Mo'Nique Quotes

Stand-up, for me, is really more of an addiction, so you have to feed the beast whenever you can.

I enjoy stand-up because it has the biggest reward: instant gratification. You can hear the people laughing.

There's nothing in the world like live entertainment. With TV, you have to wait for your results; with live entertainment, people let you know right then and there. That relationship is established in 30 seconds. The first 30 seconds, they'll let you know whether they like you or not.

You really have no idea whether or not what you're writing is funny. In stand-up and sketch comedy, you know right away and you can make your changes accordingly.

When you do see me, you'll get the idea from when you see me that it's all off the top of my head. A lot of it is a beginning, middle and the end. But it's different every night. I have a lot of jokes in my back pocket I've said over the years.

There are jokes I know I want to tell, and there's sort of a rough order, but usually I try to change it up every show, to improvise and talk with the audience. I think when you tell jokes, if you're not careful, you can end up telling the whole list of jokes and then that's it. And that can get a little boring.

There's always something every night that I learn from reacting to what the audience is reacting to. You learn what to leave out, what to put in, if you need a little more comedy or more drama.

When you are doing stand-up comedy, you are the writer, producer, director, sometimes bouncer.

The beautiful thing about stand-up is you can create and immediately deliver, perform, and get paid for what you do.

Jackie Gleason said that comedy is the most exacting form of dramatic art, because it has an instant critic: laughter.

I'm a singer and performer in a hybrid show that's standup, music and audience participation.

For me, the way I stay consistent is through stand-up comedy.

The thing about stand-ups is you can't really get good unless you're failing in front of a large number of people. That makes stand-up comedy unique: you need a tremendous amount of reserve within you to take the rejection from the audience, and without it, you can't do anything.

I never used to tell jokes on stage. Now I'm cutting up jokes all night long.

I think a theater show is a pure version of me doing my material. The theater crowd is a bit more polite, there really aren't hecklers, and there are a lot of people there to see me, and they're excited about the jokes and hanging out with me for a show.

Stand up is really fun because if I think of a joke or a funny idea, then I can just go and tell some people and if they laugh, they laugh right away.

I became a specialist at comedic one-liners.

I'm a comedian first. I've learned how to act. I just draw on life experiences and that's how I've learned. I didn't take classes or anything. I don't need no classroom.

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

Stand-up is my baby.

Stand-up keeps you alive. It is definitely the most specialized field in comedy because you need to stay sharp and well-tuned every night.

I do comedy shows. I make fun of myself, first of all.

I failed to get into drama school, and my best friend told me I should do stand-up instead. I was always doing gags and voices, so he booked a gig for me without telling me. I only had four days to write it. I did a seven-minute set; the first four minutes were terrible, but the last two were amazing.

If you're a comedian, you are looking for material in daily life.

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