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]

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]

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]

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.

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]

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]

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 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]

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 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.

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 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.

I have said some very witty, razor-sharp shit in conversations or even, like, offhandedly onstage. Some of ’em I don’t even want to repeat. They were funny, but I just know that sometimes the things that scare you the most or make you want to cry the most or are the most tragic are the things you just gravitate to or address in a comedic context, partially because you shouldn’t. That shit’s dangerous. You know, you fuck up a lot doing that. But it’s exciting when it works, and it’s exciting to kind of just watch someone try. The short answer is, yeah, I’ve laughed at shit that I feel guilty about or made jokes about things that I felt guilty or ethically uneasy about after the fact.

Sometimes there’s something I really want to convey, and I get a little obsessive about it. So there’s that. It’s not that they’re not listening, but it’s like I’m trying to say this thing to them and they can’t hear me. Like, there were times when I was famous for things that became cumbersome. Half Baked was like that, where I had grown personally, and when I would go onstage, people would scream out shit from that movie. Or like, "I’m Rick James, bitch!" And I’d just be like, "Listen to what I’m saying, listen to what I’m saying." It was frustrating—like I was being victimized by my work. I think it’s a Miles Davis quote where he says you spend the early part of your career trying to chas...[Read more]

[not remembering his own success] is good, because what that’s allowed me to do is have a vantage point about my own life that’s accessible to people still. I could see a guy walking down the street and be like, Even though I’m famous, I got more in common with this guy than, like, Brad Pitt. You know what I mean? Like, as a comedian, there’s a certain closeness you need with people. I listen to some of Richard Pryor’s shows as an adult, and it’s more remarkable—moments when he’s talking about freebasing and Jim Brown, staging interventions, and just these kinds of bits. Or the one where he says, "He took me in the basement and showed me the monster." I mean, I get chills thinking about that...[Read more]

We’ve always had a strange friendship, but I don’t think it was ever as icy as people thought it was publicly. We just almost never talked about it. Like, "Let’s just not. We’re just not gonna agree on certain shit, so let’s just not." It was a valuable friendship above and beyond whatever work we did together. He’s an important part of my life. So I don’t think that will ever really change.

I didn’t start coming into my own as a guy until I was 12 years old. I can actually remember the moment. I went to a party. I was scared to go to this party, but I ended up going anyway. And when I got there, it was like I could tell everyone was really happy I came. And then a kid explained to me, "Man, it’s not as much fun when you’re not here." And I was like, Oh, I didn’t know that. I didn’t realize that kids thought I was funny—that I had actual friends. Even at 14, when I started doing stand-up, I was always a pack animal. I’d like to be a lone wolf, but I’m just not.

I was trying to explain to my kids the other day how different my 40 was to my dad’s 40. I skateboard sometimes, play video games, buy motorcycles. I ride bikes now. Like, man, I’m a real action-packed 40-year-old dad, like, relative to what a 40-year-old was like when we were growing up. Also, I have this thing where I meet people whose kids are, like, superhuman perfect: "She speaks three languages now, blah blah." That used to make me feel shitty. Like, "Aw man, I really have to crack the whip and do this and that." But then I watch their kid for a while and then watch mine. And my kids look actually happy. And I learned early on that perfectionism and parenthood is a toxic combination fo...[Read more]

Alright. Here would be my advice. Ok, I don't know how comedians start nowadays , right? But what I would suggest is just start. And once you start, you can't really stop, no matter what happens. No matter how bad it gets, no matter what people say. you know what I mean? Because comedy is weird like that. You know why I hate watching other comedians do comedy? Not because I hate other comedians, but because I love comedy so much. Its like watching somebody else fuck your girl. And I say 'I fuck her better than that'.

The drugs didn’t make me funny. God made me funny. The drugs kept me up in my imagination. But I felt ... pathetic afterward. Drugs messed me up.