Cristela Alonzo Quotes

As much experience, education and awareness as one can attain is important for a comedian.

When I started stand-up, the first thing I did was to take an improv class.

The best advice I was probably given and the best advice I could give someone who is trying to get into the comedy field is to take advantage of every opportunity you have to work to hone your skills.

I was inspired by people telling me I should be a comedian. I tried it and had a really good first set, so I was like, 'OK, I'll do this forever'.

I did so many open mics. I would write jokes on Twitter constantly, and then slowly, over time, open mics turned into shows. If you can get a joke to work at an open mic, it's a good joke.

I actually credit Twitter with fine-tuning some joke-writing skills. I still feel like I'm working at it.

I wanted to make a living, but I really was not interested in money at all. I was interested in being a great comedian.

The ability to workshop in stand-up comedy is incomparable to any art form, in my opinion.

In Manhattan, I often do two or three or more shows a night, so I'm always working on new material.

I've seen other comics, with great pleasure, watching their own specials, and I don't know how or why they do it.

You learn timing on the road. You learn structure and how to read an audience. You learn so much about the business of laughter that you can't learn on a set, because it's all on you. Sometimes you bomb, and you know not to tell that joke again... You just hope people find the humor in the awkwardness.

My goal is just to become a better comedian.

The only way to stay sharp is to do live shows. There is no part-time comedy.

I know that, as a comedian, I've made great strides because I've worked as hard as a person can work at being at least wildly amusing.

Being able to write jokes is great, but you still have to get used to performing them and being on stage - and enjoying being on stage, not just like tolerating it.

I'd been doing standup since college.

People who have heard of me have heard of me mostly through presenting and asked, 'Why have you gone into comedy?'

Before I started doing standup, I knew that I had what it takes to develop an act. I went down to clubs with not many people there, and I just worked on it, man. A lot of my friends are comedians, so that part had a lot of encouragement, even though the shows were very caveman-like.

I continue to do standup because there's a connection with a live audience - there are skills that you do learn as a standup comedian that help you on a set.

Typically, when you're with your friends, premises are coming up left and right. But when you're on stage, you must create the premise. So you have to create the premise, paint the picture and then deliver the punch line.

The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it... try to fake three laughs in an hour - ha ha ha ha ha - they'll take you away, man. You can't.

Writing your own jokes, you just kind of keep working on something until you think it might work, and then you try it out and hope for the best.

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

For comedians, we're all kind of tweeting our thoughts instead of spending time developing them. You can gauge how good a joke might be by how many times it gets retweeted, but it takes discipline to go back through the tweets and then develop jokes from them.

I see myself as a comedian rather than a female comedian. I happen to be a woman, but I am a comedian by trade.