Tony Rock Quotes

I never wanted to perform and never proclaimed myself to be a performer.

With stand-up you've just got that one chance. Audiences can be quite fickle.

Now when I say Sophie Ellis-Bextor I feel that's not really me because that's become this entity from doing the gigs and the shows and the make-up contracts and whatever else.

I don't consider myself to be incredibly confident, or really lacking in confidence. When you're on Jonathan Ross' or Graham Norton's show, inevitably there's something to sell. And there's a live audience; you're sat between Cameron Diaz and Tinie Tempah - I don't really see it as 'me.' It would be odd if it was.

Live performance really terrifies me. I haven't done it, really, in years. I think that's why I retired from my brief career in stand-up.

I think I should get a bigger between-the-song persona, so then I'm not wandering around the stage like some mad old auntie that's saying hello to people and falling over.

There's an audience that is paid to laugh at my jokes. I'm playing a character while I'm doing stand-up. Real stand-ups, man, they're playing themselves. I'd be far too terrified.

If you're a comedian, it's a bit of a choice whether or not you want to be funny when you're not performing because it might feel disingenuous. In the same way, I don't show people magic tricks in social situations any more.

I've had plenty of friends tell me that their first time doing stand-up, they do well, and then they tank for a while after that. Kind of like the first time you do a drug, you're like, "Huh! This is pretty darn good," and then you spend all your money trying to get the same high.

I don't want to be the center of attention, which is ironic. I hate having all eyes on me - unless it's for my job, and my job is playing football. I'm not that attention-hungry.

Maybe I just wasn't a show-biz type. I didn't miss performing at all.

I'm not the person in person that I am on stage.

In my stand up, I think I try to be less energetic because I feel embarrassed about how much enthusiasm I have. There's something about acting like I don't care, or if I act like I haven't spent enough time on it, it seems to go better. If I act like I'm really trying to sell it, it doesn't go as well.

I come from a big, loud family, and I'm the quieter one. Performing is something I have to switch on. I've heard I get real sassy onstage, which I'm not in real life! It's fun to be that person for an hour a night.

I think generally playing live is a crap idea. So much of stage work is the presentation of personality, and I've never been interested in that.

If I was going onstage, of course I would talk about it. How could I not?

I did not go into the film business to be symbolized as someone else's vision of me.

It's very difficult when there are pictures taken on the red carpet. I find those things so terrifying that another persona just kicks in. I don't recognise myself.

I don't get stage fright, I actually love the energy, I love the spontaneity, I love the adrenaline you get in front of a live audience, it actually really works for me.

I think if I were to go back on stage I might be in great danger of acting.

I'm always going to be someone that people enjoy watching.

The minute you step onstage, you get eight feet taller.

I don't really feel any different when I get up on stage.

The hardest part, for real, is probably when you just don't feel like going on stage and being funny.

I have to fight to keep my image really me... I rejected some gorgeous publicity shots because they just didn't look like me.