Adam Conover Quotes

There isn't a comedian in the world that hasn't bombed.

Years have passed since I have set foot in a comedy club. If the comic is doing badly it's painful, and if the comic is doing brilliantly, it's extremely painful.

As a comedian, you have everything working against you.

I always think stand-up is the most brutal environment for a comedian.

The toughest thing for me is doing on-camera stuff as a comedian.

It's hard to get laughs when you're new.

The toughest nights when I was a young, unknown comedian were opening for these real old-time Italian singers. I'm like Grace Jones to them. "This guy is nuts-talking about socks. Where's the wife jokes, where's the fat jokes?"

You worry about whether you are match-fit, coming back to the stand-up stage.

It's painful for me to watch someone who isn't funny. It's horrifying to sit in the back and watch some guy who just totally sucks.

I could never do stand-up because it's that thing of having to get up on stage. And out of every 10 jokes you tell, nine of them have to get a really good response.

Everything about starting out in comedy is pride-swallowing, from handing out fliers to bombing in front of audiences.

When you're going for a joke, you're stuck out there if it doesn't work. There's nowhere to go. You've done the drum role and the cymbal clash and you're out on the end of the plank.

I work in a hostile atmosphere, and my voters are the only strength I have.

You can't be a proper comic unless you've been out on stage and felt the fear.

I'm not saying writing comedy's brain surgery, but there is a certain pressure to it. It's the equivalent of doing homework that's going to end up on national television.

Doing drama is, in a sense, easier. In doing comedy, if you don't get that laugh, there's something wrong.

Most actors are insecure enough already without having a director who adds to that.

I don't have any horror stories of trying to start as a comedian and eating it constantly on stage.

Stand-up's hard. It's one of the hardest things in the world, and it's really lonely.

Everybody in comedy has something like that happen to them: They bomb, or no one shows up. You're like, 'Hey, I'm funny, trust me!' And the world collectively goes, 'Yeah, you and everybody else.'

I hate going into the audition room. I find it the most nerve-wracking, inhumane experience, and I think it's such an inhospitable environment to give an honest account of the character and, I guess, your ability.

Some actors are frightened and concentrating so hard on their own performance, you don't feel that anything you do makes any difference. They're just kicking a ball against a wall, so to speak.

I love the Comedy Cellar. The audience has no expectations because they don't know me. It's great. It's only winning - if I bomb, they just say, 'Oh, the French guy sucks.' But if I do well, then they remember me.

There's a fear when you're a comedian of just being hectoring, so you do try to fight against that.

There are many problems with being a comedian: the travel, the late nights, the pressure, the fear of running out of funny things to say.