Quotes About Performance

I learned from Jimi Hendrix. They all wanted him to do the tricks, and at the end of his career, he just wanted to play. I lived longer than he did, and I can see how those pressures can really play with your head.

When I was younger I just played football for the fun of it, scoring the maddest goals and trying to come up with new tricks but when you've got to take yourself into a proper match, you've got be serious.

If you're a comedian, it's a bit of a choice whether or not you want to be funny when you're not performing because it might feel disingenuous. In the same way, I don't show people magic tricks in social situations any more.

Actors are like magicians. They'll sit there and do all their tricks to each other. It's very competitive, and the goal is to get them bonding, to get them to know the real person as quickly as possible.

As actors, we get to hide. You can change your hair and your accent, and it's not you. You have tricks, these masks.

I don't want to say I was a big Shinya Aoki fan, but it's just that I felt like he got out and was able to do a lot of the tricks that I like to do before I was able to do them. I guess you can say, a little bit jealous in a way that he was making that sort of show before I was.

Religion is like magic. It is all about tricks.

My show is constantly evolving... new tricks are added, old ones are dropped... so it stays fresh. But it's the randomly selected participants from the audience that make it fresh and provide some of the best comic relief.

I think you have to go deep into the bag of tricks, so to speak, to try and slow down the quarterback.

In earlier years, I was more of a clown with a big bag of tricks. I'd show up in the studio and kind of go, 'Well, what do you want? Do you want the screaming banshee or the howling owl?'

Stylistically, in improv, I don't think you can have as many camera tricks; I think you're kind of shooting more like a documentary: you don't know where it's going, so you have to hang back a little more.

Nowadays, with technology coming into cricket, people start to analyse, and if you only have one or two tricks, people will start to line you up.

I don't want to end up being a circus act, doing my most famous tricks when I'm 70.

It's good to play 100 per cent live - no tricks, no samples, no messing about.

A lot of unconfident kids do tricks because it's the quickest route to impressing people. You can stand behind something amazing and people think you're amazing.

Do theater. Because you'll develop a craft that you'll always have. It'll give you a chance to really learn how to act and you won't go into the world with a few measly tricks that will only carry you so far.

There's always room for improvement, but the judges are looking for big airs and stylish tricks.

Most actors hate watching their own films because all you can see is the glaring mistakes, your own tricks and ticks.

You know what's really hot? Pop-and-locking, ticking. The moonwalk. Tricks like that.

A fantastic actor in a scene that's just closed off will be good. But when working with a director who knows little tricks - correct music, slowly pushing in - that stunning performance will somehow become even better. I've always seen it as a symbiotic relationship.

One thing you learn doing magic tricks for a living is how close every performance of every magic trick is to disaster. There are no robust magic tricks. They're all hanging from a thread - sometimes literally.

Comedy has to be so much cleaner than drama. You can't layer it in the way you can a dramatic performance. Which is why it's more difficult than drama - you don't have so many tricks.

I can juggle, not well... I can balance a broom on my chin. I can do very simple carny tricks, a little sleight of hand with cards and coins.

I actually sing horribly, but I used to dance pretty good. I was a gymnast, and you can usually use those gymnastic tricks with dance. Plus, they're so much fun to do. That wasn't really a big part of my career. It was just a phase.