'Gremlins' is essential '80s comedy scary viewing.
I want my films to be entertaining: not comedy, but something which is gripping.
I don't like doing things by halves, and I realised you can't do stand-up comedy part-time.
After the Rodgers and Hammerstein revolution, songs became part of the story, as opposed to just entertainments in between comedy scenes.
Everything about starting out in comedy is pride-swallowing, from handing out fliers to bombing in front of audiences.
I've done a lot of comedy recently, so I would really like to explore something else. I am hankering after a really meaty, dramatic role... like Natalie Portman's part in Black Swan.'
In the '90s, comedy was at a very low point, but these days, you've got people like Hannibal Burress, Ron Funches, Maria Bamford - people who can play any club, anywhere.
I'm not a particularly shiny, happy person. I'm fairly cynical, and that's what draws me to comedy.
Before comedy, I worked at a tech company, and before that, I worked on Wall Street. And, honestly, I've never really been sexually harassed.
I think the hardest thing to do in the world, show-business-wise, is write comedy.
I am a big fan of the old Howard Hawks films from the 30s and 40s, I was a big Hepburn and Tracey fan for a while and Woody Allen films that are a very different kind of romantic comedy.
I play these sort of comical instruments I invented, like the electric rake and the electric plunger. I do a lot of almost stand-up comedy material. Just the juxtaposition of the different styles in itself sometimes is funny. Like, I do sort of an acoustic version of 'Purple Haze' that has some bluegrass licks in it.
I did comedy and parody television in the '70s. I was a liberal Democrat, and it was a very heady year.
Comedy is wonderful when you really nail it and you hear people laughing, but it's not always that easy.
To me the goal of comedy is to just laugh, which is a really high hearted thing, visceral connection and reaction.
There are some actresses that can't do comedy; it's too heavy-handed.
Anders Thomas Jensen and I had talked about making a movie which addressed the cancer issue, and we didn't want to make it heavy-handed. We wanted to do something which had a lot of hope in it. And then for some reason we came up with a romantic comedy.
I've been doing stand-up just about every night since I started in 1989. It's my home base. But I'm into doing comedy in all mediums, platforms and situations.
'Buncha Losers' comedy is one of those homegrown American art forms, up there with infomercials and Elvis-shaped soap carvings. No other civilization could have invented it. The French took a stab with Sartre's 'No Exit,' but then they had to ruin it with a lesson at the end.
The one that was most fun was That's My Bush; the part that I did for Comedy Central. That was a hoot. That was more fun that one should be allowed to have.
