Charlie Murphy Quotes

The only way to stay sharp is to do live shows. There is no part-time comedy.

As much experience, education and awareness as one can attain is important for a comedian.

After I got my first laugh on stage, I was hooked.

I've been doing comedy longer than I haven't been doing comedy, as I was performing for three years before I even got on 'The Tonight Show.' There's truly nothing like it; it's intense and exhilarating, even though it looks so casual.

It's a really nice way to cut your teeth, doing live shows. It's like going to the gym because you do have to think fast. You are constantly under the threat of people not laughing. Instead of getting hit, people could just not laugh, so you really are trying to mine quickly for the funniest thing you could say in that moment.

If I tried to do comedy for the rest of my career, I would not be very successful.

I think you develop strong instincts when you're a comedian. You have to pay your bills by making people laugh every six seconds... or not. I had to do that for 22 years.

Stand-up comedy is something that you have to strive to do, multiple times a night, every night, to be good.

I haven't been offstage for more than two days since I started doing comedy.

I wasn't properly performing in Canada. I was just starting out, and when everyone starts out, they're terrible. I'm sure there are some Kellyanne Conway videos of me just really dying on a stage.

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.

Comedians have to write to survive because you don't get cast for your beauty.

I never thought I'd end up doing comedy, but actually, it's been something I've really relished the challenge of and ended up doing quite a bit of.

My job is mostly to entertain and be funny.

But long story short, I didn't start doing stand-up because I wanted to have a TV show or be an actor or even wanted to write sketch comedy. I got into stand-up because I love stand-up.

I have no qualifications to do anything else and there weren't any formal application forms you had to fill in for stand-up, so I thought I'd give that a twist.

I kind of thought that stand-up comedy would suffer from the Internet because people seem to know more about the craft of stand-up than ever before. I thought it would seem trite. Kind of like if you know more about magicians, you wouldn't love them.

Beyond any role that I ever had, really early on as a stand-up, I would see actors decide to try it and they would bomb miserably. What I realized was that stand-up, acting and writing are all their own disciplines.

In Manhattan, I often do two or three or more shows a night, so I'm always working on new material.

I never wanted to be road comic.

Comedy is an amazing calling. Once you get that first laugh, it's hard to turn away. Then, of course, you're hooked and you have to learn how to survive in the business.

I just like doing standup, that's all I'm interested in or good at.

Oh yeah, I'd love to be a comedian. I've done a lot, but always in the confines of plays.

When I started stand-up, the first thing I did was to take an improv class.

It seems like when I first started, people got into comedy because they wanted to be good comedians.