James Acaster Quotes

People like to compare something to something that they know. Even with Chris Rock, they say he's like Richard Pryor or Eddie Murphy.

Stand-up comics reflect less of a visual humor and more of a commentary.

My humor is channeling everything through my brain. For example, when I talk about something, it's how Richard Lewis feels about it. I'm a storyteller. I do a lot of free association.

I don't have any writers. I never get a laugh with somebody else's jokes. I can't do it justice.

My influences were Woody Allen and Lenny Bruce.

I love funny women. I love writing funny women characters.

There are comedians who focus on everything that is external. They focus on politics and the news, what's going on in that city and that night.

I think funny is just the foundation. I don't really think, to some extent, funny is the absolute most important thing. It should also communicate some idea through the medium of cartooning. Just to be funny is... You know what, the things that you laugh hardest at aren't cartoons.

I'll probably stick to comedy for the time being. I mean, a great piece of work is a great piece of work, and I'm up for good work anytime. But I do love comedy!

First and foremost, I just want to write comedy.

Jon Ronson makes me laugh. I've read all of his books.

Louis C. K. is one of my all time favorite standup comedians.

I think that standup has always been an acquired taste and there was always only a handful of performers that were really inspired.

I am a comic writer, which means I get to slay the dragons, and shoot the bull.

I usually work from the inside out but sometimes in comedy it's fun to work from the outside in.

I started doing my own animated movies when I was in ninth grade; that's when I got the filmmaking bug. When I was about 16, I started writing jokes for doing stand up, and then I was 19 and started doing stand up.

Many of the writers who have inspired me most are outside the genre: Humorists like Robert Benchley and James Thurber, screenwriters like Ben Hecht and William Goldman, and journalists/columnists like H.L. Mencken, Mike Royko and Molly Ivins.

On the comedy side of what I love as a filmmaker are Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, and Eddie Murphy; those are my favorites.

At university, I used to write silly little sketches and monologues, but never fiction.

Unquestionably, standup comedy is and has always been an art form.

Lewis Black taught me stand-up.

I prefer being known for my stand-up because I write it. I love being an actor, and saying other people's words is great. But then, when I do stand-up, I love getting my own point of view out there.

I think the hardest thing to do in the world, show-business-wise, is write comedy.

I can't write a joke. I could never write. I do a lot of stories and I call them stories, but they're just comedy recitals on a given subject.

Comedy doesn't really matter that much; I know that. I treat it like an adult - I don't treat it like a child or a god, which some people do. This might just be in America, but 'stand-up comedy' is something very particular that I don't particularly relate to.