I think when I was young, let's call it high school, and even before that, I just loved comedy, and I loved comedians. I grew up watching Laurel and Hardy. That's really a long time ago. I loved Jerry Lewis. I just loved comedians.
Interpretation
The quote reflects on the author's early love for comedy and comedians, highlighting their influence on him.
Steve Martin shares a nostalgic reflection on his youth, emphasizing how his admiration for comedians like Laurel and Hardy and Jerry Lewis shaped his appreciation for comedy. This fondness for humor not only enriched his childhood but also underlines the timeless impact of comedic figures in shaping creative pursuits and personal joy.
In practice
This quote could be used in a speech about the importance of humor in our lives.
When I first started doing my comedy act, I just desperately needed material. So I took literally everything I knew how to do on stage with me, which was juggling, magic and banjo and my little comedy routines. I always felt the audience sorta tolerated the serious musical parts while I was doing my comedy.
You want to be a bit compulsive in your art or craft or whatever you do.
I have heard it said that a complicated childhood can lead to a life in the arts. I tell you this story of my father and me to let you know I am qualified to be a comedian.
...it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.
Reviews for someone like me come in three packages. One is justifiable praise, the second is justifiable criticism, and the third is, "This is only published because he's a celebrity."
If he thinks he would harm Mirabelle, he would back away. But he does not yet understand when and how people are hurt. He doesn't understand the subtleties of slights and pains, that it is not the big events that hurt the most but rather the smallest questionable shift in tone at the end of a spoken word that can plow most deeply into the heart.
Wine makes a man more pleased with himself; I do not say it makes him more pleasing to others.
Macduff: What three things does drink especially provoke? Porter: Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine.
All higher humor begins with ceasing to take oneself seriously.
Yes, some people say to me you're too skinny, but never a skinny person says that to me, only people who could lose a few pounds say that.
Jim said that bees won't sting idiots, but I didn't believe that, because I tried them lots of times myself and they wouldn't sting me.
I am so busy doing nothing... that the idea of doing anything - which as you know, always leads to something - cuts into the nothing and then forces me to have to drop everything.
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