Quotes About Comedy

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.

The things that make me laugh are considered smart or whatever, I guess. But stuff that's self-consciously intelligent or self-consciously hip or cool, that doesn't do it for me either. You just try to be funny.

I like intelligent comedies.

'Housefull' is not a 'leave your brains behind' kind of a film. It has a very intelligent screenplay.

People tell me I'm doing all these intense women and that I should lighten up. Then I do a comedy that I'm not happy with, and I think, 'Let's go back to heavy, heart-breaking drama; it's so much more fun.'

Playing roles that are intense and damaged has always come more easily to me than doing comedies or lighter stuff - that would be taking a huge risk for me.

If something doesn't feel right comedically I won't budge on it. You just have to dig your heels in and fight for it. And I mean fight quite intensely.

I've never sat down with the intent of trying to shock or anything like that; it just so happens that the sense of humour I enjoyed watching as a kid is the type of humour I try to emulate as an adult. It's not a decision. It might sound a bit wanky, but it's the truth.

My intent when I moved to L.A. was to get in good with the comedy clubs and, eventually, try to break into Comedy Central and have my half hour special.

I think comedy and horror are very similar in that there's a very direct intention. So you're trying to be funny, or you're trying to be creepy, and that literalness - I take to that.

In Australia, I'm built up as this comedy hero, which was never my intention.

I never say a funny thing intentionally.

I like some of the B movies that are intentionally funny.

Critics think we try to make bad films. They think we want to spend five months of our lives making something bad. We always go out with the best of intentions, whether it's fluffy comedy or a drama.

I try to be smart with my comedy. Generally, it devolves into bathroom humour. I describe my comedy as, 'I have the best intentions, but usually it fails.'

With comedy, don't try to be funny. That's really helped me. Just say the lines as you would say them, interact with other characters, and try to make it as real as possible. It will come out funny.

I have definitely learned - and this is definitely a human nature thing - that people are willing to, in an interaction with a comedian, admit things and talk about things with candor that they would never admit to a group of friends or an individual.

The comedy and character interaction on 'Atlantis' is what makes it so different from most science fiction shows.

I'm very interested in Comedia dell'Arte.

I sort of attract people who are interested in my comedy for being able to talk about whatever I want to talk about and not being ashamed of who I am and not hiding it.

Professional humorists and cartoonists have to go through a stage in which they have to kill their own internal editor just so they can get stuff out. So whether they believe it or not, they need me on the other end to do that editing for them.

Stand-up is still my job. That is the thing I wanted to get into when I was 21. You cannot beat the immediacy of it, making people laugh without any interruptions or edits.

I really want to interview Larry David.

If I ever interview somebody, I make sure I listen to them. As a comedian, I've gone on so many shows, I've wanted to take things to a crazy place. Sometimes the hosts don't like that.