Jean Cocteau Quotes

The whole thing about working in front of the camera is to make people laugh when they're not supposed to.

Audience laughter, when it's deserved, acts as a sort of fairy dust that makes funny moments not just funny, but joyous.

I am a product... I'm a comedian. I'm not curing cancer. In the end, I tell jokes. I make people laugh. I make sense out of ridiculous situations, but in the end, it's all about laughter. It's all about your cheek hurting, your stomach hurting.

Comedy is very important. For one thing, it keeps you sane. But it's not really a conversion. I mean, it's marginally a conversion, because if people tune in or go to a nightclub or even watch television, and hear that a lot of other people are laughing at something you thought was not funny, at least it'll force you to reconsider.

That's a lovely experience when you make an audience laugh. Then the nerves go away for a bit. And sometimes you do things then that you've never done before that are really funny.

I started out in stand-up, so it's very satisfying to make people laugh, but it usually means at your own expense.

In a way, comedy is like sex. The more noise you hear, the better you think you're doing.

I think comedy's just about being interested in comedy and what makes people laugh and experimenting.

I'm much more interested in making people laugh than getting applause breaks.

In comedy, though, it's good to get feedback from the audience about what they find funny.

The easiest time to be funny is during a fairly serious situation. That way, you can break the ice. It's crazy, but even at funerals, people will get huge laughs.

If you are a great dramatic actor then you often don't know if people are enjoying your stuff at all because they are sitting there in silence. But with comedy it's a simple premise. If it's funny, people laugh. If it's not, they don't.

Laughter is binary: It either happens or it doesn't. As each joke arrives in the course of a film, the cavernous space of the theater is either filled with joy and laughter or with the quiet of cringing embarrassment. Every time you step to the plate to make a joke, you're going to experience one or the other.

I think on 'Third Watch' that I was the comic relief on a lot of that. I mean, I definitely had dark moments, but people tended to think he was funny even if the character himself wasn't having a fun time.

I'm inspired by making people laugh at subjects that should make them cry.

I enjoy making people laugh. The trick is to tell them jokes against yourself. If you praise yourself, your stories aren't funny.

I'm there to make people laugh. I'm not trying to come across as sexy.

Everything I do is intended to make people laugh and think. I just think something is funny, it's not hurting anybody, not stabbing anybody, not shooting anybody, not making anybody watch me perform. There are thousands of comedians, don't come see me because it's not like I hide it.

Some of my fear and anxieties surrounding faith, I think, provides some good comedy for my act.

[Making people laugh] was a secret dream I kept and I didn't tell anybody about it until I was about 18.

It's much easier to write a solemn book than a funny book. It's harder to make people laugh than it is to make them cry. People are always on the verge of tears.

I know how to make an audience laugh, 'cause I grew up on Third Rock from the Sun, week after week in front of audiences, making them laugh.

I had a couple of decent laughs on Townies, but for the most part, delivering a joke that you just know is not funny is hard.

I remember doing a lot of comedy. I always loved that feeling when you do something on stage and you can feel the vibe of the audience turn, and they start laughing. It's how you know something's not right, and how to fix it, or how to make the moment stronger or funnier.

I think the job of a comedian is to make people laugh, but also challenge them to laugh at things they didn't know they could until now.