The most common question I see here on Twitter is if I have any advice on being a comedian. I have never given any but I will. It is said that you must write what you have experienced, that great comedy comes from truth, or from tragedy. All of this is nonsense. I am crushed by the time, gone and irrevocable, that these 300 pages have cost me. But here are a couple of stand-up tips. I am not sure if this can be done by the novice, but if I could go back and do stand-up differently, I would. The big problem, oddly enough, when a comedian performs, are the laughs. Stand-up comedy, as it is customarily produced, is a craft and not an art. Here is the reason. The stand-up comedian must create a ...[Read more]

The best part is standing on the stage with your comedy being able to turn a passive audience into an unruly mob. The worst part of standup comedy is the insane pressure on the spine and lower back from standing up for so many hundreds of hours.

I have more fun hosting my talk show because I've already perfected standup.

I had stopped doing standup because it had stopped being fun, and the reason it stopped being fun was it was harder to write — and this is before the internet — it was harder to write new stuff. It had gotten so crazy. Like if I went to the club and tried out a bit, the next day it could be like “Oh I saw Eddie was onstage at the so-and-so and he said yada yada” and I’d be like “Man, I ain’t even finished that bit yet!” And it’d be people talking about it: “What’d you think of that new joke?” And it was like “What the f*ck?” And this was years ago it started, so it was like “ Maybe I’ll take a little break from stand-up.” And then the break got longer, then the whole Def Jam thing started wi...[Read more]

It's a tough question. What we're talking about here is comics who are way too undeveloped on stage to be where they're at in their careers. The same thing happened with some of the roasts. It elevated features into headliners. That doesn't hurt standup, that just exposes audiences to standup who are less developed than they'd normally be exposed to. On one hand, though, people leave those shows thinking the whole art form isn't that great. So that does hurt the perception of standup. On the other hand, those people bring in new audiences to shows. People who would normally never have seen anything. And they'll then be fans of the craft and many will see other shows. So that's really grea...[Read more]

Question: I worked as a PA at a show of yours in Toronto. You were doing two shows that night and during the break a girl came to the stage door and when you came out she said (in front of half a dozen other fans, and myself who was holding the door for you) that she lived nearby and wanted to have sex with you before the next show started. You laughed and said thank you, and when you came back inside you told me this never happens. That was a few years ago. Does it happen a lot now? Answer: haha. i remember that. are you female? Because the funny thing is I remember there was a young working woman standing there with a walkie on her hip as this kind of desperate (not uncute) young girls i...[Read more]

I think one of the best things that's ever happened to my stand up is the podcast because now I no longer have any motivation to send a "message" in a joke form. I just want my shit to be funny. If I can make points and be funny at the same time, awesome. I'm all for it, but most importantly it has to be interesting and funny to me. I can explore ideas until the end of time on the podcast and never need it to be funny, but for me as a fan at least, the comedy that I truly enjoy is the comedy that makes me laugh the most. In the past comics didn't have something like a podcast where they could go into great depth about a fuck load of different subjects, so to get their ideas across and expres...[Read more]

It's a challenge. From the first time I played the role I was amazed at the amount of talking the character does, and in order to know those speeches I have learned about reading them over and over and deconstructing them a little, something most comic sketches do not require. But it's very rewarding. A character like Cal Mackenzie Goldberg who I play in "Let's Do This!" (please do check it out on Adult Swim.com) is a more heightened character who I can improvise in. Saul takes some contemplation.

Emma Thompson. Writer performers, in general.

I've always been a fan of sci-fi. And so when the opportunity to work with the Wachowskis on a sci-fi film that is a fully original concept, that was really intriguing to both Channing and myself. And it's one of the first times you get to see the female be a heroine, versus a damsel in distress. She kicks ass, which is always a rarity in the industry. In sci-fi films, it's uncommon for the woman to be the badass. But the Lara Croft movies, Aliens... the fact you can count it is a problem versus all the action films where the heroes are always men.

The Injury was my favorite episode. It was such freewheeling comic mayhem but so grounded at the same time.

Well, we didn't part well. I was sort of ambitious thinking that I could hire someone that had the intelligence to do a job but didn't have necessarily speech or couldn't quite hear or spoke in sign language. She was a bright person and witty but she had never been away from her home before and even though I tried to accommodate more than I understood when I first hired her, she was very young in her emotional self and the emotional component of being away from her home was lacking. I tried my best, but I was working all day. She was lovely and very smart, but there's a lot of frustration when you meet people who can't speak well. Being completely disabled in that area causes a great amount ...[Read more]

We have a zero tolerance policy. If the kids or their parents aren't cool with what we do then they can't work on the show. Not trying to be dicks or anything, but we put it out there so we don't have to watch our mouths at all. You'd be surprised at how cool most people are.

I had a good time working on Dogma, with Kevin and the guys. The only thing I remember about it was being naked for a LOOONG time on the ground... I fall out of the sky naked, so...

someone asked "what movie was the most fun to act in" and deleted their comment, so here goes: Well, I did a film with Jim Jarmusch called Broken Flowers, but I really enjoyed that movie. I enjoyed the script that he wrote. He asked me if I could do a movie, and I said "I gotta stay home, but if you make a movie that i could shoot within one hour of my house, I'll do it." So he found those locations. And I did the movie. And when it was done, I thought "this movie is so good, I thought I should stop." I didn't think I could do any better than Broken Flowers, it's a film that is completely realized, and beautiful, and I thought I had done all I could do to it as an actor. And then 6-7 mont...[Read more]

It was incredible. I have a movie coming out called The King of Staten Island. Steve plays my superior in a fire house. He was such a nice guy. We were trying to be respectful but eventually asked him a ton of questions about Reservoir Dogs. He's just one of those guys that can raise half an eyebrow and steal the whole scene. I've seen everything he's ever done. He's had one of the greatest careers in Hollywood. Amount of work and level of quality.

I think I am sometimes a poster child for arrested development in terms of I'm fascinated with toys and games. And I'm spontaneous. But no food fights. I'm gluten free. No, not really.