Quotes About Stand-up

In the end I'm a comic, and nothing fits the talk-show mode like a stand-up comic.

With '2 Dope Queens,' with stand-up, and also with 'Sooo Many White Guys,' the interview stuff that I do, I really am a fan first.

I wrote my book 'The Amorous Busboy Of Decatur Avenue' completely like a writer does, writing it down, re-writing everything. But in my stand-up, I improvise initially, never questioning it too closely.

My dialogue probably reveals the paranoia of the stand-up: if you're not quick and interesting, they will be gone.

Comedy can be harder because if you aren't making the audience laugh, they're going to turn on you quicker. They'll go along with mediocre drama more than they'll go along with mediocre comedy.

Before I even got 'Saturday Night Live,' I was already known as the furthest thing from a goat boy. I had a stand-up routine, which I was all ready to do on HBO, before 'Saturday Night Live,' so if my routine was dependent on being a goat, I would want to quit.

But from my very first gig I've always been pretty filthy, but that's why we have an age restriction. And I make sure that the quotes on the poster say it's going to be a bit rude.

Things that make me laugh range from a wonderful stand-up like Jerry Seinfeld, Louis C.K. and Chris Rock to my son Gabe, who does great improv work. I also look backwards to the great comedic actors like Jackie Gleason, Paul Lynde and Phil Silvers.

I was born to be funny.

I was always a funny guy. I don't think anybody that makes it to this level of stand-up wasn't a funny guy when they were young.

It just seems to me that there's no particular reason comedy albums should be dead. There's a lot to laugh at. We have very funny people, still.

The beautiful thing about stand-up advice is that it applies to anybody, any gender, any race, any age. The best thing you can do - everybody will tell you - is get on stage as much as you can. I would add to that: get on stage as much as you can - with the people you admire.

Stand-up is the kind of gig that'll show you where you're at.

A good comedian can make serious political points while also having a giggle.

Actually, I've been doing stand-up on the quiet for the last 15 years, in the form of corporate gigs.

I probably wouldn't be doing comedy, if it wasn't for the fact that I was doing stand-up and getting a few gigs, while I was also applying for law internships and getting absolutely nothing.

Whenever a young comic asks me for advice I only have two things to say. One is to try and do what you think is genuinely funny and the other is just do loads of gigs.

I feel like every time I go out, I want to do a good job. I want people to say that he's just as good at stand-up as he is in some of the movies I've seen him in, so I try to do the best every time I go out there.

As a result of being on 'SVU' and 'Homicide' all these years, there's a lot of people who don't know I used to do stand-up. When they see me onstage, it's a surprise, and it's revelatory. I'm happy because I can do my old material, so everybody wins.

One of my greatest inspirations for stand-up was Jonathan Winters. He was a genius. One thing about him, and also Lenny Bruce, is that they were in the tradition of the one-man show. That's why Richard Pryor was so great, and George Carlin, too. They prowled the stage, they used voices, they were really talents.

Sir one more comment like that and I will strangle you with my microphone wire!

Derek Brunson's stand up is horrible, I'm sorry. The guy is a good fighter but his stand up is just terrible. He's an amateur fighter stand up wise.

Wit is a comic's defense weapon.

I always feel that most political jokes, if you're going to do them, you have to do them within the next five minutes, or else they're outdated. By the time you've got it to the point that it's strong, it would be 12 years old.