Todd Barry Quotes

From very early on, I had always wanted to be a stand-up comedian. It was my passion; it was my goal. It was a world I was simply infatuated with. So, as soon as I could, I moved out to L.A. chasing after my dream.

I didn't really get into comedy until a couple months before I started doing comedy.

I really wanted to, but I just didn't understand how people became comedians. I kind of thought it was something you were born into. And so I wanted to be a veterinarian or an architect. I wanted to be in a band, and for some reason I could understand how you could be in a band because I had guitars and all my friends played music. Comedy was a secret want, but it wasn't anything I pursued.

I've been trying to bust into the comedy business my whole life. It's hard in Hollywood to do different things. I know this. It's a struggle.

When I was doing comedy in New York, before I was in movies, I was never known as the deadpan actress. I was just a comedienne.

I've been doing stand-up since '89.

I will always do stand-up, even if my acting career takes off. Stand-up is my life.

I had no desire to be a stand-up comic until I decided to do it.

My mom and dad are both in stand-up comedy, so that's where I started, that's where I got everything. My roots are holding the mic.

In the mid-1970s, there was this huge boom of stand-up comedy throughout North America. I went to see a show at a club called Yuk-Yuks, in Toronto, and I was just fascinated. I ended up coming back for amateur hour on a Monday at midnight and got up there without any thought as to what might come of it.

People who want to do stand-up from the start - I mean that's an extremely self-centred thing to want, isn't it?

I never became a road comic.

I think I probably would have gone into stand-up.

There's a lot of open mics, a lot of comedy clubs. Whatever money I could make was OK with me. As long as I could pay the rent, eat food, and tell jokes, doing it was good enough for me.

I started comedy as a hobby, really, and it still doesn't seem like a proper job.

I used to tell people I was a comic and they'd be fascinated. Now all you get is: 'Oh yeah, my cousin Steve's a comic.'

I have always wanted to do comedy.

I've spent the last few years just really actively pursuing comedy and that's something I always wanted to know how to do.

I think I'm not uber into the comedy scene, but I love to laugh, especially in our business, where you're always front and center over an extremely, sometimes overly-critical live audience. I think it helps to laugh.

Comedians rarely have writers, and if you do it's usually a sign of laziness.

When I first graduated college, I told my parents I'd try to pursue comedy for the first year or two, and if it didn't work out, I'd put my nose to the grindstone and try to find a job somehow. I went to UCB, and it clicked with me.

To succeed in comedy you ultimately have to put in the hours and get lucky - The amount of people who are able to break through is so small a fraction of the amount of people trying.

Comedy - and I say this with humility - comedy needs me.

When you're a comic, it's like being born gay. It's what you want to do every night when your other friends are out at night going to parties.

I like to read, but otherwise I'm just your average, self-obsessed comedian. It's pretty much all I think about.