Steve Martin Quotes About Comedy

Quotes about: Comedy

• Comedy is not pretty.

  Steve Martin

  Comedy, Not Pretty

• What is comedy? Comedy is the art of making people laugh without making them puke.

  Steve Martin

  Art, People, Laughing

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

• Thankfully, persistence is a great substitute for talent.

  Steve Martin

  Encouraging, Uplifting, Persistence

  FaceBook post by Steve Martin from Nov 15, 2011

• With comedy, you have no place to go but more comedy, so you're never off the hook.

  Steve Martin

  Hook, Places To Go, Comedy

  "Steve Martin - a man with two reigns". Interview with Andrew Purcell, www.theguardian.com. May 26, 2011.

• I like a woman with a head on her shoulders. I hate necks.

  Steve Martin

  Love, Funny, Witty

  FaceBook post by Steve Martin from Sep 22, 2011

• My most persistent memory of stand - up is of my mouth being in the present and my mind being in the future: the mouth speaking the line, the body delivering the gesture, while the mind looks back, observing, analyzing, judging, worrying, and then deciding when and what to say next. Enjoyment while performing was rare - enjoyment would have been an indulgent loss of focus that comedy cannot afford.

  Steve Martin

  Memories, Loss, Worry

  Steve Martin (2008). “Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life”, p.13, Simon and Schuster

• Boy, those French: they have a different word for everything!

  Steve Martin

  Funny, Boys, Different

• I did stand-up comedy for 18 years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four years were spent in wild success. I was seeking comic originality, and fame fell on me as a byproduct. The course was more plodding than heroic.

  Steve Martin

  Years, Four, Comedy

  "Born Standing Up: A Comic's Life". Book by Steve Martin, www.npr.org. November 20, 2007.

• I saw the movie, 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon' and was surprised because I didn't see any tigers or dragons. And then I realized why: they're crouching and hidden.

  Steve Martin

  Funny, Dragons, Saws

• 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.

  Steve Martin

  Magic, Musical, Littles

• 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.

  Steve Martin

  Song, Play, Comedy

• I thought 'Borat' was a breakthrough comedy, because it was really funny. It wasn't some studio-produced script with 14 writers.

  Steve Martin

  Funny, Scripts, Comedy

  "All about my father" by Emma Brockes, www.theguardian.com. November 10, 2007.

• I've been writing for a long time, since the late '60s. But it hasn't been in the same form. I used to write scripts for television. I wrote for my comedy act. Then I wrote screenplays, and then I started writing New Yorker essays, and then I started writing plays. I didn't start writing prose, really, until the New Yorker essays, but they were comic. I didn't start writing prose, really, until the '90s. In my head, there was a link between everything. One thing led to another.

  Steve Martin

  Writing, Play, Long

  "Steve Martin: The Powells.com Interview". Interview with Jill Owens, www.powells.com. November 29, 2010.

• Performing music is a way to do comedy, but without the obligation to do a solid hour, hour and half of a standup. I could intersperse it with music, so it became a really good format for me.

  Steve Martin

  Half, Way, Comedy

  Source: www.billboard.com

• With comedy, you never know until you put it in front of an audience. You shoot it and a year later you have no idea if it's going to work. And then you get the response. It's great when it's good.

  Steve Martin

  Years, Ideas, Comedy

• I loved doing 'Pennies from Heaven.' Because you have to understand that I'd been doing comedy for 15 to 20 years, and suddenly along came the opportunity to do this beautiful film. It was so emotional to me. I loved it. I don't think it was a good career move, but I have no regrets about doing it.

  Steve Martin

  Beautiful, Regret, Moving

• Working at the magic shop really gave me a sense of comedy because it was all jokes.

  Steve Martin

  Magic, Comedy, Shops

  Source: bolstablog.wordpress.com

• I can juggle. I started juggling as a kid. And when I worked at Disneyland, I knew a juggler there named Christopher Faire, and he taught me how to juggle. I used it in my comedy act for a while.

  Steve Martin

  Kids, Taught, Comedy

• I didn't come from a wealthy family. I had no money. Maybe it goes back to naivete which is your greatest asset when you're young. If I was starting in comedy today and if it didn't work the first time, I'd probably quit. But I kept at it, kept at it.

  Steve Martin

  Today, Firsts, Comedy

  "COVER STORY : A Side Order of Steve Martin : He's had his ups and downs with L.A., but they're back together in his new movie". Interview with Elaine Dutka, articles.latimes.com. February 3, 1991.

• I think probably the most difficult challenge was just the climb and rise in show business because I went through my entire twenties with some success as a comedy writer but not much as a performer. And you have to be kind of informed and naive at the same time.

  Steve Martin

  Thinking, Challenges, Twenties

• When I first started doing my stand-up act, I played the banjo, did comedy, magic tricks, juggled, read poetry. I stuck it all in. I didn't know you were supposed to just stand up and tell jokes. Essentially, that's what my act became: those five elements - except I dropped the poetry.

  Steve Martin

  Magic, Elements, Firsts

• I knew I wanted to be in show business so I took the path of least resistance. I loved comedy. But you never know you are funny until people laugh. It's just what I was interested in. I could make people laugh, I guess, but doing it at school and doing it onstage are very different things.

  Steve Martin

  School, People, Laughing

• At first I had no skills in writing comedy. I didn't know what a joke was, but, as someone once told me, your emotions follow your intent. If you create the intention of starting a comedy act, slowly your mind starts adjusting and you arrive at a new emotional state.

  Steve Martin

  Writing, Emotional, Skills

• I knew I wanted to be in comedy but the path of least resistance was doing stand-up in folk music clubs where I could get on stage. I guess you could get up no matter how bad you were and you didn't have to audition. You just got up. Everything else required an audition and if you auditioned for a TV show, you would stand in line with a hundred other people. But at the clubs, it was okay just to get up, so that's why I started in stand-up.

  Steve Martin

  Tv Shows, People, Lines

• I just wanted to be in show business. I didn't care if I was going to be an actor or a magician or what. Comedy was a point of the least resistance, really. And on the simplest level, I loved comedy.

  Steve Martin

  Magic, Actors, Levels

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