Performance Experimentation Quotes

With 'Words, Words, Words,' that show was me experimenting with something, and then there was a clear direction for me.

I like a director who is very observant and is watching what I'm doing and noticing what I'm doing but is giving me time to figure it out. They don't jump right in and give you a note before you've had time to really search on your own with how to do a scene. I like a director that encourages me to be playful.

The idea behind the Anti Tour was people asking me how I would top the 'Aphrodite' tour... I thought the best option was to go completely the other way. I always tried to be that way - sometimes it works and sometimes you fall flat on your face.

Having the security of being in a series week in, week out gives you great flexibility; you can experience with yourself, try a different scene different ways. If you make a mistake one week, you can look at it and say, 'Well, I won't do that again,' and you're still on the air next week.

My experiences in film and theatre in the States have been much more rigorous-in England there's an environment of, Let's try this.

On a film set, for me, there's so much more time to process what's going on than there is on a television set. There's more wiggle room to try things and fail and try again and get to the heart of what's going on in the scene, which is really fun for me. It's what I like to do.

I've always been switching around the show to accommodate the audience, and you know it really makes it a lot more fun for me and keeps it fresh so that I'm not complacent with the same show every night and with every audience.

There is something about a theatre room that is really like a laboratory for trying things and failing, because you have time to do that, and you can explore something deeply and discard it if it's not working.

I was just trying to blend the standup that I do almost with like the visual sketch stuff that I did on "Saturday Night Live." And so in terms of how elastic in the world is, we'll see what we can get away with [in John Mulaney show].

Sometimes the scene is a sad scene but you have to play it with a laugh to find out that that doesn't work or that there's really a part of that in it, and that's what rehearsal is for, to take that time.