Billy Gardell Quotes

I love being onstage, I love the relationship with the audience.

I don't really like doing big stand-up. Whenever I do theaters, I don't like 'em. I don't think they're right for stand-up. I've seen people in theaters, and it just doesn't work, because you're talking to the guy next to you the whole time.

My stand-up is quite good now, people say. It's just like a big conversation each time. Every gig is a rehearsal.

The best part about being a stand-up is the connection with the audience. There's nothing more gratifying then when you can make 300 people applaud and stand up - because that's all you.

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.

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

Stand-up is live, so I'm used to being live for most of my career. It's interesting.

Stand-up is different from television. In stand-up, you've got to be in control.

Wrestling was like stand-up comedy for me. Every night I had a live audience of 25,000 people to win over. My goal was never to be the loudest or the craziest. It was to be the most entertaining.

I used to first go on to entertain an audience. But now I go, and this is really true - I go on to have fun with a crowd of my chums.

I love making movies, but there's nothing like being in front of an audience.

Doing my Broadway show '700 Sundays' reminded me how much I love working in front of an audience.

Performing live is easy in front of an audience.

I love the stage - the fact that you only have one take to get it right, the interaction with the audience, and how every show is different even though you're doing the same thing.

I think I probably would have gone into stand-up.

Stand-up is still my job. That is the thing I wanted to get into when I was 21. You cannot beat the immediacy of it, making people laugh without any interruptions or edits.

There's nothing like performing for a live audience.

When I'm on stage, it's like a different world ... me connecting with the audience. It's a surreal experience.

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

If I was at the Comedy Cellar at midnight you yelled at the back of the room. But you, for television, play it to the camera because yes you're communicating to the people at home using the studio audience that's right in front of you as a guide for that.

Your only guidepost is your own instinct and judicious editing. In my stand-up act I learned that in the first 10 minutes I could say anything and it would get a laugh. Then I'd better deliver. In the movie it's the same thing. You get a lot of laughs when people first sit down and then the story better kick in. Many years in front of an audience, I would hope, give me a sense of what works.

Well, it's really gratifying to me to have a stage and some bright lights and a microphone. They're tools and opportunities, and to be able to just pull somebody up on stage with me and point at them is a great feeling.

If you're doing stand-up, there is no fourth wall; you're engaging an audience.

I think anybody in front of a crowd is a comedian.

I'm very lucky in that I've gotten to do a lot of things. But if you ever put a gun to my head and said, "You can only do one," I'd think it would be stand-up. I think it's the coolest job in the world.