Quotes About Stand-up

When I began doing stand-up, it took me a long time to get an hour's worth of material together.

My only goal is to make you laugh, not tell you the truth.

I prefer being known for my stand-up because I write it. I love being an actor, and saying other people's words is great. But then, when I do stand-up, I love getting my own point of view out there.

Bill Hicks is a huge influence. I love him.

I've been going up and bombing everywhere. It's great. I love it. It's hilarious.

I was extremely shy and had a terrible fear of public speaking. But I had fallen in love with stand-up.

I love comedy. If I could be a comedian - well, I probably would not take that job because it seems really hard, but I wish I could be.

I love stand-up. I look at it as a way to always stay productive. I couldn't imagine only being an actor or a writer. Because what the hell do I do when I'm not working? Mope?

With stand-up, it doesn't matter who you are. If the audience claps because they love your movies, that clapping stops after five seconds, and then it's your job to make them laugh.

Specifically in stand-up, I love jokes. I love short, structured ideas and a punchline.

When I started doing stand-up, I resigned from my job as a maths teacher and, three days before I was due to leave, my dad passed away.

I was a very weird child. I was very shy, so in school I would just mimic stand-up sets of Whoopi Goldberg.

The thing with stand-up is, I really enjoyed it, but I kind of loathed it as well. It makes me feel physically sick.

There are lines that I know are going to get a belly laugh, but after a few shows I get sick of hearing myself say them so I drop them.

I also want to return to doing stand-up. I've become frightened of live audiences. This is a really telling sign that I need to go back on the comedy circuit again.

When people write comedy from neutrality, it just gets kind of silly.

I've been a stand-up comedian for years, and I can be silly.

The point with me is that it's always been, even with the stand-up, that the music has to be right. You have to take it seriously. You have to try and play it as faithfully as possible. That way it helps the comedy. Rather than just playing it in a silly way.

I love live theater. I get my rocks off by doing stand-up, and I am the only actor. But to show up eight times a week and not have that time for myself; to do someone else's lines? When I work for Wendy Wasserstein or Terrence McNally, Neil Simon or even Shakespeare, I do not have the right to change the lines.

Excuse #2: "I'm Shy" Well, so am I. Most stand-ups are very shy in their personal lives, and going onstage is a great outlet. You shy people have a lot of stuff to let out, and the stage gives you an arena in which to vent your repressed criticisms of the world.

Bad improv happens with people who are inexperienced with each other and don't know the craft that well. But bad stand-up is something that could happen to someone at any level in their career.

Sarah Silverman has always been a huge influence on my comedy.

I did stand-up for a long time, and I did classical theater. As much time as you could spend on a stage will always inform you and your job, as you evolve. I feel the freedom of being able to find comedy in the darkest moments because it makes it way more interesting, I think.

Yeah, I mean, I did regular stand-up for a long time. And I did - I stopped doing stand-up when I worked on 'Ellen,' which was for five years. So when I went back to it, I found that, like, regular stand-up didn't really do it for me anymore. It almost felt insincere, like I wasn't saying anything I actually really wanted to say.