Comic Pacing Quotes

Too many comics today ramble. By the time they get to the punch line, the audience has either gone to sleep, gone to the bathroom or gone to bed.

The hardest thing in the world to depict dramatically is stand-up.

As you get older as a comedian and keep doing it, what you actually start to cherish on stage is not the build-up to the jokes, but how comfortable you can be in the silence and the non-laughing parts, and how long you can take the audience without a laugh to then get a huge reaction.

A straight factor is important in any comedy, because you need something to tee it up and also to ground it.

Comedy is the toughest. If it goes little bit here and there, and your partner doesn't cover up for you, then everything can go wrong.

You know, I liken it to - when you write a joke for somebody else, it's like you - you know, like the Wile E. Coyote dynamite plunger, where he pushes the plunger down and then you see the fuse go then there's an explosion in the distance? That's like writing a joke for somebody. When you tell the joke, you're in the explosion.

I'd rather try and cram in another two gags than leave a pause to say, 'Hey, wasn't that bit funny?'

The experience of reading a comic should not be the time it takes to turn each page.

I've always felt that in a comedy script the stage directions should also have a comedic value.

You have to know you are in a comedy. You have to know that you are actually allowing the audience to participate on some level. When you go dark and mean it, then you don't let them in.

A standup set ends on a buildup of tension and subsequent release for a big laugh.

I did try and do some spooky stand up once, and some of my stand-up had - I tried to do some horror stand-up, but it didn't really work very well.

In comedy, if you don't have the right tuning with your co-actor, the humour can fall flat.

I use the cigar for timing purposes. If I tell a joke, I smoke as long as they laugh and when they stop laughing I take the cigar out of my mouth and start my next joke.