Bill Hader Quotes

I grew up in Chicago and was a huge fan of 'The Second City', so when I moved to L.A., I was looking for anything that resembled that... then I started 'The Groundlings', so I went to a show and it was very much like 'Second City'. I was so impressed that that same night I went backstage and I went up to the funniest person there.

I'd always liked having a laugh with my friends, and I'd done comedy in plays; but then my friends asked me to join this improv troupe and it went well and I started performing with them.

I'm a singer and performer in a hybrid show that's standup, music and audience participation.

In Miami, I was studying improv as well as acting. Improv is a great tool to have, just for the comedic timing that you get. When I moved to L.A., I started taking classes with The Groundlings, and I loved it. I'm definitely in love with improv and comedy.

I love comedy and did a lot of comedy in college. I was in an improv comedy group with my friends.

I love UCB Chelsea. There is, to me, no stage like it.

We come from a live background of sketch improv and standup.

I grew up watching 'Big Train,' these collectives of comedians who knew each other, and as a comedy fan you knew who was going out, who were best friends.

I met a bunch of people and they said, "We're gonna do a show [Second City]." So we would buy the theater out and do a show, and we did that for five years and we ended up becoming popular. It was before sketch comedy was hipster-time - when you would hand out a flier, people would roll their eyes. Now it's kind of cool.

We made 'Shutterbugs' and 'The Illusionators' to play live at UCB.

I wanted to be on 'Saturday Night Live' since I was ten.

Seeing the energy of 'SNL' made me want to be a part of it. If that was a job, I thought, that was the job I wanted. That was my plan. Comedy.

The Second City

I grew up surrounded by sketch comedy.

I was always silly in high school. I used to always get in trouble because I was laughing. I've always thought I was funny but never thought I could use it to make money. In 1996, I decided I was going to use my humor to get on TV to make money.

I love coming to New York. I think I'm going to come really often here. I need to - for the show, for the comedy. I want to do the shows here and have a beer and hang out with the comedians.

People who I've worked with are always like, 'Why aren't you doing comedy? You're funny!' because they've only seen the one side. I did do the comedy 'Whatever Works,' with Woody Allen and Larry David.

Drama is what I'm really obsessed by. It's what gets me up in the morning, what I live for. But I'll always have a love for comedy because it was my first opportunity, and I associate it with my best friends, who I made during 'School of Comedy'.

When I decided I wanted to be an actor in high school, I really went into improv. I took classes at The Groundlings. I studied acting. Did sketch comedy in L.A.

I was the cocktail waitress, and Sandra Bullock was the host, and this guy came in and persuaded me to try improv with Gotham City Improv.

My first improv was Second City in Chicago. Before that, I worked at - with a partner, doing comedy sketches.

New York is almost as important as Chicago, improv-wise.

I thought of Second City as just the greatest therapeutic job anybody could ever dream of having.

Nick Kroll, A.D. Miles, Chelsea Peretti - those were the people I was always doing open mics with.

There was no Groundlings or Upright Citizens Brigade where I was from. Looking back on it, I was trying to do sketch comedy in my stand-up, which is still kind of what I am doing now. To go full-circle here, it's kind of like one-man sketch.