Aubrey Plaza Quotes

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.

Specifically in stand-up, I love jokes. I love short, structured ideas and a punchline.

My stand-up has always been very character-based. I'm not really the kind of person that's like, 'Hey, here's what's on my mind! Tip your waitress!' I would create the jokes based on the character I was playing. It was always a performance-based thing for me.

A lot of people get into stand-up as a back door into acting or something. But I really like writing jokes and telling jokes.

Stand-up comedy is something that you have to strive to do, multiple times a night, every night, to be good.

When you're doing stand-up, you can comment if something fails, get a laugh from that.

I kind of thought that stand-up comedy would suffer from the Internet because people seem to know more about the craft of stand-up than ever before. I thought it would seem trite. Kind of like if you know more about magicians, you wouldn't love them.

Comedy is an amazing calling. Once you get that first laugh, it's hard to turn away. Then, of course, you're hooked and you have to learn how to survive in the business.

The jokes are great but what really matters for a comedian is his performance, his whole attitude, and the laughs that he gets between the jokes rather than on top of the jokes.

Your number one job as a comedian is to be aware. You're supposed to understand the temperature in the room more than anyone on the planet - that's the whole craft of comedy.

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

I always tell comics you got to hang with your stand-up.

I have a tough time with stand-up because I am an improviser. I can riff; I can do crowd work, so I don't prepare.

Open mics are a great way to rework your material to see what punchlines land best.

In stand-up, you do need to be having fun up there, like Richard Pryor said, but you have to know yourself well, too... You start learning, and it's like playing a piano. You know exactly what keys to stroke, 'cause really, with comedy, you're, like, fiddling with people's souls.

Whenever a young comic asks me for advice I only have two things to say. One is to try and do what you think is genuinely funny and the other is just do loads of gigs.

At the end of the day, stand-up comedy is like acting when the audience are the other characters that I'm acting with.

I don't know any comedian who tailors his act to his audience. Maybe people say they do, but I can't even imagine them.

Billy Crystal knows how to make people laugh. He's got 30 years on stage... there's no telling him what's funny.

I really admire stand-up, and I think I would have loved to learn how to do it. I think it's terrifying and thrilling. A really cool thing to do. It's a dying art, in a way.

Some people use stand-up to get something else in their careers, but it's truly the art form of stand-up I love.

Any comic is a very good actor. Look at Don Rickles. He is saying the same joke every night for 20 years and making it look like he just thought of it.

Being on 'Whitney' is a job, but stand-up is my life. I could never stop. There's an art to it. I love having strangers laugh with me, so as long as I can continue doing that, I'll be happy. Working on a show and collectively sharing ideas with a cast is great, but stand-up is my first love.

When you're doing stand-up, you want to stand onstage and, to the extent that you can, uncomplicatedly entertain.

But I love stand-up, and it's where I came from creatively, so it's something I never want to walk away from.