You don't know what a rough crowd is. If all I have to do is go make people laugh, that's nothing. Let me tell you what a tough crowd is. A tough crowd is going to a morning service and you got six people there and you gotta pay your house payment. That's a tough crowd.
Interpretation
Performing for a tough audience requires more skill than merely making people laugh.
Sam Kinison highlights the challenges comedians face, illustrating that performing in front of a small, unresponsive audience is significantly more difficult than entertaining a large, enthusiastic crowd. This quote emphasizes the pressures of livelihood and the art of comedy, suggesting that true mastery lies in connecting with those who are not easily amused.
In practice
During a comedy show, a performer may reference this quote when discussing the difficulties of engaging an indifferent crowd.
It was great to be the rock comic, the shock comic. But after you've played Giants Stadium with Bon Jovi in front of 82,000 people, after you've done the 'Wild Thing' video with Jessica Hahn and every rock band from hell, you're not gonna top that.
People ask me, 'Have you ever considered doing stand-up?' To me it would be less offensive if someone asked me, 'Have you ever considered dental implants?'
July 4. Statistics show that we lose more fools on this day than in all the other days of the year put together. This proves, by the number left in stock, that one fourth of July per year is now inadequate, the country has grown so
There are plenty of good five-cent cigars in the country. The trouble is they cost a quarter. What this country needs is a good five-cent nickel.
Only laughter can blow [a colossal humbug] to rags and atoms at a blast. Against the assault of laughter nothing can stand.
If I was your wife Sir, I'd poison you! Madam, if you were my wife, I'd let you!
Well, Art is Art, isn't it? Still, on the other hand, water is water. And east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. Now you tell me what you know.
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