Quotes About Performance

When I played Lady Day, I took Aba onstage with me as a joke. He started singing-in tune!-and the audience loved it.

...there isn't often anything in Wagner opera that one would call by such a violent name as acting.

I don't think just funny is enough on Broadway.

When I worked with Robin Williams, now there is improv! He is just as funny as you think he is. We did at least five or six takes of every scene, improvising every scene differently. He was a riot.

I find it very difficult to be funny, it's much easier to do tragedy than it is to do comedy.

Yes, the mutes are already on. You took them off in the beginning.

We have to play it longer because there are no numbers or letters.

Without him here, it is impossible to know how fast he will play it, approximately.

This is one bar you should take home.

I need one more bass less.

Brass, stay down all summer.

More basses, because you are so far away.

Congratulations to each and every one of you for the concert last night in New York and vice versa.

Did you play? It sounded very good.

Muti is going to do the Alpine Symphony this year. He will do it well because it is not very well known.

I never wanted to go on stage alone because if you mess up, who can you blame?

Especially with comedy, you take massive risks because ultimately you're trying to be funny. If you're not funny, then it's really embarrassing and you look stupid.

At the end of the day, it's all about what's on the shelf at the end of the year.

My first open mic, I drank a full pitcher of beer by myself. I wasn't afraid of being in front of people as much as, Is this funny?

On the stage you're there, it's live. There's a beginning, a middle, an end. When something is funny you hear it right away.

I think the best comedic actors don't play it for comedy, they play it for reality. Then you find it funny because it's real. Playing the genre is the worst thing you can do - it's embarrassing.

Don't go to the circus.

Robin Williams learned technique. He has the technique of being funny.

If I want to act relaxed, it's going to take all my cunning, skill, and concentration.