Comedian Skills Quotes

In my heart, I believe I'm a top flight comedian and a top flight rapper.

As a comedian, you have to start the show strong and you have to end the show strong. Those are the two key elements. You can't be like pancakes. You're all happy at first, but then by the end, you're sick of 'em.

It takes a while to realize that just because you're a stand-up comedian and you do comedy, you're not going to be good at all comedy.

I'm a good counter comedian. I can just work it off with looks, or have something crazy to say back. That works for me.

Your number one job as a comedian is to be aware. You're supposed to understand the temperature in the room more than anyone on the planet - that's the whole craft of comedy.

Sometimes you just create a joke out of thin air in the editing room. I'm really glad I've had that experience. It gives me a little more confidence in front of the camera.

Part of being a comic is being flexible, being versatile.

Stand-up comedians know how to walk into a room, even if you're not performing, just read the temperature of a room, and can easily sort of tell what's going on or what people are sort of feeling in the room, and it allows you to sort of approach people.

I'm pretty good at getting over people throwing stuff at me. If you've been doing stand up long enough you know how to swing back and get the laughs.

I like seeing comedians do stuff that I could never do.

Sarah [Silverman] writes her own jokes. She doesn't just go through her life and talk about everything. She sits down and crafts jokes. Sometimes her inspiration comes from areas of her life that are risqué. But she is an A-plus professional joke-writer in addition to being very attractive and a great performer.

We're shaking up a format, which I think is always a good thing. The thing about [2011 Oscar hosts] James [Franco] and Anne [Hathaway] is, they've both hosted Saturday Night Live, and they both did a good job at it. So they are accustomed to working with short rehearsal time, and live, lots of pressure, rewrites, things like that. They can make quick changes, which is very advantageous, and they're skilled comedians.

Comedians dissect jokes all the time. Comedians are beautiful structuralists. But ultimately it's an athletic endeavor.

I continue to do standup because there's a connection with a live audience - there are skills that you do learn as a standup comedian that help you on a set.

I studied acting at Carnegie Tech in Pittsburgh because I figured a good comedian certainly could act.

Richard Pryor - he had stories, he had characters, he had short jokes, and he had bits. He had all those things. Eddie Murphy has all those things, and he can sing. A comedian is a bunch of stuff; it's not just one area.

Having worked as both comedian and crime writer, the one thing I know is that both involve the delivery of a performance.

It takes many years to be a great comedian.

As you can tell from watching the show, I'm not a strong joke writer per se.