I don't think anyone gets into comedy to host a baking show.
In my banjo show with the Steep Canyon Rangers, I do do comedy during that show. It'd be absurd just to stand there mute and play 25 banjo songs.
Comedy is a very rough beat. It's no holds barred, as it should be.
You start in bars and then restaurants, then you want to get into comedy clubs where you feature, then you headline, and once you sell out clubs you're into theaters. I've been able to get there, and it's cool to do that.
I used to devour a lot of stand-up comedy in my cousin's basement. He had cable and I didn't, so I went there and saw all the comedians.
I've been in the director's chair for 'Battlestar Galactica' since its first season. I directed the only comedy that's ever been done in Galactica history.
If I'm in a town for very long, usually I'll work out in the comedy club just to keep my chops or work out the beats on new stuff.
Humour and high seriousness... Perfect bedfellows, I think. Though I usually phrase it in terms of comedy and darkness. Comedy without darkness rapidly becomes trivial. And darkness without comedy rapidly becomes unbearable.
I worked on this Showtime series called 'Beggars and Choosers,' this was like 2000, and Bea Arthur guest-starred on our show. I always loved 'The Golden Girls,' and thought she was a supreme comedy actress, supreme actress period.
The success of my comedy has been not being afraid to touch on subject matters or issues that everyone else is politically scared of.
Comedy's about opening up and being unique, but to a point where the audience can relate to what you're saying.
When I was doing ensemble theater and comedy work, I felt I had some talents. But when I started doing my shows in Berkeley and found that I could be funny on my own, I was shocked.
I try to be smart with my comedy. Generally, it devolves into bathroom humour. I describe my comedy as, 'I have the best intentions, but usually it fails.'
'Birdman' is basically 'All About Eve' - the 1950 comedy about rehearsal rivalries in a Broadway show, and another Best Picture laureate - reimagined as a Batman suicide mission. The movie couldn't be actor-ier.
Comedy Central was a great network, but 'Chappelle's Show' took it to a completely different level. Other shows got bigger because so many viewers were watching the 'Chappelle' reruns. For BET, the 'Real Husbands of Hollywood' has that same potential.
Drama or comedy programming is still the surest way for advertisers to reach a mass audience. Once that changes, all bets are off.
Golf was my first glimpse of comedy. I was a caddy when I was a kid. I was on the golf course rather than being in lessons, but I can play better now than I could then.
I want to see better quality of comedy on TV.
Comedy may be big business but it isn't pretty.
The radio was my big influence. Comedy came from the instinctual feel I had for language.