When I was a kid, I didn't know how I got into acting.
Even on TV appearances or big shows, I don't know if I've ever been as nervous as I was my first time doing stand-up. I just remember getting offstage and sitting down, and my right knee was just shaking from the adrenaline.
I will never be a career actor, I don't think. I don't feel that I have the skill set to jump into it that way, although I wouldn't mind giving it a try.
I had already played a lead on Broadway before I ever did a film. I had had three, four seasons of stock with good, fat parts, good supporting and leading parts. And I had done, oh, God, over 400 live TV shows.
One of the things I enjoyed the most is just working as an actor.
I'm an actor; I want to play roles, not a role.
I play-acted and started performing, which just logically led to doing it in school, which led to studying it in college, which led to auditioning to the showcase in New York. And then I had an agent, and I was an actress.
I think by eighth grade I knew I wanted to be an actor. I'd done church plays and stuff, but my first actual acting class was in eighth grade. I was obsessed with it.
Well, I've been acting for 50 years now, professionally. I've been acting a lot longer. My mother reckons I was acting when I got out of the womb. But because I've been working in the theater, I've probably only done about 25 movies but I've done more than 100 plays.
What I don't believe is that DVDs or HD broadcasts can be a substitute for the real thing.
I didn't want to perform comedy. I always loved humor. Loved making people laugh. I was a big stand up fan, but it wasn't until I was managing a restaurant that had a comedy night and one of the producers asked me to go on stage that I wanted to do it.
I entered this career having no background or connection to acting.
Performing is one of the best feelings I know!
I never felt so close to a guitar as that silver one with mirrors that I used on stage all the time.
I'm totally at home on the stage. That's where I live. That's where I was born. That's where I'm safe.
The live aspect is so thrilling, I get nervous again. It's like going on stage.
I do it because I love acting, I love working, and whether it's radio, television, films, theater, I don't care as long as I can get out there and do it.
Acting is something I've done since I was in high school, but I never had a model in my life, whether it was a mentor or a parent, where I could realize that acting could actually be a career.
I always wanted to act, but never thought of it as something serious to do.
I had done some acting in high school. I was terrible.
When I started out in this business, I was a performer before I was a songwriter, I was a performer before I was recording. Performing is the roots. That's where it all came from. You didn't start out doing it because you wanted to make an album.
I love acting. I love stage work, more than anything. It's just live. It's right there in front of you. If you make a mistake, they know it and you know it. I won't do anything where I feel like I'm just making a fool out of myself. By doing that, I'm able to rise to my highest potential.
I never planned on being a live performer. My whole forte was about being in the studio, producing, playing the piano on recording sessions. I was all about the studio.
But live shows are cool. I just got back into the idea of enjoying it live.
I feel lucky to be an actor because you always learn something from each part you play.
