Aubrey Plaza Quotes

When I came to Chicago, I didn't even know what improvisation meant, as far as pertaining to comedy. I knew about Second City, but I didn't know what the word 'improvisation' meant.

In sketch comedy, wear your character like a hat, not a suit of armor.

Comedy is commitment and playing a character and falling into the role, and I've been doing that since I was 19 years old.

Many of the people I've worked with over the years came from a sketch-comedy background or an improv background, and I've learned a lot from them.

I love UCB Chelsea. There is, to me, no stage like it.

I have always been doing sketch comedy since I was a kid because one of my mom's boyfriends was an improv comedy guy so were doing skits all the time growing up.

I can't tell you how many bizarre shows at UCB I was a part of.

You know I've never worked without a script before, but with Apatow, it's all improvisation. He calls out a premise, and you have to adapt.

I've played at the Comedy Studio. I never did as an undergrad, but I have in recent years, whenever I've gone back to anything at Harvard, I've tried to go there and do some sets.

To make theater out of real life, you need to catch dialogue when it happens.

In general, I don't really think too much about pacing, myself. You kind of look at each script and what each script demands.

The way that UCB taught us to improvise, you always start from an inspiration from your life, something that's happened to you or a friend. And then you put a comic game onto it. It always starts from a place of reality, of truth.

There's [John Mulaney Show] jokes that I have in stand up that I wouldn't try to put in, I would try to have someone just speak extemporaneously in the middle of a scene about an episode of "Law and Order" or something.

You learn the values that are inherent in the scene that the writer has written. You learn about who you as a character are in relation to those others who are working with you within that scene.

If you call me a comedian I will be very grateful. I will thank you profoundly. No, I love doing comedy. It's fun once in a while to do a serious part but I really enjoy doing comedy because I love to laugh.

I've spent the last few years just really actively pursuing comedy and that's something I always wanted to know how to do.

Is this a generation of orphans who are going to the improv to do stand-up?

I don't feel like you can fully find the true character until you're in his wardrobe, on set, and really getting into the scene. And that's when you really find out who your character is.

Comedy is not something that had necessarily jumped out as something I'd immediately go for.

As a filmmaker, you are going to manipulate the character as you need to make the scenes work.

I met a bunch of people and they said, "We're gonna do a show [Second City]." So we would buy the theater out and do a show, and we did that for five years and we ended up becoming popular. It was before sketch comedy was hipster-time - when you would hand out a flier, people would roll their eyes. Now it's kind of cool.

I'm not a comedian. I didn't study sketch comedy; my background isn't that.

It's a lot easier to say you're a comic than a performance artist.

When I first graduated college, I told my parents I'd try to pursue comedy for the first year or two, and if it didn't work out, I'd put my nose to the grindstone and try to find a job somehow. I went to UCB, and it clicked with me.

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.