roseanne, it’s hard for me to think of any female comedian who’s had kids and has a serious level of fame – like, the level where your mother has heard of them.
I think I’m a straight actor who occasionally does musicals; most people think I’m an eccentric comedian. It’s amazing how many years you can spend in this business just sorting out something as simple and basic as that.
Too much comedy today is vulgar, not clever. I say that as a comedian and as a consumer.
I went to college as an economics major because that was the easiest major that could still please your Asian parents, and then, much to their dismay, I became a stand-up comedian.
There’s nothing more fun than seeing the things that you dreamed about when you were a kid come true. I’m headlining an iconic theater in New York City during the New York Comedy Festival. When you’re starting off as a comedian, you don’t think that’s ever going to happen.
I don’t think anything’s cruel – if you’re so sensitive these days that you see cruelty everywhere, unfortunately every time a comedian comes on television, you’re going to accuse him of cruelty, because that’s the kind of humour that the English people enjoy.
I was going to be a comedian but then also winning Oscars and directing movies and creating my own charities and saving the world. The more I’ve let go of that… I see more access to possibly being able to have something like that.
Well, a lot of politics is communicating with people, and obviously comedy has something to do with that. I’ve been a producer and led people. Also, being a comedian, you’re under pressure.
I was a kid, and I would watch standup comics do the ‘Tonight Show,’ and if Johnny Carson liked you, he’d wave you over to the desk; that pretty much meant you were about to be the most successful comedian in the country for the next few years.
Character artist, villain, comedian, comedy villain, hero – he has been perfect in them all. That’s Mohan Babu. His dialogue delivery is perfect.
Harold Lloyd was not a comedian. But he was the finest actor to play a comedian that I ever saw.
I was considered by my peers to be a good comedian. So that’s all I ever strived to do was get some recognition from my peers.
I was inspired by people telling me I should be a comedian. I tried it and had a really good first set, so I was like, ‘OK, I’ll do this forever’.
Great Canadian comics are often outsiders and insiders at the same time. That’s a great perspective for a comedian.
I was so depressed for so many years over trying to become a working comedian that my sense of self-worth would plummet.
Basically, I thought I had nothing to lose so I’d try my luck as a stand-up comedian. So even if it all failed, I was at the bottom of the food-chain anyway.
I am primarily a comedian. Sometimes I also do comedy about my cats. Now unless you find metaphors in cats, there is nothing political about those and I love doing such jokes as much as I love doing political content.
I would probably be a teacher if I weren’t a comedian.
To be honest, I’ve always been really interested in the role of the host, whether it’s our kind of Billy Crystal-style traditional awards show host or when you have someone like Louis C.K. or a more edgy stand-up comedian do their take on a hosting role.
I’m a comedian first. I’ve learned how to act. I just draw on life experiences and that’s how I’ve learned. I didn’t take classes or anything. I don’t need no classroom.
Titles always sound so pretentious, and when I see a comedian, I just want the person to take flight, not stick to one topic or subject.
That’s how to make a stand-up comedian: You take a person who is uncomfortable and try to squirrel their way out of it through humor.
I guess I still feel that I’m a comedian; if I had to pick one thing that I feel like I could do, it would be that. That doesn’t mean that I like it, but I feel that’s what I am.
When people laugh at me, they are not laughing in the way that they normally would at a comedian. They are laughing with relief, because the truth has been spoken, and political correctness has not strangled this particular gigastar.
It is said that a person who makes other people laugh has a lot of pain in his heart. On the contrary, I have thoroughly enjoyed being a comedian and don’t nurse such thoughts.
I don’t have any horror stories of trying to start as a comedian and eating it constantly on stage.
I was influenced by every comedian I ever saw work. That’s the only way you learn how to do it.
I’m a comedian. You have to understand that my brain doesn’t work like a politician’s brain.
As a comedian, Trump is comedy gold, and he almost makes my job too easy… the stuff that comes out of his mouth is a precious commodity.
No comedian grows up thinking, ‘I hope one day to have a show on CNN.’
My mom wanted me to be a youth pastor, and when I became a comedian, she said it was close enough.
I realize how desperate it sounds for me, as a comedian, to ask you to laugh at my jokes.
I used to have a theory actually that, if you’ve had a good childhood, a good marriage and a little bit of money in the bank, you’re going to make a lousy comedian.
I don’t come from a comedy background or a stand-up background, but I think that sometimes there’s a misconception that an actor who works primarily in comedy is a comedian. There’s nothing wrong with being a comedian, but I’m absolutely not that. I can’t think of anything more terrifying than doing stand-up!
There really is no Johnny Carson anymore. There is no one place a comedian can appear and explode.
I’m not a natural comedian.
When you ask people who their favorite comedian is or favorite African-American comedian, people generally say Chris Rock, Dave Chappelle, Eddie Murphy, or Richard Pryor. Redd Foxx gets left out a lot.
When you start punishing and censoring comedians, that’s a real bad sign of us as Americans losing our First Amendment rights. As a comedian, I’m gonna push the boundaries. Some things you’re going to love, and some things you’re going to hate. But this is America. Great people died for us to have this right.
When it comes to English stand-up comedy, Indians have only seen the best – Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Cosby and the like. So, when someone claims to be an English stand-up comedian in India, he’d better be very good if he’s going to make a life of it.
I try not to apologize, especially publicly. That’s a slippery slope, because I’m a comedian. If you take anything I’m saying too seriously, then you shouldn’t be paying attention in the first place. If you find me offensive, don’t follow me.
Whatever you want to do in the industry, do it on the smallest level at first. If you want to be a writer, write a screenplay in your house. If you want to be an actor, put on a one-man show. If you want to be a stand-up comedian, go to an open mic.
What I love is getting a new joke, or a premise like a sketch idea or a movie idea. That’s the best feeling for a comedian.
As a comedian, I think you need to keep things real.
SNL’ and ‘Half-Baked’ came and certainly brought me a bigger audience. But I lost the perspective of being a real good comedian.
When I did Comic Relief, I did it to be on the show; it’s a badge of honor as a comedian to do that show.
I think it’s a comedian’s job to make everything funny. Nothing is off-limits.
Oh yeah, I’d love to be a comedian. I’ve done a lot, but always in the confines of plays.
Every comedian comes to a fork in the road where they have to decide if they’re going to make jokes about other people or make jokes about themselves. I chose myself.
You know, I’m a comedian the same as Bill Maher and Jon Stewart. We all came up the same way. The three of us have interest in politics; I call us fundits, we’re fundits! We’re not pundits!
I like writing and directing. I enjoy telling stories, and I think it’s born in a comedian to end up directing.
I don’t think of myself as funny – I don’t fill up a room with my humor… I would fail miserably as a stand-up comedian.
As a comedian you have to remind yourself that it happens; every now and again you can just have a bad gig where things go beyond your control.
What keeps me going is that this I all there is. I am a comedian, and this is what I do. It’s like telling a fish to stop swimming. It’ll die.
I have fear of the audience and I am responsible for the scenes involving me, be it as a comedian or hero.
