Melvyn Bragg Quotes

Denzel Washington has a great sense of humor. He did all those 'Nutty Professor' movies.

I'd heard Joyce Grenfell on the radio, and when Mum gave me a book of her comic routines, I just loved it. Me and my sister shared a bedroom, and every night I'd drive her mad with my version of 'George, Don't Do That' about people we knew at school.

I've been obsessed with David Letterman forever, and I'd love to be the drag version of David Letterman.

The genius of the Marx Brothers is for parody. They never are themselves. They exist too abundantly to be content with being that - they must go on, by the rapidest of transitions, to being something else. Groucho, in my opinion the bright star among the three, is never anything but the thing he is at the moment pretending to be.

Daddy was hilarious. He could take the most mundane event and tell it so that we all on the floor laughing. He trained me in the joys of humor.

I'm not an impersonator. I'm a lousy impersonator, actually.

I think impersonation is a great art. It's something that I enjoy doing, in a frivolous and lighthearted way. But I don't flatter myself to think I'm an impersonator.

When I go and speak now at all sorts of conferences, later in the night there's always a better Maxie Walker than me. Billy Birmingham's legendary for basically being able to verbally kneecap any of a number of Australia's characters, particularly in the commentary box.

I have a weird sense of humour. My dad's the same. We love watching 'Monty Python' together.

Everybody just told me from the day I went into high school that I looked like Carol Burnett.

I had seen movies before that that had made me laugh, but I had never seen anything even remotely close to as funny as Richard Pryor was, just standing there talking.

When you saw Jon Lovitz or Dana Carvey or Phil Hartman doing something, they were acting. It was real acting. Like, they were acting like that person. They weren't like - it wasn't even like they were really trying to go for a laugh, especially in Phil Hartman's case.

Bill Hader does a really good impression of me.

I'm a huge Groucho fan. There were some great comic minds that would transfer into any generation, and Groucho is certainly one of them.

I love practical jokes and humor. That there's frankly no joke that I don't think is funny. I love practical jokes, but I don't like being scared.

I did theatrical caricatures.

I was just the perfect person to play the Mini-Me character.

The irony is of course that my career has lasted a whole lot longer than some of the people I've parodied over the years.

Robert Benchley has a style that is weak and lies down frequently to rest.

Amy Sedaris makes me laugh harder than anybody.

My sister Kim is like Lucille Ball. She's magical in terms of her performance and her writing.

I don't write punch lines.

Most drag impersonations are a drag. But women can like Geraldine, men can like Geraldine, everyone can like Geraldine.

Comedians are obsessed with justice and the truth.

I'm not an impressionist, per se, but if you do any kind of comedy - and they ask you to do that, most of the time - there's some degree of appreciation, I think, involving somebody you like.