I just had a throwaway part, really, if you think about it. I'm not a natural actor, you know? I'm a comedian, through and through. And I really love my lines. Those are the lines I want to do.
I was considered by my peers to be a good comedian. So that's all I ever strived to do was get some recognition from my peers.
Every male comedian of note who is over the age of 45 has a kid, and they talk about it and don't get grouped as 'dad comics.'
I'm a Brooklyn guy onstage, and I try to really feed my fans with the kind of material they expect from me.
I'm not a political comedian. That's just not what I do.
I never planned to be a comedian. I don't consider myself one now.
When I became a standup comic, my hero, one of them, was Richard Pryor, and you know, I think that comedians, like, comedians talk about hacks, and what a hack is, is someone who does stuff that's not original.
I'm funny. I'm a comedian. I'm not a clown.
Genuinely love doing standup and I'm a comedian first, so for me what makes my standup special is the fact that I don't have to adapt or adjust. I am who I am. I appeal to everyone, hence in the movie doing a world tour.
Any comedian who tells you how dark and dangerous they are, they're not dark and dangerous.
I never saw myself as a comedian. I saw myself as a guy who can act funny.
I don't consider myself a comedian because I don't really concern myself too much with jokes.
I don't think a comedian should even be concerned with being cool or sexy, as soon as you do, you aren't a comedian any more. Looks are still the most important thing for women when it comes to meeting a partner. And that's fair enough, but a sense of humour is really important too. For starters, it's a great indicator of whether you are going to get on. If the first time you go on a date you don't find each other funny, there's a fundamental problem.
I often think it can often be very difficult for comedians to revisit the same gag. I think Russell's a bit more than a comedian.
I wouldn't call myself a standup in the presence of Jerry Seinfeld or Chris Rock, but I do my share of it and it has been and remains part of my activity and I like it.
I think comedians get too much credit or too much criticism for the style of comedy they do, and they generally do the style of comedy that works for them. [...] There's no kind of shrewd calculation going into the type of standup we all do. It's like David Cross is supposed to be doing the David Cross' type of standup.
Steven Wright can do Steven Wright very well. Not everyone can do Steven Wright's jokes with the same results.
I've never seen myself as a victim because of my physicality. If I did play that game, I wouldn't be the comedian that I am.
I always fancied myself more of an actor than a comedian before I realized that only assholes make that kind of distinction.
I guess the one-liner kind of comic sounds like a guy who can talk and talk and whatever the subject is, he can pull out a one-liner, but I couldn't do that. I didn't like the association. I mean, I love Steven Wright, but so many people started saying "Steven Wright" to me, and I would get mad, because I never wanted to be thought of as copying anybody.
There's no one on the road that I tried to pattern myself after. There's no one in history that I tried to pattern myself after. Because one thing I was told that in standup you want to develop your own voice.
If you watch the arcs of so many comedians, at some point, they just become themselves.
I don't know, I find that honestly, the stand-up thing in some ways is a little bit of a cliche to carry around, because people don't consider stand-ups really actors.
The truth is, I've never thought of myself as the Michael Jordan of comedy. And that's a good thing. You know why? Because I'm not. Wasn't that Richard Pryor? Yes, it was. I know what I am: I'm funny!
I'm wildly different than Maria Bamford or Sarah Silverman, and might be more similar to some male comics.
