Sarah Cooper Quotes

When you get started in comedy, you're at the bottom of the totem pole. Not only are you not getting paid at these open mics. You're actually paying to do them.

I considered myself a professional comedian because the club would pay me $20.

And of course I didn't make any money from stand up for years, so I had temp jobs. That was the way I made money.

I have a feeling I'm going to wake up one day and say 'I can't do dirty stuff anymore, I want to go all clean.' I'll do clean stuff too, I like to entertain people. Then they egged me on; we shot it at The Laugh Factory.

I did stand-up for a good number of years while I was still living in New York, and those people primarily knew me as 'the kid stand-up.'

I started working full time as a comedian in 2005, shortly after we did the Vince Vaughn 'Wild West Comedy Show.' I worked at the Four Seasons hotel from 1998 to 2005, so about seven years, just trying to put some food on the table and pay the rent while I went out to the open mics and got my feet wet with stand-up comedy.

I first started as an actor, but there was no money in it, which is why I drifted into comedy.

When I booked 'This Is Us,' I had 81 cents in my bank account.

See, I'm totally fearless. I got my chops in the most, like, dangerous comedy atmosphere. If you can make it in New York, you can really do stand-up anywhere.

I wouldn't mind having another shot at doing comedy, but I'm not sure that's the way I'd want to go.

Comedians are always going to be in the showbiz middle class, you're not Brad Pitt; you're never going to be Sam Rockwell or Shia LaBeouf or Leo DiCaprio. You're a comic.

I was doing stand up comedy when I was 11, that's how I got started; not because I wanted to do comedy, but because we were broke, living in Echo Park in Downtown Los Angeles, from 1986, I saw the Rodney King riots; my parents didn't really work. But I wanted a new backpack, that's how I got into this business - I wanted a new backpack.

I'm looking to be the next comedy mogul.

I'm not a politician, I'm a comedian. I know my limitations.

It's depressing sitting at a comedy club all night, waiting to get on to do your five or ten minutes of material.

I first did stand-up when I was 17, and then I passed out fliers for a comedy club (in New York City) and I got onstage whenever I could. And musical theater went out the window as soon as I started doing stand-up.

I've not really been angling to be a comedian. I knew comics and I loved them and I loved being funny, but I didn't understand the whole concept of becoming one. My first couple of times on stage, I was like, "This is what I'm doing for sure." I was so excited.

I got a call from my mom today, she says, 'Well, David, I see you didn't get the 'Tonight Show' again.'

At around 19 I realized that I really didn't have any skills other than making people laugh, so I should probably pursue it full-time.

To me, being brave is an element that is so important with stand-up comedy. It's not essential. There are many comics who were just funny, and that's fine, too. But that's never been what I was trying to do in comedy. I was always trying to do something that involved not pandering to the audience.

Stand-up is something I just truly love to do, so I'll always go back to it. I'll never stop doing it, that's for sure.

Stand-up is a real art form in itself and one that I really think to be good at you have to devote your entire life to. It's the really, really good ones that end up getting to do the things that I like to do: movies, TV shows, and stuff like that. It's a really hard gig and it just never called to me.

It was funny to be an emcee, because you're so at the mercy of the club. You can show up for the weekend hoping to get the $400 - and get fired. I had to prank whoever they told me to prank.

If I could make crazy money just doing stand-up, that's what I would do.