delicious

"Just do it. Do whatever it is you want to do. Do it poorly, do it horribly, do the worst job you possibly can. Fail miserably. Get fired. Do it and do it and do it. Over and over and over. Read 'The Artist’s Way' by Julia Cameron, if you’re into that type of thing. Do it wherever you can, wherever you are. Ask yourself if you’re enjoying it. Do it again. Find places to do it where you enjoy it the most. Do it there. Keep on doing it. Move to a city where there’s more of it. Realize that – though it’s fun- it doesn’t fill the hole inside. Do it again. Get better at it. Get recognized for doing it. Realize that that doesn’t fill the hole inside. Do it again. Focus on your personal life. Have people ask you for advice. Do it again. Do it poorly, do the worst job you possibly can. Fail miserably. Get fired. Do it again. Keep doing it, but take off 9 days a month. Do it some more." [thx AC]

Long interview w/ good discussion of doing characters vs. standup vs. improv.

"It’s one of those dopey, very elusive things. When you hear the phrase 'sense of humor,' you always hear the accent on humor, sense of humor. To me, it’s the SENSE of humor – there’s a sense in it, an understanding and a feeling for what doesn’t fit, the incongruous, that which is out of place or in the wrong scale. So I don’t know what makes a person funny except there’s a certain freedom and abandon in the way they think or express themselves. They just don’t honor the prescribed lines of demarcation – they step across."

"I definitely think there is a pace to New York City that’s really fast, and I think it leads to a lot of productivity and a lot of writing. When I’m in California, for example, I never get any writing done. There are so many people, and that’s part of it, and there are so many different types of people living in a small space. New York is good for comedy, overall."

Jesus this is funny. Kroll just cracks me up when he's in character. His regular act is great too...the dogs vs. cats bits he did at Whiplash the other week was as hard as I've laughed at a standup show in months.

"Someone’s there in the front row but they’d prefer to watch it later on video so they stare through a cell phone camera for an hour? There are a million reasons it’s terrible. It kills punch lines. It doesn’t allow me to be as honest as I used to be. Say I was in a room with that kind of anonymity, I could talk about my girlfriend’s cunt sister, some whore I fucked last night when I was coked up and my girflriend wasn’t on the road with me. Because who’s going to tell? I’ve got some stories recently that I just can’t tell because they’re wicked illegal, and if they got taped I could get in a shit load of trouble. It’s disconcerting to be filmed. It’s like me coming to an AA meeting. ‘Hey, this guy has some great stories, stick a camera in his face.’"

"This is my handy-dandy crib sheet for comedians who are embarking on – or are in the midst of – that thrilling experience known as 'doing press'. Keep these points in mind, and you’ll be known as a media darling in no time."

"I like all types of comedy, but oddly enough, my favorite is physical comedy...I like people smacking themselves in the face with doors and I like people throwing themselves around the room...The following is an in-depth look at physical comedy throughout the past 40 years."

I think ya can add Bruno/Borat and Punk'd to this category too. "I don’t like pranks. I think they’re mean. I feel sorry for the people who get pranked...While I understand that the purpose of Improv Everywhere is comedy, the aspect of what you guys do that prevents me from enjoying it is that I think the smiles you provoke are, 99.9% of the time, on the faces of YouTube viewers, and not the innocent bystanders who appear in those videos."