Jo Koy Quotes

There really is no Johnny Carson anymore. There is no one place a comedian can appear and explode.

Every comedian dreams of hosting 'The Tonight Show' and, for seven months, I got to. I did it my way, with people I love, and I do not regret a second.

I became an actor, and because I had success as an actor, I became famous. I was acting for quite a while before I got famous; television made me famous. I guess that it's television that is responsible for everybody's desire to be famous.

You have to wait for a big star to come in and generate interest on a project, and now that has become me, which is an amazing blessing.

I quit doing the movies because the wrestling was going so good and was so on fire during the '80s and '90s, but I was getting all these movie scripts.

It's still amazing to me to walk down the halls of 'SNL.' You see pictures of the greatest comedians we grew up worshiping, basically. It's crazy to be able to still work there.

Like, if you are a celebrity, then anyone will let you be in a film or on a TV show, and if you're an actor, chances are if you are successful, you are becoming a celebrity.

It used to be that if you got on 'The Tonight Show,' your career was made. Now, if you're on 'The Tonight Show,' maybe 14 more people show up to your gig in Tulsa.

Now, as a comic, if you're vaguely amusing you can go straight into TV, then you play the O2 and then everyone's sick of you.

When you get performance slots for award shows - that's a big deal for me.

I am happy that, post-'Aashiqui 2,' I am getting opportunities to work with big names.

I didn't realize how many people watched 'The Tonight Show.'

You don't have to be perfect to be a popstar.

To all my fans who's saying Donald Glover about to blow, just give me six months so you can say I told you so.

Everyone from the pope to some hobo thinks, "I'm a human being. What am I doing here?" You can't get carried away with fame and fortune and all that. It's all nonsense. The whole pop-star side of it is all fun and good, but you don't get anywhere without putting in the hours. I get so fulfilled when we play a song live that we spent hours working on. It's all cool. Fame is something to have fun with, but you shouldn't take it too seriously because it is bollocks.

I'm kind of glad that I was able to properly grow up before becoming a massive movie star.

Fame has killed more very talented guys than drugs. Jimi Hendrix didn't die of an overdose, he died of fame.

My goals were small. My goal was to become a big enough stand-up that I wouldn't have to do radio. I could sell out a club, which is like 300 seats. If I got big enough, I could sell before I got there, and I wouldn't have to get up at 6 in the morning to do radio. That was pretty much the dream. I had no idea I'd be playing Madison Square Garden or anything.

It is the penalty of fame that a man must ever keep rising. "Get a reputation, and then go to bed," is the absurdest of all maxims. "Keep up a reputation or go to bed, "would be nearer the truth.

I like being very busy. I think that's the definition of stardom, really. It's energy. It really is.

If you are going into show business for money and power, forget it! It won't happen. You don't go for that first.

In my life, I've been a movie star, a rock star, and a sports star, all wrapped up into one-and worked harder at it than anybody else.

I've wanted to be a professional actor for years and if you get any sort of success in that field then fame sort of comes along with it. But I don't know if I'm sort of media fodder like other people are. I'm essentially a family man.

I think the main big thing for me has been the acceptance from the U.S. That's still crazy to me. To come over to the U.S. and be a British girl and have all these people know who I am. It's unbelievable and it just seems to be getting better and better.

Of course when people are as talented as Jim O'Rourke or Gene Coleman, pretty soon you know that they're going to be part of the bigger scene anyway.