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.
I was able to make the jump to theaters without having a TV show. My passion for getting a TV show just plummeted. It was like I had already achieved what I wanted to achieve.
It’s a balancing act of you feel horrible that you’re away but there is something about the road that is rather liberating.
There are a lot of good looking men on this planet. It seems like once a week someone will tell me, “I know someone who looks like you” and I don’t know what say to them except, “Tell them hi.”
Comedy is a very lucrative business now, but when everyone first went into it, it didn’t make sense from a financial standpoint.
Twitter allowed me to talk about parenting in short snippets and find out what I really wanted to say about it, which is that I’m a dad who had no idea what he’s doing.
I personally have no interest in being a star or a celebrity. I want my stand-up comedy and how I think as a comedian to be recognized and successful.
We tend to outdo ourselves.
Television’s very much a writer’s medium, as it probably should be, but if you’re not the writer, then as the performer, you defer to that. It’s just kind of how it’s constructed. Is there some leeway? Yeah. But I also don’t want to come across as a jerk.
I’m kind of like a guy who’s missing a little bit of the guy gene. Like, I love steak, but the notion of golfing is the last thing I would want to do. I love women, but I’m also a mama’s boy, and some of my best friends are women. So I’m kinda half guy’s guy.
I don’t have any delusions. I’m not a novelist – I’m a comedian who writes. I love doing the stand-up and the touring and the albums and all that, but it’s pretty amazing to go into a library and see your book there.
I’m a guy who comes from a small town in the Midwest. It’s not in my nature to say the most explicit things in public.
I’m not a foodie; I’m an eatie. I don’t have anything against foodies. I just don’t have the time or the interest to do that much research.
I’m much more interested in making people laugh than getting applause breaks.
I’m there to make people laugh. I’m not trying to come across as sexy.