Stephen McCauley Quotes

I come from the theater, where the response to your work is immediate, and I suppose there's a part of me that still craves that.

There's nothing in the world like live entertainment. With TV, you have to wait for your results; with live entertainment, people let you know right then and there. That relationship is established in 30 seconds. The first 30 seconds, they'll let you know whether they like you or not.

I like working on stage because there's something very immediate about it, that interaction with an audience where you immediately hear their reaction, or feel them, whether they're with you.

Theater is just so much more satisfying than film or television just because you deliver the whole thing from start to finish in one evening, and you can tell if people have enjoyed it or not. That's great to do every night to go in front of a full room of people and tell the story. There's nothing like that really.

Theater is like boxing - having the audience ringside. It's instant gratification. Or horrification.

With stand-up you've just got that one chance. Audiences can be quite fickle.

There's something about that relationship between actor and audience. Whether you get it on Broadway or in a fine local playhouse, there's no greater drug. Every time I get to do TV, film and a play in the same year, it's my dream come true.

I don't know, on a sitcom, and in theatre especially, you have to really be listening to an audience. And if you're losing them, you can hear the sniffs, and the playbills shuffling and whatnot.

Stand-up keeps you on your toes because it's instant. With TV and movies, you have to wait for the numbers to come in to see what happened at the box office. With stand-up, it's right there, that night, in your face.

There's nothing more fun than acting on stage with a live audience and that immediate feedback.

There's something about being in a house with an audience, and having that immediate feedback. I started acting because of that energy; it's what feeds me on stage and informs my choices.

Theatre is immediate gratification.

Acting... was the biggest charge I ever had. What other artist has it so good? Approval so quick?

That's the weirdest thing about television for me is that you're getting feedback in the middle of the work.

There is nothing to compare with the instantaneous feedback a singer gets from the people sitting in front of him. That is where it all comes together - all the rehearsing and working to get everything just exactly right.

We as comics do want an immediate response from the audience. It's really quiet on the set, and there are only the producers, and the director, so a comic is looking for someone to give a reaction, even if it is the camera guy.

The stage is that immediate rush of energy you get from the audience. Also, doing something in chronology - something that starts and finishes the same night. In television, you work toward the one scene, you shoot it, and then you have to forget about it because you have to worry about the next scene.

I love the immediacy of an audience being there and reacting. I'm spoiled, having grown up in theater.

It's nice to get the feedback from a theater audience. It's a gas.

The live performance aspect of shooting a multicamera sitcom is wonderful. You have that instant audience reaction.

In theatre there is a certain discipline that you have to follow, and you have to be experienced to be performing in front of a live audience. It is satisfying to me.

The stage is bigger than life. There you are projecting to an audience. In television, you're drawing the camera in to you. And with TV, there isn't that immediate feedback from an audience. You do hours and hours of taping and never get that response.

When I am composing in a studio, I cannot gauge what the audience feels. Sometimes, good songs don't get the recognition because the films fail. But when you are performing live, the reaction is immediate.

Every single performance of 'Fleabag,' I would learn so much from the audience reaction or how you could change it all the time, and I loved that sense that the performance is ever-growing and changing and could be affected by the audience.

I've done theater most of my career, and I get to see the reaction of the audience right after the show.