I made the decision early on not to take roles who's sole source of humor is ethnic stereotype humor. And I think over the years, that trend of staying away from that is obviously taken off between myself, Mindy Kaling, Danny Pudi, and many others. As an Indian American, I'm proud because I don't ever remember seeing Indians represented on television or film growing up and now we are. Just think 25 years ago, Fischer Stevens PLAYED an Indian guy in Short Circuit 2!

i think men are scared of giving the authority to women to make them laugh. it's a powerful position and sometimes my gender can be a little backwards when it comes to giving women a chance at driving the car, so to speak. but anyone who says women aren't funny needs to watch Natasha Leggero, Maria Bamford, Sarah Silverman and countless others.

If you are a woman and you bought this book for practical tips on how to make it in a male-dominated workplace, here they are. No pigtails, no tube tops. Cry sparingly. (Some people say “Never let them see you cry.” I say, if you’re so mad you could just cry, then cry. It terrifies everyone.)

I’d say the biggest influence was probably anything religious. I was raised Catholic. And in the South, there’s such a wealthy amount of Southern Baptists. I look at [religion] a little more skeptically through the lens of someone who is from the South. It gives me the confidence to do jokes about being brought up religiously, or any kind of religion, because I feel like I kind of grew up in the thick of it. Not that any of that has anything to do with the voice I put on. That voice definitely just grew out of me needing to do something new on stage. I was like, “Oh, I know this.” And it was a combination of family members and [that] I love doing this voice. Over time I started to figure out...[Read more]

Wonder Showzen. Ren & Stimpy. Jackass. Chapelle Show. Tom Green.

steve martin, bill cosby was big before all the awfulness, seinfeld, brian regan!

My comedic role models are guys like Groucho Marx, George Carlin, Chris Rock, Bill Murray and Colin Quinn. But as I get more into comedy I’m starting to dig more intellectual types.

Mad magazine, Benny Hill, SNL, my dad, George Carlin, Steve Martin, Martin Lawrence.

Richard Pryor. He was literally my everything.

Eddie Murphy - for his energy and rawness Patrice O'Neal - for his honesty Dave Attell - for his incredible economy of language

W.C. Fields The Marx Brothers Steve Martin Woody Allen

Late night with David Letterman, certainly. I still use a lot of the techniques in writing taught by Bob on Mr. Show, even though they're tonally very different shows.

There are many people whose comedy I have enjoyed – Johnny Carson, Rodney Dangerfield, Steve Martin, Jerry Seinfeld are some names that come to mind.