You can't study comedy; it's within you. It's a personality. My humor is an attitude.
Don RicklesRead
The young comedians always ask me, 'What's the secret for staying around?' I tell them, 'There is no secret - just stay around. Longevity is the most important thing.'
Interpretation
The key to success is simply to continue being present and active in your field.
In this quote, Don Rickles emphasizes that there is no magical formula for achieving longevity in one's career, especially in comedy. Instead, he points out that the most crucial factor is to remain consistent and persistent, suggesting that mere presence and the willingness to continue performing are what ultimately lead to lasting success.
In practice
In a graduation speech to encourage students to stay dedicated to their paths.
You can't study comedy; it's within you. It's a personality. My humor is an attitude.
When I was a younger guy doing comedy, it was a big struggle. Promoters canceled me out of clubs left and right when I called somebody a dummy or a yo-yo. Then they realized I was different.
I think if I took therapy, the doctor would quit. He'd just pick up the couch and walk out of the room.
I think a rotisserie is like a really morbid ferris wheel for chickens. It’s a strange piece of machinery . . . We will take the chicken, kill it, impale it, and then rotate it. And I’ll be damned if I’m not hungry! Because spinning chicken carcasses make my mouth water! I like dizzy chicken. With a side of potatoes of some sort.
...it is not necessary to the child to awaken to the sense of the strange and humorous by giving a man a luminous nose...to the child it is sufficiently strange and humorous to have a nose at all.
People assume when my hair is long that I am a lot cooler than I actually am. I am not opposed to this misconception, by the way, but it is a misconception.
I just want a hot cup of coffee,black,and I don’t want to hear about your troubles.
It is a very inconvenient habit of kittens (Alice had once made the remark) that whatever you say to them, they always purr.
He didn't look like a soldier at all. He looked like a filthy flamingo.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.