Ken Marino Quotes

Comedy is the ultimate truth. Jazz is hitting the notes that that no one else would hit, and comedy is saying words that no one else would say.

The only way I was going to be funny was if I was myself, and either you liked it, or you didn't. Either you got on my train, or you didn't. Freeing myself of this idea that I had to fit a certain mold was when I was able to be my funniest.

I just write what I think is funny, or interesting, and hopefully everything else will take care of itself. There's no strategy to anything.

I'd rather play here in this small bar and just do a good show. Because it's fun and there's no expectations, it's encouragement to be different, do something new.

I love to play things that are out-of-the-box. It's just that I don't always get the chance to do it!

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

Comedy is not something that a person can fake or learn how to do.

If you have an impulse, not if you're going to ruin someone elses' scene, if you have an impulse of a funny little add-on or taking something in a weird direction, try it.

The difference between you and the funny person on TV is that they acted on their ideas.

I've always done very 'composed' music and worked-out solos. But sometimes it's fun not knowing where you're going.

If you think something's funny, go with that. Most comedians pull jokes from a place of honesty.

I think if you're trying to be funny, sometimes you're bending a piece of metal in a direction it doesn't want to go. And sometimes comedy just needs to find itself.

When I'm working with improv people, I give them the green light to just bring it and try things.

If you work at comedy too laboriously, you can kill what's funny in the joke.

This band makes sure that we have whole sections of stuff that are free form so that they don't know what we are doing next, that is the fun part of playing. You are playing something that you haven't ever played before.

I ad lib. I've gotta bring my own into it.

The best thing about Mick Jagger is how uncalculating he is. He does what he wants to do and it feels right. He's not a dancer - neither am I.

If something strikes me as funny, I'll put it in my performance.

I like - there's a better word for it, but I like the danger that a comic brings to a role. It has a feeling, even though everything's scripted and everything's planned what you're going to do. When I see Will Ferrell or Sacha Baron Cohen, there's a feeling that anything could happen.

I think probably with any performer, but maybe with rock music especially, the audience wants to see the singer being real, and exploring, and not doing a rehearsed routine, so I'm just constantly looking for new things to try. I'm really curious out there, and my curiosity has led me into all kinds of bizarre situations.

My roots are in stand-up, and stand-up is very freeing. There's no script involved; you just fly.

Improv is a disposable art form, but it's kind of freeing in that way, too, because things can fail, and the audience is a little more forgiving.

It's always fun to improvise.

I come from a much freer kind of performance thing, where I rely on my own improv and my own sense of humor.

If you're contriving something, if you're making something up, it's not funny. You can tell. It's instant. It has to come from someplace real.