Tony Bennett Quotes

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.

When you're onstage you have a certain faith that somebody's gonna yell somethin' back. Some nights it's louder than other nights and some nights they do, and on some songs they don't. But that's the idea. I think when you begin to expect a reaction from an audience, it's a mistake.

As rewarding as a good film role can be, there is just nothing like getting up on a stage and taking an audience for a ride.

I was always the lead role in plays. I like entertaining people. I like when you're on stage doing crazy stuff and the audience gets it.

I did comedies for 10 years and I learned a great deal.

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

With Twitter, you just want to make people laugh in their meeting; on stage, people have paid for their tickets with their hard-earned money, so I owe them the truth as I experience it.

I was the class clown in school, and I was also a child actor - not on television, but in the theatre.

I love working in theater because it's such a challenge to have the audience right there in front of you. If you mess up, you have to figure it out and keep going. There's no take two! I do hope to return to the stage someday. I really love to sing.

Anytime you give a man in a wig a microphone, anything can happen.

The stage is a training ground and it's where you learn what's funny and what's successful.

You have to channel the interpretation and performance into 100 people. And with the audience, the critics.

I love to work. I love doing standup.

Acting is all about big hair and funny props... All the great actors knew it. Olivier knew it, Brando knew it.

When you are doing stand-up comedy, you are the writer, producer, director, sometimes bouncer.

In theater, there's a lot of work to do to build the characters. It's a great experience.

When I do an hour-and-a-half show, if I don't improvise 20 minutes worth of new material each night, I feel I've let myself down.

A live audience with live reactions feeds a different sort of acting that will then inform your film work, and vice versa.

I don't think I'm an entertainer. I never think, 'Wow, I can't wait to get the crowd moving.' Some of my favorite bands never moved an inch.

I was born to do sitcoms, where you get an immediate response from the audience.

Jackie Gleason said that comedy is the most exacting form of dramatic art, because it has an instant critic: laughter.

Whenever I realize I'm being a goofball, I write it down. When I release the joke onstage, I love watching the effect it has on the audience. No one wants to see someone talk who takes themselves too seriously.

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

Acting is like free therapy! Trying to make people laugh or cry can be inspiring.

It's a tremendous feeling walking on to a set with a live audience and making them laugh, but I love drama, and I love drama where there's the ability to bring comedy into it because in a lot of tragic circumstances in life there is comedy to be had.