Ken Dodd Quotes

You have to learn the crowd. I just pay attention to them so I can make sure I can make them laugh.

I think anybody in front of a crowd is a comedian.

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.

I'm like the master of ceremonies being funny, and then sometimes people you're with, girlfriends and stuff, are like, 'God I wish I had the person on stage to be with all the time.'

I never used to tell jokes on stage. Now I'm cutting up jokes all night long.

I know I can get laughs anywhere, in front of any crowd, if I'm given the chance.

When you're doing stand-up, you want to stand onstage and, to the extent that you can, uncomplicatedly entertain.

The violence or the vaudeville style of comedy is a technique all by itself. You get up there, and you are a comedian, and you're doing one thing. That is, you're going to make the audience laugh.

I wanted to be a comedian.

I remember once having to stop performing when I thought an elderly man a few rows back from the front was actually going to die because he was laughing so hard.

About the best thing an actor can do when all is said and done is to make people laugh.

Kind of the exhausting thing about doing pure comedy, or something that's broader, is you're kind of a slave to the laugh. If it's not funny, then there's not much point in doing it. The kind of ueber-objective is to make people laugh. You always have to have that in the back of your mind, 'Eh, I've got to figure out a way to make this funny.'

Any audience that gets a laugh out of me gets it while I'm facing them.

A lot of the time, you're supposed to play to the top of your intelligence, as truthful as possible. But when you're on stage making people laugh, you're still acting. I think it helped me a bunch to go on stage two or three times a week.

How can you get bored if the audience is cheering and laughing at something you're doing?

For anyone who works in front of an audience there is no thrill quite like that of feeling and hearing the evidence of the audience members' enjoyment. Laughter and applause really are powerful.

I love the studio audience. That's where I feel the most at home. You know right away if you're being funny or not.

I got a few laughs and decided I was going to act.

Sometimes I start off shows by explaining to people that it's just a bunch of stories - I always say 'It's like standup, just less funny.'

I definitely enjoyed being in front of an audience, making people laugh, and telling stories, so when I realized I could do all three at the same time, that was it.

I was once doing a gig with Tim Vine; he was backstage, and there was one of those long strings of polystyrene coffee cups. He picked up the whole stack of about 20, walked on stage and then said: 'Bloody hell this coffee's hot!' which I think is the funniest thing anyone has ever said.

The job of a comedian is to make people laugh, but a lot of my interests are in politics so I'm going to use that.

I remember doing a lot of comedy. I always loved that feeling when you do something on stage and you can feel the vibe of the audience turn, and they start laughing. It's how you know something's not right, and how to fix it, or how to make the moment stronger or funnier.

The whole thing about working in front of the camera is to make people laugh when they're not supposed to.

I'm much more interested in making people laugh than getting applause breaks.