Collaborative Comedy Quotes

Mel [Gibson] could stage physical comedy and put the camera in such a way... I mean, we did some really funny stuff, and he had some great ideas about how to do it. It was a delight to work with him in that regard.

Some shows, like PPG, tape in a group session, which is always more fun because you can play off each other.

I think writing in a group, even though it can be a challenge - you have to be on your toes all the time - is the way the best comedy gets written. It's very, very collaborative. A lot of comedy writers are definitely introverted nerds.

Instead of improvisers who want to be funny by themselves, we aim to try and make the scene itself as funny as possible. As a creator, I think that's someone you'd rather work with, whether it's a movie or a sitcom; that kind of methodology is good for collaboration. People want to be with those kinds of performers.

What I found most fun is just trying to get other people to crack up. That's always something that will help a movie and I've been lucky enough to have been able to work with some incredibly talented, collaborative comedy people in all of the stuff that I've been in. If you can get people laughing, cast or crew, you're going to have a good end product.

In the world of comedy, having a partner is not the most unusual thing.

I would love to interview Michael McKean and his wife, who wrote the songs for 'A Mighty Wind,' which is my favorite Christopher Guest movie. I'm just a sucker for any funny guy that has a wife who is intelligent and that he collaborates with.

I have been lucky enough to work in all kinds of comedy. I prefer working with other people. I could never do stand-up.

I'd say any good set or any comedy that I've worked on, that's worked, has been comedians pitching ideas back and forth to each other. A lot of like, 'What if you say this? What about this?'

There's no gap between the writer and the performer, which is what I think makes [Monty] Python unique. Five or six people who write Python and five or six who act it. That's what makes it unique.