Anna Akana Quotes

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.

The first night you walk down to a comedy club, at least for me, I had my voice, and then I went on stage and I lost it.

Being a comedian is an incredible thing, but it can be scary sometimes.

The very first time I did standup, I went to an open mike on the Lower East Side at a place that doesn't exist anymore. And it was one of those open mikes that wasn't really just for comedy.

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

I'd like to go back to standup. I don't like to think I've done my last gig. At the moment it terrifies me, I get really nervous. It's a great buzz when it goes well.

I would like to get back to making people laugh. Before drama school, I did nothing but comedy.

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.

Mama is my chance to be a stand-up comedian. In my mind, it's my chance to be Chris Rock.

I can't claim to ever have done stand-up.

My first joke that ever aired on 'Late Night' was for a list of 'Top 10 Least Popular Summer Camps.' My contribution - 'Camp Tick in beautiful Lyme, Connecticut' - squeaked in at No. 10. Like a trip to Camp Tick, my time at 'Late Night' faded into memory like a short session at a dicey summer camp.

I have to do stand-up. I have to do something comedy-involved every day, or else I will lose my mind.

My first stand-up experience, like most comics, was horrible. I got booed offstage. I thought I was funnier than I was. But the walk from the back of the room to the stage was the most excited I'd ever been about anything in my life other than kissing a girl. That's how I knew I had to get back onstage and do it again.

It's tough to do comedy. After 'Mister', my inhibitions with respect to comedy have come down.

When I was in third grade I taught myself ventriloquism... What's hard is to learn to be an entertainer and make people laugh. I was a few years out of college before I felt I had enough material. Then in 1988 I moved to L.A. and started to do some shows at comedy clubs.

I started performing as a stand-up comedian on my own in the mid-1990s.

Some people use stand-up to get something else in their careers, but it's truly the art form of stand-up I love.

You say a line and you wait for them to laugh, then you say another line and you wait... It felt weird to me. But it's interesting and the energy is almost like theatre, I suppose, with all the people there.

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

Stand-up is the kind of gig that'll show you where you're at.

To get a job where the only thing you have to do in your career is to make people laugh-well, it's the best job in the world.

But I love stand-up, and it's where I came from creatively, so it's something I never want to walk away from.

The first time I did stand-up was the summer I was 17.

I did standup while still working for Johnny Carson in the mid-'60s, thus gaining the advantage of at least getting laughs from him about how I hadn't the night before.