There's only one rule in stand-up, which is that you have to be funny. Yet 99 per cent of comics look and talk exactly the same.
Interpretation
Stand-up comedy requires humor, but many comedians lack originality despite this rule.
In this quote, Bo Burnham highlights the fundamental requirement of stand-up comedy: to be funny. However, he observes that the vast majority of comedians tend to imitate each other in style and content, suggesting that true originality and unique humor are rare in the comedy scene.
In practice
In a conversation about comedy, one might say, 'As Bo Burnham pointed out, every comedian must be funny, yet many fail to bring anything new to the stage.'
I think it would collapse my heart if I was super famous. I don't have the nerve for it, I'm too anxious. I don't know how you're not obsessed with how people perceive you, because they're real people, you know? You can convince yourself that they don't really know you, and that's true, but how can it not hurt your feelings?
I've found nothing but support and generosity from older comics. I think comedians are a lot nicer than the stigma is, at least from my experience.
My career was exploding at the same time that social media itself was expanding. But when my online videos were taking off, I didn't think, 'Oh, great! I'm going to be able to parlay this into a career!' I just wanted to be a comedian. I just wanted to perform live.
I was definitely not the kid that just wanted to be famous for no reason whatsoever and then happened to find comedy. Fame and all that stuff have always been slightly terrifying to me, and it makes me very anxious.
I'd much rather wait till my material is up to par, in my opinion, than rush it just so I can stay in the limelight a little longer.
Life, to me, doesn't feel like a straightforward story; it doesn't make sense for me to get up there and just tell a story. Life feels like what my show feels like: chaotic and strange and disconnected.
Many years ago I chased a woman for almost two years, only to discover that her tastes were exactly like mine: we both were crazy about girls.
It is well known that humor, more than anything else in the human make-up, can afford an aloofness and an ability to rise above any situation, even if only for a few seconds.
The income tax has made liars out of more Americans than golf.
I sometimes wonder how many of these lifetime achievement awards you can accept before you have to do the decent thing and die.
I've been playing the game so long that my handicap is in Roman numerals.
They all laughed when I said I wanted to be a comedian. Well, they're not laughing now.
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