Neal Brennan Quotes

Coming up with comedy is hard, man. Those bits aren't easy to think of!

People don't understand how much time and work it takes to make somebody laugh, and how hard it is to write a script, to put together the story, the characters. When everyone laughs simultaneously, there's no greater feeling.

It's way more fun to tell jokes for an hour than it is to sit in a room and bash your head against the wall trying to think of sketches.

I don't really write jokes down. I tend to have a premise that I work out and test on stage.

Bouncing ideas off people when you're thinking up comedy is great.

Comedy is not funny. Comedy is hard work and timing and lots and lots of rehearsals.

When you have a writing partner and you're writing a comedy, your goal is to make each other laugh.

I don't get up, get dressed, go out, and think, 'Okay, I gotta find eight jokes.'

Generating comic material can sometimes get the better of you.

I start with the joke line and write backward.

I've never sat down and written jokes. I wouldn't know how to.

The first thing you start with when you're trying to write something funny is it has to - it really has to come to you first. I has to be an idea that you have that first makes you laugh, that strikes you as funny.

The hardest part of comedy is writing the jokes, and the second-hardest part is telling the jokes. To me, everything else is significantly easier.

I think, in comedy, you only hit about one or two great characters in your career. Sometimes my character will be just a sketch... what is the funniest situation to put this person in?

I'm not making comedy albums. That's too much effort for one joke.

I always think about my jokes as like I'm driving down a street, trying to go into all the culs-de-sacs along the way. I'm just taking a thoughtful, weird journey.

Usually the beginning of a story that people hear a lot. For example, "My girlfriend is upset about her new haircut" or "My dad keeps losing his car keys." And then I just think of different ways the story could end. "My girlfriend is upset about her new haircut. I don't understand why she's crying. I'm the one who has to get a new girlfriend." Then I try it out on stage. I don't do a lot of re-writing. My jokes either work or they don't. The trick is just to write a ton of jokes.

I never set out to do a sketch show.

As a comic, you try something and if it works you go with it and grind it to death.

There's so much joy in doing comedy work, and that's one of the reasons I like to do it - because it's just a hilarious day at work.

But long story short, I didn't start doing stand-up because I wanted to have a TV show or be an actor or even wanted to write sketch comedy. I got into stand-up because I love stand-up.

If you do a sketch, that's a very short narrative. Stand-up, it's bit-to-bit, minute-long narratives.

You really have no idea whether or not what you're writing is funny. In stand-up and sketch comedy, you know right away and you can make your changes accordingly.

I've had jokes stolen a thousand times. But if you can do it better than me, you can have it. I've had jokes stolen from me in the club when I'm next on stage. And my brain will start to turn, and the gears will start turning, and I'll go onstage and create a whole new bit.

I usually work from the inside out but sometimes in comedy it's fun to work from the outside in.