Lisa Lampanelli Quotes

Part of doing stand-up is to get things off your chest. It's a bit like being in a psychiatrist's chair - but more enjoyable.

Comedians are therapists. People honestly think we're doing it for ourselves. No. If we wanted to do stand-up for ourselves, we would perform in front of a mirror and never go to a club. We are giving this away. Some people are going through so much in their lives, they want to hear something else that's going on in the world and laugh.

There's something about doing stand-up that's cathartic.

The more pain that's referenced or implied, the deeper the laugh can be because the laughter heals the pain. So you've got to have the pain, and then you have the laugh.

Sometimes the very best way to deal with unpleasant things is to depict them in ways that allow people to laugh at them and destroy the power of unsayable things, rather than refusing to acknowledge them.

Good comedy can be liberating, and if I'm doing my job as a comedian, part of the joy for the audience is getting that release.

All the greatest comedians use comedy and humor to release pain and sadness, and I think that instead of wanting to live within my pain, or live within my sadness, I try to be funny and look at things with a funny view.

A comedian is not funny unless he is taking his demons out for a walk.

The only difference between comedy and drama is that, in comedy, I'm going to utilize the tool of creating laughter to deflect discomfort and, in drama, I won't use a tool, but we're going to actually deal with the discomfort and see what comes out of it.

I'm kind of a rebound junkie. So. when a relationship goes sour, I look at the sweetness in life elsewhere. So, I date a bit. The best catharsis is to write jokes and tell 4,000 people about it.

I am a passionate believer that comedy is a way of tackling some of the most dark and difficult aspects of being a human being.

I think that some laughter comes from escaped horror, doesn't it?

It's a positive thing to talk about terrible things and make people laugh about them.

The quickest way to defuse fear or insecurity or anger is usually humor. I think comics figure that out quickly, and, once you figure it out, you think, 'Hey, if I can do this and get paid, that would be kind of cool.'

I'll say things that are serious and put them in a joke form so people can enjoy them. We laugh to keep from crying.

Some forms of reality are so horrible we refuse to face them, unless we are trapped into it by comedy.

Everybody kind of looks to comedians and comedy for relief and a fresh breath about what is going on in the world.

Comedy is free therapy. And if it's done well, the audience and the comic take turns being the doctor as well as the patient.

I'm inspired by making people laugh at subjects that should make them cry.

I remember seeing Richard Pryor's first movie; it was a midnight movie when I was in high school. I must have been about fifteen. It was one of the most cathartic experiences of my life. I'd never laughed that much.

As comedy presents the vital rhythm of self-preservation, tragedy exhibits that of self-consummation.

If I can make someone laugh, I lift them out of their fundamentally tragic existence.

Even the worst comic is at least somewhat entertaining, if only in a pathological way, for five minutes.

I realized that I really enjoy writing comedy, and how important comedy is when you feel like total crap.

Comedy is the blues for people who can’t sing.