The best advice I was probably given and the best advice I could give someone who is trying to get into the comedy field is to take advantage of every opportunity you have to work to hone your skills.
Bob NewhartRead
There are a lot of questions I keep asking myself about why I do comedy. I guess I laugh to keep from crying. And I guess if you ever get me crying, I might not stop. This is the way I look at tragedy or else I'll cry.
Interpretation
Comedy serves as a coping mechanism for dealing with life's tragedies and sorrows.
In this quote, Bob Newhart suggests that humor is a way to navigate the difficulties and tragedies of life. He points out that laughter can serve as a protective shield against sorrow, allowing individuals to manage their emotions. The act of laughing can help prevent one from being overwhelmed by sadness, hinting at the importance of humor in dealing with life's inevitable hardships.
In practice
In a comedy club when discussing the purpose of humor in life.
The best advice I was probably given and the best advice I could give someone who is trying to get into the comedy field is to take advantage of every opportunity you have to work to hone your skills.
I've always said people say on a dramatic show, 'I was crying. It was so emotional when he went and grabbed that little girl from a burning building and handed her over to her mother.' In comedy, the best thing you can say is, 'I think it's funny.'
Jack Benny was, without a doubt, the bravest comedian I have ever seen work. He wasn't afraid of silence. He would take as long as it took to tell the story.
I've been told to speed up my delivery when I perform. But if I lose the stammer, I'm just another slightly amusing accountant.
I certainly don't delude myself that there aren't certainly more important things to do in life than make people laugh, but I can't imagine anything that would bring me more joy.
I found the most difficult thing when you became successful - when I had the record album, it won Album of the Year - that you were cut off from the source of your material. Your material was everyday people, and you were kind of cut off from that, and you had to work at it.
Just making the crowd laugh is not really doing things for me anymore. That's just knowing how to kill; I've learned how to kill - but also learned when a crowd's laughter is meaningful.
We're lost, but we're making good time.
GNU, n. An animal of South Africa, which in its domesticated state resembles a horse, a buffalo and a stag. In its wild condition it is something like a thunderbolt, an earthquake and a cyclone.
I'm not here to affect you politically or socially. I'm here to make you laugh. I use the news as the palette for my jokes.
Do you know what prepares you for the mental hospital? Being a prime minister's wife.
"Fussy eater" is a euphemism for "big pain in the ass."
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