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Richard Pryor had real sincere and vulnerable moments.
I'm from Oakland and I started doing comedy around 2001.
I wanted to be like Phil Donahue for the internet generation.
Judaism is a big part of my background, obviously, and my reality.
I love the Oxygen network - I love everything about the Oxygen network.
Describing yourself as edgy is one of the least edgy things a person can do.
Hip-hop was a big part of my life growing up, especially West Coast gangster rap.
I've been politically radical my whole life, so when the left attacks, that hurts more.
There comes a time. The pain of existence transcends the fear of change. There comes a time.
For all of the lumps and warts of the Satmar community, there are also a lot of beautiful parts.
Part of your process of becoming an adult is admitting to yourself that The Doors were a shitty band.
It was great starting in San Francisco. I really think it's is the best place to start in the country.
I like Portland. It's a cute city. You've got a lot of twirly mustaches and things - I'm into that, the hipsters.
If you look at vaudeville in theaters vamping between acts, it was always jokes written and banter in the moment.
Problematic' is one of these meaningless jargon words that people on the internet outrage circles throw at one another.
When did I become a fast-talking Jew? As time went on, my bits started to become longer, and that became part of the signature.
I don't know how effective it is or isn't, but there's something weird about putting cameras on human beings, and talking on camera.
That's what comedy is like: You have to force yourself out in the world because you're always one experience away from new material.
Crowd work has this feeling of being very temporary and of the moment, and I think that's why it sometimes gets a bad rap or a stigma.
I'm a strong believer in free speech to the degree that I support everybody's right to speak, including those whose views I find disgusting.
People are desperate for these breathier, longer, more in-depth conversations. And the only thing I can't provide in my show is the longer time.
There are so many political talk shows out there that are doing such a good job that it would be foolish of me to try to get in the ring with them.
Seth MacFarlane, he's kind of an entertainment Everyman. He loves musicals, he loves joke-driven comedies, and animated stuff. He likes comedy-comedy.
I don't know about you, but I feel like my day begins by blinking my eyes open, grabbing my phone, and just pouring poison directly into my cerebellum.
The most hardcore, edgiest comedian in the world has no desire to hurt people and make people have a bad evening. Everybody wants everybody to have a good time.
I watch 'Watchmen', and I wish I was in that writers room, so I could figure out what they're doing, story-breaking-wise. I've never seen a television show like that.
I think people are really desperate for conversations. I'm really fascinated by the idea that at the same time, the internet is sort of expunging our attention spans.
I don't feel I can get used to my face wearing glasses... more than one pair of glasses, or any one pair until a cataclysmic, cosmic event causes me to get a new pair.
I sometimes wonder why I talk about Judaism so much in my act, and the reason is that it's such a huge part of who I am, and I only make fun of stuff that I care about.
I definitely want to write some fiction, for sure. I already have half of the next book. I already have it all mapped out. I'm ready. I'm ready to bring it to the world.
There's a deeper conversation to be had on guns, and just because I happen to know where I fall into that conversation doesn't mean that I don't want to have that conversation.
I don't know about other comedians, but I know that I never have felt anything like stage fright. I've felt nervous before big shows, but I think that's different than stage fright.
The problem with the internet and the way that we communicate on the internet is - I mean it's obvious to everybody - but sometimes we don't stop and take a breath and think about it.
I'm not uncomfortable with sincerity in my regular life, but, like in terms of my product that I offer, I think that it's weird, because comics used to be way more sincere in the '80s.
Especially going to Oakland public schools where as a white kid you have to figure out if you're going to sink or swim socially, one of the main ways to stay buoyant was to stay funny.
When I first started comedy, me and my friends were kids. I claim - although I know that it's a spurious and probably untrue claim - that we were the first generation of kids to act black.
I'm not tied to the news cycle. I can do an episode on cultural appropriation, not on Rachel Dolezal. We might make a joke about her, but that's not going to be the focus of the conversation.
Richard Pryor had real sincere and vulnerable moments. Now it seems so cheesy if you stop your act and say, "This is why we have to help them kids. We've got to make sure them kids can read."
No one but John Oliver is going to be able to figure out the code of making a 20-minute monologue on futures, securities, and currency speculation interesting, funny, and poignant politically.
The Punch Line is one of the best clubs in the world. It's an intimidating place if you're a younger comic, but the community is so lucky to have a place with such a high threshold and standard.
The thing with Netflix is everyone who reads this article can go to Netflix, watch 'Live in Oakland' and come to D.C. and see me do a different show. It's a constant source of people getting to know me.
I'm admitting that I don't know that to be true, but it does sound pretty good. So a big part of my childhood was affecting black culture and black accents and black music and anything black I was into.
I got a naughty thrill out of listening to music that was that dirty, especially being that young and able to listen to it around my parents. Kids would come over to my house to listen to Too $hort records.
Joe Rogan has this podcast where he's talking astrophysics and lean BMI indexes and weird philosophy most of the time and yet, when you see him onstage, you're like, 'Oh, this guy is just a killer comedian.'
Well, 'Problematic' was the opposite of a show that was nostalgic and a light fluffy look at life. We were literally trying to kick a hornets' nest, and I don't know how effectively we did or didn't do that.
I was a sign language interpreter from when I was 17, but I don't do that anymore. Both of my parents were deaf. I grew up in a deaf household. I don't do any jokes about it really, but yeah that was my day job.
Part of the problem of comedians doing specials every year - when the masters do it, it's like, 'Okay, I guess, go for it' - but when people aren't at the top of the top level, bits don't get to cook long enough.
It's a Hollywood screenwriting notion that change comes because of one epic, soul-crushing event... What's more common is that the slow decay of the nonevents of your life build up until you can't take it anymore.
Oh, my other goal was that I wanted to talk about this area and this time in history. I wanted to talk about growing up in Oakland, a white kid, from this kind of generation of broken homes and listening to hip-hop.
When you're reading, you're laughing and not quite noticing what's happening. One second you're still kind of chuckling, and then all of sudden you're in the third act of the book and in this very dark and claustrophobic place.