Jim Gaffigan

I think what's unique about stand up comedy is the overall commitment that you have to make to it, meaning you can't not do it for 6 months and then pick it up and expect to pick up where you left off. It's an ongoing preparation. That being said, the longer you do standup comedy, I believe the better you get at it. Obviously, stand up comedy is point of view driven, and having done it for 25 years I believe that I'm getting better at it. Also, finding newer ways to articulate my point of view.

I think a couple of really funny ones would be Larry Miller's Five Stages of Drinking; another funny one would be George Carlin's Chunk on Suicide. Bob Newhart had a lot of funny bits. Phyllis Diller I remember vividly as a kid really, getting a kick out of that self-effacing approach. Jonathan Winters and Carol Burnett had a big impact on me too.

Well I should say... alright, I would curse occasionally in my act. When I started doing sets on Letterman and Conan, for network practices, legal practices, I would have to remove curse words. And what I found, is that, occasionally I'd have to remove those curse words, I would realize that the joke wasn't finished really, that I'd just throw in a curse word here and there. One year I did Conan like ten times when I was doing Pale Force, so then I'd just starting writing without the curse words in it. But I am someone who curses in everyday life, and I also feel that the curse words were not necessary; given that I'm talking about camping or donuts, that contributed to it also. It's weird b...[Read more]

I kind of call that my "inside voice," which is me talking for the audience. I mean, I use a woman's voice...but some of it is we all have an inner critic and I'm giving that critic a voice. The judgmental tone is that critic, but also some of it might be interpreting some of the faces in the audience. Because you're never going to please everyone with your material. It's also a tactical thing, as a writer, you can establish a point of view but the "inside voice" can have the opposing point of view. So I can be for bacon and then the "inside voice" can be against bacon. Or they comment on my overall performance...we all have voices in our head, I'm just giving one an outlet.

No. You know, I joke around about being a parent and being, you know, a parent that doesn't know what he's doing, and I don't know what I'm doing. But being a dad will remain the most important thing I'll ever do in my life, and having 5 children is something I love and I'm totally unequipped to do.

I think I'm very mindful of when people come to one of my shows, that I want them leaving with the thought that not only they enjoyed the show, but that they're gonna want to come back, when I come back in like two years or whatever. And part of that is, with stand-up comedy, there's this unspoken agreement that you're gonna have new material. So part of that is new, meaning it isn't in a special, but the complaint? Probably that I'm too sexy. That it's visually too distracting from the stand up, because often I'm just wearing boy shorts, and nothing else. I don't know, I don't know if there's a complaint. I think I space it out where I won't go back to a market unless I have at least 80% n...[Read more]

My favorite vacation I've gone on? Oooh, I would say it's probably...I've been to Ireland a couple of times and I really enjoyed that, but I love going to international destinations with my children, and seeing how they respond, because they're at different ages and seeing them respond to different cultures and different languages is pretty interesting. It reminds me why I find different cultures so interesting. And by the way, I speak no other languages. I like international travel.

I think there's something about comedians that is different than actors or writers. Since with stand-up there is no fourth wall, it's not like you're watching a play where you're watching in on this reality; there is an approachable side to comedians, and comedians are talking to the audience. Therefore, they're talking to people, so people feel like there is an accessibility there. That being said, yeah there's been plenty of weird and peculiar things. There's probably not a day that doesn't pass where someone doesn't come up to me and say, "Hot pockets!" thinking that that will be the highlight of my day, or that maybe they're the first person to do it. But it doesn't really bother me. The...[Read more]

You know, there's weddings and then there's marriage. Weddings, I think, are the biggest waste of money and emotion that humans participate in their life. Now the marriage, I think, I don't know, all the advice I'm going to give you you're gonna ignore anyway, you know what I mean? It's like a commencement speech. They're all kind of entertaining and we watch them online for a little bit and then we forget it. But I would say, before a wedding? Have fun at your wedding. Don't feel like you have to talk to your friends- I mean to your parent's friends or your in-laws. Just have fun with whoever you're marrying and have good food. You know? That's all people really care about, is food. I mean,...[Read more]

Sleep? If I could do anything else? Gosh, I don't know, I mean... I feel like being a writer would be fun and I sometimes look at chefs and think there might be something appealing. I don't cook at all, but I feel like when I've met chefs that there is a similar obsessive kind of nuance, disposable quality to their work that seems appealing but... I don't know, I think creative fulfillment is pretty important so I would have to do something that would provide some creative fulfillment.

There are subjects that I hope to figure out how to talk about. You know, different topics take time for me to figure out an angle into it. Whether it be something really dark, like on my last special I had a bunch of jokes about cancer, obviously not about someone having cancer, but about the shared human experience that we all have, it's touched everyone's life. So figuring out a way for some of these dark heavy topics to bring about humor and light surrounding them, if that makes sense? Because I certainly don't want my comedy to make anyone feel bad but I also do enjoy the challenge of making something humorous. Like being able to do a joke that is about religion that an atheists and an ...[Read more]

You know it's weird, because comedians, like a band will go on tour but comedians, we're always doing it. We're always in the process of creating new material and doing shows. There are people who will not tour, but like, Seinfeld is always going out doing theatre shows. What we intentionally planned, my wife and I, was I wanted to tour and I also wanted to be with my family. So I will get on a tour bus and go city to city with my kids, and I'll check into a hotel. There will be a hotel pool, or we'll do some local activity, and I'll do my show at night. Which is exhausting, but it provides some normalcy, and I won't be absent from their life. I don't know how much longer we will be able to...[Read more]

I'm considered a "clean comedian" or "family friendly comedian," but that's just how it comes out. There's no incredible calculation behind being clean or family friendly; comedians talk about what they can get away with. Chris Rock or Lewis Black are just gonna do the type of comedy that they're going to do. If you know them, it makes sense what type of comedy that they're doing. I'm always hesitant to be identified as a clean comedian because all comedians, whether they be clean, female or African American or transgender, the only adjective they want is to be funny. I sometimes I feel as though "clean" is this asterisk that kind of disqualifies some of my success. People are not coming to...[Read more]