In studio films, everything has to be boxed in, everybody needs to know beforehand - this is comedy, this is sci-fi, this is drama - and what's the point of independent film if you don't get to experiment?
In a comedy, after the day is done, you can figure out ways of how to make it even funnier for the next day. In dramas, it's very different - the mindset that you're in.
I think comedy comes more from a low sense of self-esteem, and I certainly have that.
Our first gig was a battle of the bands. We did 45 minutes of comedy and never played a note - and we won!
I believe people leave a theater bonding with characters. Story is the vessel that carries character. Comedy is a very important component of expressing character.
I never thought of myself in comedy at all... I loved going to the theatre and seeing people wearing beautiful clothes come down the staircase and start to dance.
This is one of his most human and most amusing and witty novels. The characters are very Indian. I decided that I wanted to do a comedy, so this was just the right one.
Then my first film was something called Cannibal Girls, which sounds like a horror movie but was actually kind of a goofy comedy with horror elements. Like a horror spoof.
Comedy, drama, Westerns, sci-fi... it's all fine if the story's compelling and the character is interesting to me. I do like action a lot.
The problem with comedy audiences - it's like the Coliseum - when they see someone struggling, they don't feel altruistic towards them. They feel slightly repulsed by it.
I hate being mean. I watch those roasts on Comedy Central and they make the hair on the back of my neck stand up.
I'd like to play a mixture of Lucille Ball meets Murphy Brown meets Glenn Close on 'Damages,' to keep a little bit of the darkness in there. I like dark comedy a lot.
Drama or comedy programming is still the surest way for advertisers to reach a mass audience. Once that changes, all bets are off.
Commercial comedy's often set up to feature an ironist making devastating sport of someone who's naive or sentimental or pretentious or pompous.
I don't know what it must be like to be a writer in general, but to be a comedy writer, it's got to be something - it's a very special kind of talent.
Comedy will always be central to what I do, it's just an instinct for me, but I am a writer and always have been.
I think that you can fall into bad habits with comedy... It's a tightrope to stay true to the character, true to the irony, and allow the irony to happen.
Why do we laugh at such terrible things? Because comedy is often the sarcastic realization of inescapable tragedy.
I can only write what makes me laugh, and what makes me laugh is the comedy I grew up on.
I miss the comedy of the '70s and '80s, like 'Only Fools And Horses' and 'Fawlty Towers,' so I'm glad I'm put in that category.
I really, really enjoy comedy. I think that's one of my strong suits. It's my zone. And people don't expect it from me, which is a whammy.
