Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Maybe depression is the most reasonable response to all the crap around us. Maybe it's the happy people who need medication.
The Internet has usurped the collective unconscious and access to cosmic consciousness has become difficult and almost primitive.
I think that standup has always been an acquired taste and there was always only a handful of performers that were really inspired.
Because we're comics and we pass each other on campus, we know of each other, and a lot of the time there's a mutual respect there.
The truth is, I can’t read anything with any distance. Every book is a self-help book to me. Just having them makes me feel better.
Comics seemed to have a handle on things. They could sort of disarm and get control over reality. I found it very comforting to laugh.
I knew most of my radio listeners were lefty political people, and I decided definitively not to be that guy - not to address politics.
The demand for standup in the eighties was created by how easy it was to exploit 'comedians' and create very cheap television programming.
Conversation is a beautiful thing. When I was a younger guy, just wandering around talking to people was what kept me connected to the world.
Comedy is obviously a matter of personal taste and the world always needs a clown and some people have no taste at all and any clown will do.
I think seeing Pryor's first movie, Live In Concert, when I was in high school changed my life. Pryor really put the heart in darkness for me.
I just wanted to be a good comic and had no sense of show business, but at some point you want the opportunity to write a show about your life.
That’s the big challenge of life—to chisel disappointment into wisdom so people respect you and you don’t annoy your friends with your whining.
Have you ever had one of those moments when you look up and realize that you're one of those people you see on the train talking to themselves?
Jerusalem Syndrome is actually a rare psychological condition that occurs to some visitors to the Middle East. They get to Israel and just snap.
I'm happy, certainly, given the times we're living in, to be doing OK, and to not be worrying about money, and to be producing something I enjoy.
I once talked about wanting to kill myself, but I don't think I was ever really planning on doing it. It was just comforting to know that I could.
I'm not against people just being funny or telling stories. I don't need to delve into the soft, dark core all the time. If it happens, it happens.
It's great to have people come out. I do worry, though. They know me very intimately, in a way, if they listen to my show; they know a lot about me.
The worst thing about living in this world, in general, is that things get overwhelming, and things cause a tremendous amount of despair and anxiety.
There are also always those burnt, hard kernels at the bottom that don't pop. You know why they don't pop? They don't pop because they have integrity.
I think sharing experience makes everything better. When people get talking about how they've overcome something or how they haven't, it's nourishing.
I sort of get tired of myself sometimes. When you're busy, your life becomes relatively small. But I don't really get tired of talking to other people.
It may have lost its special-ness forever and the clubs might not being doing well but I think standup is in the best shape it has been in a long time.
As I became very conscious and more aware of things I got very into the beatniks and that kind of stuff. They were very important to me for a few years.
As a performer you are being used to keep people watching so the commercial endorsements that support the network can be seen by as many people as possible.
I know that the podcast is typically something I can do forever, because it's mine; it's just me and my producer and business partner, so it's our business.
They are not testing comics for drugs. If our job is dependent on that, there would be three working comics in the country, and two of them would have puppets.
The development of the comedy club industry destroyed the uniqueness and intimacy of the profession but it also created jobs for comics and bred some great performers.
When I was a bit older I had all of the George Carlin records, all of the Steve Martin records, all of the Cheech and Chong records and all of the Richard Pryor records.
You get all excited to give her the ring, and it's real emotional, and you give it to her, and she cries. And a second later, you're like, 'Damn, I could have had a car.'
All I can do in the context of pursuing any sort of TV thing, and all I've done in the past, is offer your life at any given point in time to whatever situation you're in.
I was also a big Woody Allen fan. When I got into college I listened to Lenny Bruce but it's taken me years to put him into context historically and really get what he did.
I'm not fundamentally a writer. I know writers, and I have a tremendous amount of respect for them. It bothers me that no matter how well I do it, it's not really my format.
Everyone is a little bitter. We're born bitter. The personality itself is really just a very complex defense mechanism. A reaction to the first time someone said, "No you can't.
It seems people are more willing to let other people control their minds now and recreational drug use doesn't seem to have that same renegade sense of adventure that it once did.
We live in a culture where people are self-centered and careerist and everybody seems to think they have too much on their plate or they just don't have time for other people's pain.
Whether people know the evolution of the conversation or not, I don't know, but thematically, as a comedian, I stay in the same ballpark - around my issues and my philosophy of life.
I'm just saying, 'Hey, throw me a bone. How about a smile, cute t-shirt? Look at me.' Nothing - unless it's a turn to their friends to go, 'Hey, why is that weird guy looking at us?'
I'm a guy that after having experience in radio and stuff, if I can trust the people I'm working with, I get a real thrill with working with other people who are good at what they do.
In a lot of ways, I'm seeking some sort of peace of mind for myself. I'm a fairly emotionally petty, resentful guy who has an inflated sense of himself, and I needed to take that down a notch.
It always astounds me that over the course of my career, and having lived in four comedy cities - New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Los Angeles - there's very few people I haven't run into.
There are a lot of things that I'm allowing myself to be, but it's a conscious effort to experience contentment for me. My brain doesn't do that naturally. I'm very overwhelmed all of the time.
Most of the comics that I talk to I've never talked to for more than ten minutes ever. So 95 percent of the time you're really hearing the first conversation between me and that guy on the podcast.
If you let someone talk for an hour, you're gonna have a pretty good idea of who they are, and I think that's more rewarding than me sitting there going, "That's complete bullshit about health care."
In show business, it takes 10 years to create an overnight success. You've heard that, right? But what you don't hear is that that's the exact same amount of time it takes to create a bitter failure.
My favorite part is being engaged with somebody's story and life, and getting a laugh with people I have a tremendous amount of respect for or not, and being challenged by the immediacy of conversation.
Most of my comedy writing happens through improvisation on stage; doing it in the moment. Going up with an idea and fleshing it out over time on stage and in front of people until it becomes a full bit.
They used to have a smoking section at most airports. No more. They now have these glass-encased rooms. You're not just a smoker, you're an example to other people. You're an exhibit at a futuristic zoo.
Show business is one of the few businesses that the devil will actually agree to own just a portion of your soul because he knows if you have a performer's ego you were probably working for him all along.