Tim Matheson Quotes

I feel I've always got to keep my stand-up because I never want to lose it.

To be a comedian, you gotta jokesmith, there's no way around it.

My background is in improv and writing.

Every time I could possibly be doing stand up, I am.

Stand-up is hard.

Actors need bricks to play with, and in fact we rejected all the improvised fragments we had made without a plan. Improvisation without a plan is like tennis without tennis balls.

Comedy is hard to do. All the cliches about it are true.

For my stand-up, I always have my notebook with me and if something strikes me, I'll write it down.

There's an art to comedy.

I am obsessed with improv.

Rehearsals are for gags.

I think, in a way, the stand-up prepped me for the improv, because I do a lot of riffing in my stand-up.

I don't think I'm anything like the improviser. I'm not. I do better with at least an outline.

When you are doing stand-up comedy, you are the writer, producer, director, sometimes bouncer.

There's nothing more difficult to do than comedy.

My job has always been to entertain people. I want people to laugh.

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

I really loved what I was doing being creative and being funny as a stand-up comedian.

There's got to be structure and great comedy. When you start with that, everything else falls into place.

I got into stand-up to get on a sitcom.

I don't rehearse on either of my shows, 'Family Feud' or my talk show. I never rehearse with the guests. I don't want to have any preconceived thoughts, notions, because that kills my creativity as a host and as a stand up.

Most of the stuff I do on the show comes out of me just trying to make my friends laugh.

If you're improvising with Paul Reiser, man, you'd better hold on tight!

People come up to me and they thank me: 'I thank you for the many, many hours of laughter.'

If something strikes me as funny, I'll put it in my performance.