Ivan Reitman Quotes

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

Comedy is difficult for an actor. But I think I have a good sense of humor and manage to make people laugh and make them happy.

Some actors try to play parts and do things they can't do. Being funny is one of them. Being funny's hard.

It's really challenging to play comedy.

Michael Bates was a very funny actor; he'd served in India, could speak Urdu, and had great comic timing.

I think comedy is one of the hardest things to pull off. You either have timing or you don't, and that's something I don't have for sure.

I enjoy comedy and I hope that people enjoy watching me do it.

A lot of people who do drama say comedy is the hardest thing, but, not wanting to sound like a bighead, comedy is easy for me, as I've always been fairly funny.

James Caan told me at the end of filming 'Elf' that he had been waiting through the whole film for me to be funny - and I never was.

Rhythm and timing are so important in comedic acting.

I try to direct myself the way I direct the other actors who come on my show.

Playing King George, for me, was a lesson in stillness and timing.

The film I did with Bobby De Niro, 'The King of Comedy' - an awful lot came to me out of that movie because De Niro never allowed me any room to be crazy. If I had tried to play it the way I would normally play it and get hysterical, Bobby would punch me.

I am genuinely interested in comedy and I know that I have good comic timing as well.

I think Kangana Ranaut has a great comic timing on screen. Also Kirron Kher. I think she is fantastic.

For me, rehearsal is only about blocking and pacing; it's not about performance.

As much effort it takes in nailing great comic timing, it takes the same effort to ace any dance step or a romantic dialogue. All of them have their different space.

A lot of things matter in comedy - the script, the lines, your timing, the co-actor's timing, how it's shot.

Hrithik is the go-to guy for queries related to diet. He is great with expressions and is funny in real life. I wonder why someone hasn't cast him in a comic role yet.

Comedy's easy for me now - it's all about timing and the way you deliver lines. I use facial expressions to get the point across.

I've never been funny. I don't think I'm funny. People say I'm funny. I go, 'No. No. I'm not.' But again, knowing what it means to film on a TV show and on film, you have to repeat, repeat, repeat. You have to do the same thing a number of times if you're filming a sequence. And to carry that energy in a comedic mode, would be a challenge that I really would frightfully scared, but I'd have to buck up and pull up my bootstraps and say, 'I can do this. Let's figure it out.'

The timing of comedy is so difficult. You've got to leave room for a laugh, you don't want to kill the laugh, but on film, you can't just suddenly stop for a laugh and then carry on. So, I think it's a real art form, comedy on film.

Comedy is tragedy plus timing.

Comedy is more difficult than drama. I think it's really difficult to make someone laugh because people have very different comedic sensibilities. In drama, you can get away with being a great actor and surrounded by great actors and having good writing. But in comedy you have to listen and you have to perform with a certain rhythm, because if you don't, it's like playing a wrong note in the orchestra and you can hear the off key and it will fall flat and you won't get that instant response.

I was always sort of a ham as a kid, just always wanting to entertain and to get people to laugh.