Don Rickles Quotes

Playing live is basically just hyperactivity and a certain sense of enchantment that I deliver to the audience, to let them know what it would be like to be inside my head.

There's nothing more fun than being out on stage and getting the vibe from the crowd. There's nothing like being on a set where you are there to make other people happy and to make them laugh. That's the best job in the world.

People like the shows I do. I want to be real, to have fun, even when I dance on stage... it's a buzz.

I always had the idea that I wanted to perform. I love being the center of attention - and I always love talking about myself.

If someone has an ability to impress an audience there's a tendency to be tempted into doing just that.

Being a dancer and a singer gave me some advantage with regards to having a stage presence. I always take my timing from the audience because they are half of my act.

I would love to do more TV and do movies for the experience, but my ultimate focus is stand-up. It's the number one thing that I love most because there is nothing like being with a live audience.

Performing live is easy in front of an audience.

At the age of 11 I did my first open mic show, and it was one of those lightning-bolt moments where I suddenly found what I wanted to do.

By now, everyone knows I do not just sing standing in the middle of the stage. I also dance and get others to dance with me.

I don't want to be known as 'oh, Dervla, when she's on stage she's very good but she's terribly dreary', or 'another heavy night with Kirwan.'

I study entertainment and apply it to myself to one day become the greatest WWE superstar we have, and it's a lot of work. So I write jokes and material every day... you have to keep people's attention, one way or another.

I believe in entertaining the audiences with whatever I do.

I like playing in front of the crowd and get them into it.

Some guys like myself, we like to play off the crowd.

When I was in third grade I taught myself ventriloquism... What's hard is to learn to be an entertainer and make people laugh. I was a few years out of college before I felt I had enough material. Then in 1988 I moved to L.A. and started to do some shows at comedy clubs.

Performing is just standing up there and doing something. Performance takes on an edge to it. It has a more dramatic context.

Being performers, that's what we do: We put on shows and want people to watch.

Plus, you know, when I was young, there was a lot of respect for clowning in rock music - look at Little Richard. It was a part of the whole thing, and I always also believed that it released the audience.

Being an entertainer includes knowing how to connect with an audience.

Some of my fans want me to just dance and go crazy and wear flashy outfits.

When I'm gigging, there's an uneasy shift when I pull a puppet out. People look at me aghast and I feel I have about 20 seconds to win them over. You even get the prejudice among other people in your own profession.

Keith Moon is not interested in jazz and won't ever be a jazz drummer because he's more interested in looking good and being screamed at.

I think generally playing live is a crap idea. So much of stage work is the presentation of personality, and I've never been interested in that.

I always liked performing in front of my parents' friends. My dad bought me a karaoke machine, and I would put on a Michael Jackson song like 'Thriller,' and I would come out with, like, a hat and a jacket, and, like, moonwalk in my socks, so I was always performing.