I worked on dramas before, I love sinking my teeth into something dramatic or a period piece, but there's something so fun about doing a comedy. When you go to set and your only job is to make people laugh, there's an unbelievable energy on set.
When it comes to African Americans and African American actors, Hollywood has always felt that if you can make us laugh, that's fine, but we don't need to see you do a 'Schindler's List,' where there's no jokes or music or comedic through-line.
Playing on the streets of Iraq, or in Israel or the Gaza strip, I'd sing angry protest songs against war. People would say, 'Make us clap, make us dance, and laugh and sing.' It really made me think about the importance of happy music.
I performed after 9/11 for relief workers down by Ground Zero. There were these men just coming back, and they were voraciously hungry. They were heroes, pulling rubble, and I was a new comic trying to go blue just so I could get some laughs.
One of the greatest compliments you can ever get is when you make fun of a certain sect of people and they are laughing the hardest. When we did 'Men on Film' on 'In Living Color,' gay men wrote in how much they loved it.
You can forgive people who do not follow you through a philosophical disquisition; but to find your wife laughing when you had tears in your eyes, or staring when you were in a fit of laughter, would go some way towards a dissolution of the marriage.
I think we grew up thinking that the funniest things on TV were the old, serious movies. I always liked the Marx Brothers, but the thing that always made us laugh were movies like Zero Hour. That's what inspired us.
Felicia: [to Bernadette] Come on, Bernice. It's so funny you'll laugh so hard your lashes will curl all by themselves.
[speaking of a character in a play he has seen] Mortimer Brewster: He sits there *waiting* to be tied up and gagged! [laughs] Mortimer Brewster: The big dope!
Susana: [to Octavio] You and your plans. You know what my grandmother used to say? If you want to make God laugh... tell Him your plans.
Swissair Flight Attendant: [bell dings] Ladies and gentlemen, it is our pleasure to announce that alcoholic beverages are now available as we have cleared Iranian airspace. [Houseguests start laughing]
Brandon: So what's your name? Candace: [laughs] Candace. I hate it though. I'm thinking of changing it. Brandon: Sometimes that helps. I'm Brandon.
Atto: You put up reward signs. Twenty-five thousand dollars! What is this? Gunfight at the K.O. Corral? Garrison: [laughs] It's the *O.K.* Corral.
Tre Styles: [laughing after he breaks down in tears] I never thought I'd be crying in front of a female. Brandi: You can cry in front of me.
I never wanted to be a model. I never wanted to be a serious actress. I started off doing comedy. I did a stand-up comedy camp at the Laugh Factory, and I started out on Nickelodeon.
I remember once having to stop performing when I thought an elderly man a few rows back from the front was actually going to die because he was laughing so hard.
It only works because we still amuse each other. After we have been working with other people, it is so refreshing to laugh unreservedly when we are back together again.
The best thing about this journey is I know I have it in me to keep going. Battle-tested, you know? Now, my heart laughs at the word 'quit'.
Al and Tommy and I sharing the biggest laugh because it was predicted by everything we did in the first three or four records in my career. It was predicted in the grooves that we would be here sometime later on down the road.
If my performance touches someone or helps someone understand themselves a little better or gives them a laugh, I feel like I gave them something. I want to touch people's lives and bring them along with me.
Be simple in words, manners, and gestures. Amuse as well as instruct. If you can make a man laugh, you can make him think and make him like and believe you.
