I have always wanted to do comedy.
My paintings and comedy have a lot in common. They are both improvisations based on observation.
Together with script writers Sid Green and Dick Hills, we worked on the comedy ideas for this series.
Comedy used to be a vehicle for change. Now, comedy has gotten to this quirky, nonsensical place, which I enjoy. But I do think there is room for discussion-based humor. We can tell those stories in a way that feels edifying.
I think it’s because my comedy is in your face, and it comes from a place that’s real.
Between us and the writers, it was comedy hour the whole time. We could hardly get through it.
Doing comedy is very challenging, as I am a shy person in real life.
I wanted to play a TV detective because it’s a rite of passage; I wanted to experience every area of acting. I haven’t done comedy or as much Shakespeare as I had intended.
I love my ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ cast. They are so funny and crazy, like a big dysfunctional family. It’s so much fun, and I love the issues that we talk about on that show. We deal with nuanced and controversial issues, and we do it in a way that’s funny. It’s comedy.
A lot of stand-up comedy is embarrassing: too many idiots doing it in orange neckties against brick walls. I find most sitcoms embarrassing, too, because they seem so forced.
I was considered a comedy magician. And – how do I put this without sounding egotistical? – it didn’t take me long to realize that comedy magicians usually couldn’t do comedy or magic.
Status is always ripe for satire, status is always good for comedy.
We were the only ones interested in comedy. Everybody else wanted to be Martin Scorsese.
I didn’t know that I could do a talk show. I didn’t know that we could bring variety to daytime. I didn’t know that people wanted to see singing, and dancing and comedy in the morning.
I like physical comedy. And I like the old comedies.
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.
If a movie isn’t a hit right out of the gate, they drop it. Which means that the whole mainstream Hollywood product has been skewed toward violence and vulgar teen comedy.
Comedy and drama are both challenging to me.
In every tragedy, an element of comedy is preserved. Comedy is just tragedy reversed.
Making someone laugh is a good way to get their defences down so that they might then be open to new ideas, especially when they’re laughing at some common ground they relate to. Comedy’s always been an amazing tool for social change.
At one point, I was in a place where it didn’t feel like it was going to happen, and I was feeling pretty down on myself. But I stuck to it, and now I have a hit comedy on my hands. You’ve got to keep plugging away at it. If you really believe in yourself, you can definitely make it happen.
Feeling supported when you are doing comedy is the best way to make comedy – at least, that’s how I think.
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.
I don’t mind going from sadness to comedy in a split-second or mixing the two up.
I hadn’t done just a straight-out comedy in a long time, just letting an ensemble do really good character acting, having them carry the movie as in my earlier pictures.
There aren’t as many women in my industry in comedy as there should and could and hopefully will be, but it is interesting growing up watching a woman in a male-dominated industry and kind of, like, plowing ahead.
I get more satisfaction out of comedy stuff. I’m a laugh tart. I make no secret of that fact.
I really understood a lot more about comedy after listening to Bill Hicks, who died at 32 years old. He’s probably the best comedian who ever lived. Although you can’t say that because of Carlin, Cosby and Pryor.
I just showed up at the Comedy Store. You keep showing up, and you keep showing up, and eventually, somebody notices.
The more you try to look sexy, the lamer it is, so you just have to commit to the comedy.
Oh, well, my first love is comedy or singing and dancing.
All improv turns into anger. All comedy improv basically turns into anger, because that’s all people know how to do when they’re improvising. If you notice shows that are improvising are generally people yelling at each other.
I’m from a small town in North Carolina and went to a small college and didn’t think that someone like me could make a living in L.A. doing comedy. I worked hard, especially in college, but at that age, you don’t know what’s next.
I got everybody on my side through comedy.
I always wanted to be a comedic actor – that’s what I wanted from the job – to do comedy and to create my own comedy. But I still love doing stand-up and will probably be doing it forever. I’d love to be an old guy who can’t really walk, can’t really stand-up, and I have to sit on the stool and tell jokes.
Nihilism in American comedy came along way before ‘The Simpsons.’ There was a fairly nihilistic point of view to ‘Saturday Night Live,’ for instance, back in the beginning, and a lot of really dark comedy had a really anti-sentimental take on life.
Comedy is surprises, so if you’re intending to make somebody laugh and they don’t laugh, that’s funny.
I mean, I guess I started during the comedy boom, so it was literally like, on Sunday you could decide you wanted to be a comic, and on Monday, you could be on stage.
I’m doing 5000 seat theaters and audiences are going nuts, it’s fantastic and it makes me very happy. I’m dirty, but not like this; I just do comedy that I find funny. I’m working on a new tv show for cable and it’s not set up yet.
I had to choose, I’d be so sad. They are flip sides of the same coin. I love both comedy and drama.
I’d really been wanting to do a television series. I was looking for a comedy.
The problem with me, as far as getting married and having a family, is that my comedy is so important to me. So I don’t know if I’ll ever be as good a dad as my dad.
Clearly romantic comedy is my franchise genre, I don’t mind saying that, it’s true. I love doing them and hopefully always will do them.
David Dhawan is the best as far as Indian comedy films are concerned.
I love doing comedy – I get a laugh out of it, it’s not so serious.
But sometimes it’s good to dare yourself to do the unthinkable. And rather than stand in front of an audience with no clothes on, I decided to have a go at stand-up comedy.
I mean, all alternative comedy is are comedians that have being doing it for so long, for so long, that they were relaxed enough to start becoming personal on stage.
To me, comedy is a great occupation because I don’t really worry that much about what other people think of me.
I’m a big fan of Albert Brooks, Nichols and May. I’d like to follow in their footsteps and do comedy films.
If you elect a matinee idol mayor, you’re going to have a musical comedy administration.
Life is a tragedy when seen in close-up, but a comedy in long-shot.
It’s just this little comedy about this group of guys, and their local hangout is a pool hall, and it’s starting to get taken over by this big corporate, evil kind of guy. And it’s just about them trying to save the day and their little pool hall in the process of it all. It’s called ‘Think Tank.’
You won’t find me in a romantic comedy. Those movies don’t speak to me. People don’t come to talk to me about those scripts, because they probably think I’m this dark, twisted, miserable person.
I read that John Hughes script for ‘Mr. Mom,’ and I thought, ‘This guy is a funny writer.’ I went: ‘You ought to stick around and direct this thing.’ But he didn’t; he left, and look what he became. A really legendary comedy director.
Eleven years ago, my wife and I had had a baby, so I didn’t go to Edinburgh Fringe for the first time in years. Tim Key won the comedy award and I was sat at home with the baby feeling very jealous, genuinely.
In comedy, something may be more absurd, but you have to believe just as much as you do when you’re doing drama.
They have what you call a black night where they have black people come in for just one night only to watch comedy, and you get all your local drug dealers, thugs, prostitutes, all of them come in, sit down, and listen to you tell jokes. They the hardest people to make laugh.
Many comedians and comedy writers have shared the childhood experience of learning to joke to protect themselves from neighborhood bullies when challenge or physical defense were not among the sensible options.
Comedy is a very rough beat. It’s no holds barred, as it should be.
There’s an audience out there for all these different types of things. Whether it’s comedy, motion-picture drama, family movie or a cool, cutting-edge indie, it’s nice to know that I can span all those different genres.
You have to assume that you’re talking to the most intelligent, tuned-in audience you could ever get. That’s the way you’re going to get the best out of people. Whether they know you or not shouldn’t matter for comedy. They should get to know you pretty quickly. and they should be having a good time pretty quickly.
