I didn’t choose to be the guy who talks about the mundane – it’s just who I am and it’s what kind of works for me.
I should clarify that anyone that goes onstage and makes strangers laugh is insane. So I am insane.
I think I have a lot of voices in my head and I guess my inner critic is a female.
I don’t know if I’m the husky guy, but I’m the sexy guy who’s a good kisser .
A lot of people are like, “You’re doing commercials?” And I honestly feel like those Sierra Mist commercials are better than a lot of sitcoms I get offered. It’s hard work, and I’m paid a lot of money, and I do it because I love the soda.
There’s a certain balance between finding an opportunity to do what you really enjoy and getting caught up in the flattery of people wanting you to do things.
I spend way too much time on Facebook and MySpace to feel too uncomfortable at this. I like to think of the Internet as an effective way to waste time and time.
I was always told that Hoosier came from when settlers in the state, when a stranger came on their property they’d say, “Who’s there? Who’s there?” So people that were from Indiana were the people that said “Who’s there?” But what do I know? I don’t read or interact with people outside the Internet.
I was the youngest of the six kids, and to make my older siblings laugh, that was very important. I did a great impression of our dad that made them all laugh, so that gave me a lot of power within the family.
Whatever a writer gets paid for his book, it’s never enough. I think that’s true. It’s hard work. But in the end, you wrote a book. It’s something real and tangible that sits on a shelf forever.
For a comedian to kind of catch onto something right as something’s catching on in our culture, a lot of it is luck, and you hope the joke is funny.
People need to write articles and they need to have angles in them and I’m grateful when people are doing articles, but I always say there’s not a great mystery to stand-up comedy.
I don’t want to be a TV star for the sake of being on TV. I want to have a TV show that’s based around my comedy.
It took me a long time to understand not to get caught up in other people’s expectations. It really comes down to creative fulfillment. It took me a while to realize I don’t want to just be on a show to be on a show.
For stand-up comedians that go onstage and get to write and perform and direct, and do all these things, the allure of a television show is still there but if it doesn’t offer a level of creative fulfillment, it’s oddly unappealing.
Comedians rarely have writers, and if you do it’s usually a sign of laziness.
The whole idea of celebrity is flattering – it helps you get into restaurants and stuff – but once you obtain some creative fulfillment, which you do on a nightly basis as a comedian, it’s hard to give that up just to be the wacky neighbor on a show.
As I go on in standup, I keep being described as cleaner and cleaner as I do each hour, they’re like, ‘It’s unbelievable how clean,’ ‘He’s the cleanest person in the world.’ And then I’ll do shows and people will be like, ‘You’re supposed to be so clean, but you’re talking about cancer.’
I don’t think comedians make an active decision to be a certain “persona.” Comedians write the way they’re going to write.
If I was on an airplane, the people in coach would know who I am. But no one in first class would know.