Dave Van Ronk Quotes

The best shows I play, I almost don't even remember off the stage.

If you can play well in the studio, you can play well on stage.

On any given night - there are nights that you feel better. There are nights that you are vocally better. There are nights that you are not as vocally good. No question about it.

The more you write tunes, the better they will become. The more you do gigs, the better you will become.

I don't really unwind after a performance. I'm still pumped up and just want to get back on stage.

I'm not trying to take anything away from film acting, because it's also really hard, and I worship the people who are great at it. But to actually have to go out on stage night after night and do it with your audience right there is so wild and scary and exciting and fun and all the things that I remember loving about it.

Having an audience in the studio makes you perform rather than just act.

Performing in front of an audience gives you an extra ten per cent energy and the chance to react to the instant feedback.

No live performance can ever be perfect, and that's what keeps you on your toes - it pushes you to practice harder, show up for that 8 A.M. ballet class, and walk through the stage door every night just to have the chance to do it all again.

Comedy clubs sharpen a comic, they're like the gym for us, making us stronger, faster, funnier. Without them every comedy show would feel like a monologue.

It's hard not to be affected by the live audience.

Getting onstage and trying out all of my material and what works well with audiences and what doesn't, what works well in different atmospheres, has been the best training.

The best way to refine an interpretation is by getting out and performing.

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.

You can only be as good as your audience. Sometimes you can be as bad as your audience, but you have to remember you can never be better than them.

When you do a song new live on stage, it's kind of a bit weird until it gets worn in, you know, like oiled up a bit. It's still a little bit stiff until you really thrashed at it for a few weeks.

There's something interesting about playing live; you're in the moment, and I think it would be beneficial.

When I perform onstage, I'm actually kind of nearsighted, so I don't have any real, true understanding of what the audience is like.

I prefer that for my own satisfaction over radio, there's no audience. TV, there's no audience. I need the response of the audience, even if it's a silent response.

We seem to do better in the studio than we do in a live environment.

I do miss the rhythms of comedy. And I've never been able to perform very well without an audience. The sitcoms I've done had them. It was like doing a little play.

Theatre is more exciting in the sense that you can actually see the audience in the eye. You know there are no takes and retakes. You have one chance to do your job... and you better do it well!

The studio work is the nasty, tedious, hard and nerve-wracking part, interrupted by moments of exhilaration. Playing live is the chance to actually have some fun and get on a stage.

I do love live performing, but I'm not a stand-up naturally, and I don't like the lifestyle of working just in the evenings at clubs and stuff - not a natural gig-er.

I still get thrilled by the energy that is a live performance, the fear and the panic and the electricity that happens on the night. I think jolting myself every once in a while with that fear is a good thing for me.