I've always been funny, but I never considered it as a particular career path until my early 30s, when I realized that hip-hop wasn't going to be the long term.
I'd love to do a really broad comedy at some point.
Beyond any role that I ever had, really early on as a stand-up, I would see actors decide to try it and they would bomb miserably. What I realized was that stand-up, acting and writing are all their own disciplines.
I loved stand-up, but I never thought you could do it as a job.
I am not a joke-teller. Stand-up, I couldn't do.
I knew at an early age that I wanted to pursue comedy.
From the age of 14, I remember thinking I wanted to be a comedian. But that was like saying I wanted to be an astronaut. It felt like a million miles away, something I could never do, but would be great to.
If my career path takes me elsewhere, that's great. But comedy is my forte.
There's a few tunes of mine that don't have jokes, but most of them have a joke and they have a humorous point of view somewhere.
Usually the beginning of a story that people hear a lot. For example, "My girlfriend is upset about her new haircut" or "My dad keeps losing his car keys." And then I just think of different ways the story could end. "My girlfriend is upset about her new haircut. I don't understand why she's crying. I'm the one who has to get a new girlfriend." Then I try it out on stage. I don't do a lot of re-writing. My jokes either work or they don't. The trick is just to write a ton of jokes.
I like New York, I think you've got some of the best comics in the world here.
Comedians really are like a species. That's not to be exclusive. Anyone can kind of become one. You have to pay your dues, though.
Stand-up is the kind of gig that'll show you where you're at.
I'm definitely not frowning on improv; I mean, I've been doing it for years. I just think that there's some styles of comedy that warrant a tighter pace.
I think, in comedy, you only hit about one or two great characters in your career. Sometimes my character will be just a sketch... what is the funniest situation to put this person in?
At the end of the day, I do think I'm happiest doing comedy. I love it. I know that I can do other things. I love drama as well.
Comedians... they're different from actors. There's more ego there. They create the whole thing, I guess, so they're more precious.
I've been a comedian since I was fourteen. But I've never really been a CEO.
There's a glorious sense of freedom in comedy, just allowing myself to tell jokes, allowing myself to interrupt myself and tell old African folk stories that I made up - or didn't - and Jamaican stories.
All of my comedian friends are some of the best joke writers in the world.
I think I'm a good joke writer. I'm also very scared that the last joke I wrote is the last joke I'll ever write.
I'm not making comedy albums. That's too much effort for one joke.
I would like to do comedy. I can be a bit of a Jim Carrey. I was always the class clown.
Jon Stewart hires people that he thinks are funny. That's it. That's the only requirement.
Like every comedian, if I heard a joke that I thought would work, I used it.
