Ali Farahnakian Quotes

I did sketch comedy for years. I've always enjoyed it.

Billy Crystal knows how to make people laugh. He's got 30 years on stage... there's no telling him what's funny.

My job is mostly to entertain and be funny.

The pressure to being a comedian is being funny, but I've given that up, so there is no pressure whatsoever.

I've always played comedy. My background is musical comedy theatre, and that's really where my training is.

You can't teach someone to be funny, but you can teach comic timing. If you listen to a good comic, you can learn how to put it on a page.

Robin Williams learned technique. He has the technique of being funny.

I've actually done a lot of comedy.

I don't have any type of sketch-comedy or stand-up background.

From the first time I saw Sid Caesar be funny I knew that's what I had to do.

I would like to do comedy. I can be a bit of a Jim Carrey. I was always the class clown.

You learn timing on the road. You learn structure and how to read an audience. You learn so much about the business of laughter that you can't learn on a set, because it's all on you. Sometimes you bomb, and you know not to tell that joke again... You just hope people find the humor in the awkwardness.

I was always silly in high school. I used to always get in trouble because I was laughing. I've always thought I was funny but never thought I could use it to make money. In 1996, I decided I was going to use my humor to get on TV to make money.

I never did stand-up. If I've been funny ever, it was with other actors.

If you pay attention, stand-up can be great improv training ground. But one of the things that helped me the most was doing warm-up for the 'Mr. Show' tapings way back when.

If you look at vaudeville in theaters vamping between acts, it was always jokes written and banter in the moment.

Comedy, I figured, was the thing that came to me the most easily. Playing the trumpet and piano took practice. I thought that was a waste of time. I'd go out on the street corner and be funny. In a minute.

My first love is doing my own comedy stuff.

The thing is, I was never really a comedian - a comedian would scoff at the notion of me as a comedian because I've never done anything, really. I've always just been some guy who's funny.

I'm a big fan of Louis CK - I think he's a master of standup.

I'm used to sort of improvising a lot when I do my comedies.

More and more, I find that I love doing comedies; that instant gratification that you get on stage when they laugh at you feels really good.

I'm more of a sketch guy than a standup.

People who have heard of me have heard of me mostly through presenting and asked, 'Why have you gone into comedy?'

The thing about stand-up is that you end up meeting your idols.