Quotes About Performance

I always thought, if you're gonna do TV, you want to play a straight, solid, pillar-of-the-show kind of guy.

I come from straight theater.

When I'm playing comedy, I never do 'jokes.' Sometimes I'll deliver a line in a way I think is more likely to get a laugh, but all the best comedy is played straight. What's funny is the way it hits the world around it or the way it hits the other characters.

Gay actors have been playing straight since Euripides.

If you watch 'SNL,' any time there's this thing with everyone singing, I'm, like, the one person who just has a straight line of dialogue because I can't sing to save my life.

Combine speed is overrated. It might give you a good look to see what you can run in a straight line, but football's not played in a straight line.

I began working on stage in Atlanta when I was 3, doing a dance act with the Ragamuffins of Rhythm. Later I became a juvenile straight man for the older comedians. After that I worked out a stand-up act.

If you have a character that doesn't have anything wrong with him, there's nothing funny about it. The idea of the straight man is very important. But I'd rather it be somebody else, because it's not as fun.

The straight man has the best part. He gets to be in the show and see it, too.

I've committed myself to perfecting the art of the straight man. I try really hard not to crack up.

The brilliance of Adam Scott is that he is so damn funny in a straight man role.

One of my favorite comedy performances of all time is Charles Grodin in 'Midnight Run,' and in a lot of things he's done. I think he's hilarious as the straight man, playing it real.

People say: 'Why do you want to play the straight man?' Well, it's because he gets to be in every scene.

A lot of comedies, I think, make the wrong choice of having the straight man being this bland emotional conduit for the audience.

There have been amazing performances by straight people playing gay and by gay people playing straight.

I've got a 1990 Porsche 911. It's just a Carrera, a very simple, straightforward little thing that goes like stink. I love it.

I always want to bring emotion across in a straightforward way. I don't want to get histrionic when I'm singing. For me that's just not interesting; it goes too far down one road.

My criteria is simple, I require fantastic actors who are ready to give their best and are easy to work with. I don't like people with a lot of baggage and rather those who are simple and straightforward and their agenda is to make a brilliant film.

Juggling is very, very straightforward; very, very black and white; you're manipulating objects, not people. And that's always appealed to me.

What you're doing is acting with yourself. Well, I'm my favourite actor, so in a way it's quite straightforward for me.

Far from being a showbiz gimmick, for me dressing as I please has signalled the end of a lifelong performance of straightforward masculinity.

Dancers are working their bodies just like a marathon runner would, and you have to eat to make it through a three-hour performance. Dancers put their bodies through incredible strain.

I don't really strain my voice.

One of my side strange abilities is to hear a good song, no matter how it's being performed. Even if you get a bad performance, I can still hear that there's a good song.