Matt Besser Quotes

I think comedy I've learned is really just about relaxing and trusting yourself and allowing yourself to fail.

What all my favorite comedians have in common is extraordinary honesty.

I don't fool myself. I can't see myself doing Shakespeare.

I've been a stand-up comedian for years, and I can be silly.

I will always love to perform standup comedy.

If you do a sketch, that's a very short narrative. Stand-up, it's bit-to-bit, minute-long narratives.

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

If you tell the truth about how you're feeling, it becomes funny.

I suddenly realized that comedy, for me, was just being honest, and playing it for real. I've seen so many wonderful actors who turn into creatures from another planet when they're told they are supposed to be playing comedy.

I don't lecture and I don't grind any axes. I just want to entertain.

Most of my show is true; like, 90% of everything I say on stage is true. I just have to find the way to make it funny - that's the difficult thing.

I always was a writer, but then I wanted to do stand-up because I thought that was a way that I could perform what I wrote.

All I know how to do is take what's on my mind and spit it out funny. I don't know what else I could do besides comedy.

Even in comedy, you have to be real. It's all about being real. It's how real can you be? That's the challenge. How much are you willing to take on for your character?

Everyone has at least one story, and each of us is funny if we admit it. You have to admit you're the funniest person you've ever heard of.

I want really badly to just be funny in a movie but be close to myself.

Comedy has so much to do with honesty, and women can be more open about their emotions.

I love storytellers. When I was growing up, my inspirations were watching Eddie Murphy, Dennis Wolfberg, and Louie Anderson. These guys were great at telling stories, and I made that my own style, talking about things that happened to me and trying to make them funny.

I started mixing my real life stories into my stand-up, and on stage it's much more powerful.

You have comedians who just do jokes, and they're called comics, not comedians. You have comedians that do bits - a person that has a lot of jokes that have a beginning, a middle and an end, but it's not a real story. And you have someone that does great stories, the one that blends those things together - that person is doing comedy.

Probably one of the reasons I became a comedian is that you get a chance to control when people laugh at you.

I strive for honesty because I think that's where the funniest stuff comes from.

You have to be so honest in comedy.

At the end of the day, you're trying to - be it on theatre or on the camera - tell the truth and be honest in the moment.

I thought, 'Anyone can make up a lie, but making the truth funny is really hard.' But I actually had more problems with people believing me when I told the truth on stage.