Vignesh Shivan Quotes

Whenever I realize I'm being a goofball, I write it down. When I release the joke onstage, I love watching the effect it has on the audience. No one wants to see someone talk who takes themselves too seriously.

There are these showcase clubs where 14 guys will go on in a row and people are laughing at everything, and I'm like - 'I can't laugh that much. That's so weird to me.'

When you improvise, you work off the laughs from the audience, but when you step on stage to do standup, it's silent.

I really loved what I was doing being creative and being funny as a stand-up comedian.

I reserve the right to tell shaggy dog stories or even common jokes as part of what I'm doing. I don't give a damn if half the audience walks out.

As far as guys who perform onstage, I love Chris Rock. I'm kind of jaded on everyone else.

For me, the great joy is to watch an audience watching what I've made. To hear not a peep from the audience at the right moment, and then to hear the laughs and the cheers.

I'm not a comedian, but I love the comedians who know when to get off the stage.

If you became a comedian in the '80s, you had to work the circuit and make people laugh. Canned laughter is cheating.

It's great, because different groups of kids can laugh at each other and still enjoy the show.

I remember once having to stop performing when I thought an elderly man a few rows back from the front was actually going to die because he was laughing so hard.

The important thing, once you get 'em laughing, is to keep 'em laughing until you're through. With a 90-minute feature, you've got to stop the laughter and then pick it up again, which is tough.

You have to learn the crowd. I just pay attention to them so I can make sure I can make them laugh.

When you have an entire amphitheatre of people laughing that way, it makes you feel so funny and it frees you to go further than you probably would.

As an actor to watch an audience of people howl together in a single mind as a result of work you've done together with friends is a privilege.

Years ago, I was performing, and people kept calling out for 'Puppy Love' and I just didn't want to. Then I thought I'd have some fun, so we did this insane heavy metal version of it. The applause was polite.

How can you get bored if the audience is cheering and laughing at something you're doing?

I sometimes use a girl singer the way Henny Youngman uses his violin - as a bridge between one laugh and the next.

I much prefer doing comedy. I get a little paranoid when the audience is not laughing.

I'd rather try and cram in another two gags than leave a pause to say, 'Hey, wasn't that bit funny?'

I do think that the audience thinks it's funny when you break, but if you do it all the time, it loses something.

I still love to walk on stage and make people laugh, and I work very, very hard at it, and I take it seriously.

I love the Comedy Cellar. The audience has no expectations because they don't know me. It's great. It's only winning - if I bomb, they just say, 'Oh, the French guy sucks.' But if I do well, then they remember me.

I do enjoy Dennis Miller, I do enjoy Chris Rock when they do their political humor, but it's never been my goal... I love relatable humor.

Every performer I talk to will, with different words, talk about the sanctity of a good standup show, how it can really feel spiritual. When everybody is laughing, fixed on the same thing, you feel like you transcend yourself.