Quotes About Performance

Acting is even stranger than I thought it would be.

Being a stand-up is my mission in life; it's my passion. My ongoing goal is to simply be funny, on my own, in front of a roomful of strangers.

Being on 'Whitney' is a job, but stand-up is my life. I could never stop. There's an art to it. I love having strangers laugh with me, so as long as I can continue doing that, I'll be happy. Working on a show and collectively sharing ideas with a cast is great, but stand-up is my first love.

Trying to make strangers laugh is crazy and more than a little narcissistic.

Ma did a play called 'Entertaining Strangers' when I was about 14, which totally changed my life, I loved it so much.

A couple of weeks ago, I did karaoke and got nervous in a way I hadn't gotten nervous in 25 years. I'm so used to getting on stage in front of strangers to tell jokes, but singing is a whole different animal.

I am the kind of person that wants to get up in front of crowds of strangers and perform monologues. To each their own.

Anything you can do to get more people to come to your live shows is good, because that's where you can really do what you do. Everyone's on the same page, and you don't have to win strangers over as much.

It's a lot easier to play in front of quite a lot of strangers than a couple of your friends just because when it's someone that really knows you, it's much more scary.

I felt like there was a certain standard that we held 'Strangers' to, so I think about that whenever I work on something.

When we cut 'Strangers In The Night,' we did the whole song in two takes.

London audiences are the most challenging around - it's a group of such diverse strangers.

Sometimes the last thing you want to do is to go on stage and bare your soul in front of hundreds of complete strangers. Singing the same songs night after night can remind you of things you'd rather forget.

Like everybody, I started out doing 'bringer' shows - the kind where if you show up with a certain number of people, you get to perform. Sometimes I would actually pay strangers off the street to come in and see my set.

The best teacher is an audience. The ideal performance is when that group of strangers sitting in the dark gets energy from the group in the light and sends energy back to us. When it really works, a perfect circle is formed.

People often tell me that they have no idea how I can do standup. The idea of trying to make a large group of strangers laugh is, for many, absolutely petrifying - and it is - but there are ways of gradually developing the material that can ease the fear.

I'm good at playing the emotionally strangled person. The woman who is in the worst place in her life. That's me!

I've always considered myself a folk singer, even though we strapped on Rickenbacker guitars and played pretty loud.

There are at least three kinds of advantages that the pitcher and batter contest. There's the physical advantage, the strategic advantage, and also the psychological advantage. I didn't want two out of three. I wanted them all.

Top athletes understand that to play at their best, they must alternate periods of intense performance with periods of strategic renewal.

I'm just trying to be a better fighter every time I compete, so it's all about being more strategic and looking for a way to get a finish.

It's best to keep a strategic fight and try to win because the level of the sport is so high.

I was never a strategic guy. If I can play, I just want to play.

Any excuse to throw a rider out of a race is OK by me, but not that kind of inborn lack of athletic skill. That's not what racing is about.