Quotes from Baron Vaughn

Every podcast network has a different culture as far as I can tell. How they run things at Nerdist is totally different than how they run things at Earwolf is totally different than All Things Comedy or Maximum Fun or Feral Audio. And it's different if it's independent.

If you live with a certain amount of dread for your own personal safety every day, that is anxiety.

It was a long time before I understood what the word 'specific' was. I remember being a kid and thinking it was 'pacific,' and being like, 'Can you be more pacific?' And I believed that for maybe five, six years until someone was like, 'It's 'specific.''

I come back to Vegas pretty regularly. Quick visits, and I usually just kind of lay low, see my mom, and then get out of there. But every now and then, I'm able to kind of come for extended stays and see some people.

I've always been a big fan of entertainment. Having cable gave me access to HBO, Showtime, and The Movie Channel. Constantly taking in all these films from different eras and different styles has really given me a good vocabulary in how to talk about movies.

I like that part of the culture of 'MST3K' is this constant dialog on what movies could be done and what movies should be done. I've seen plenty of bad movies and walked out afterward thinking 'That would have been perfect for 'MST3K.''

My first impression of Jane Fonda was she is a queen. She is royalty. She walks into the room - any room - and has this presence about her that demands respect.

With storytelling, you have to see yourself as the hero in the movie of your own life, and I kind of see myself as a supporting role, a walk-on role that has five lines. I say, 'Mr. President, the Russians are here.' That's how I see myself.

Theater school is essentially like training. It's boot camp. It's like an academy to put you through all these different situations that sometimes are more extreme than what you'll come across in the field. But now you're emotionally prepared for it so that when it does happen, it's not a big surprise.

Comedians are always narrating the story of the people. Always.

Anxiety is your creativity turned into a weapon that you use to beat yourself up. And this is because anxiety is mostly storytelling - repeating poisonous stories that you've inherited from others. It feeds on your fear.

Here's the best place that people can find me: go to this website called Google, and then type my name into it. So much stuff.

If we don't talk about the things that are happening, why are we talking about anything at all? Does something have to be a year old for me to have an opinion on it or a conversation with people about it?

In a way, you just can't predict a perfect movie for 'MST3K.'

Black people have to define who we are, or others do it for us.

What makes a good festival, above all, is the audience. It feels disconnected when it's meant to bring in people from elsewhere and not meant for the people who actually live there.

I was always just like, 'Standups are making it up.' A lot of people have that myth about standup. And so it wasn't until I was in college for theater school in Boston that I realized I can actually start going to open mics and figuring this out.

When the audience reacts all together, it's genius. The audience is its own being in a way. It's a weird, amorphous beast that is also somehow a golden emperor that is also somehow every adult you've ever come across in your life who doesn't approve of you - all in one place.

In New Mexico, my local church did a nativity play, and I was cast as Wise Man #3. Of course, Wise Man #3 had no damn lines. Wise Man #1 had all the lines! I stood there thinking, 'I could do that role so much better!' From that moment on, I knew I wanted to be an actor.

Until recently, Hollywood offered only a handful of roles to actors of color. The majority of my opportunities have fallen into two categories: Scary Black and Funny Black.

I grew up on a very specific diet of certain weird movies. Of course, being black, there are more black movies in there. I'll get to bring some of those references into 'Mystery Science Theater 3000.'

In this age of the Internet, if you are going to go see someone, you usually look them up first. It can be an advantage and disadvantage. Most of the time, people can Google you and see a couple clips and say, 'Oh I am going to go.' They can kind of co-sign off on you.

One time I was really close to Steve Martin. I was too afraid to actually go talk to him, but I'll count that as meeting.

Instead of letting anxiety run you, try voicing it. Voice it in your comedy. Voice it in a script. Just voice it, and it'll help you release it.