bill cosby george carlin steve martin. The rest is a long answer. they made me want to be a comedian.

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

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

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.

Steve Martin Phil Donahue Ruth Gordon Garry Shandling mr. Rogers Albert brooks

Growing up, I was a huge Jim Carrey and Robin Williams fan, so I knew the whole Mrs. Doubtfire movie, and definitely all of Ace Ventura. So those were my life. I would say those two–I just really wanted to be funny, so I would often impersonate them.

Chris Rock, Louis CK, Patton Oswalt, Eddie Murphy.

My influences are Wendy Liebman, Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, and Conan O'Brien.

I don't mind speaking my mind, some questions are important others are just lazy journalism. I admire many women but I think growing up I looked up to men because there were more men in comedy - I think my fearlessness comes from modeling myself after guys like Chris Farley or just male comedians.

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]

eddie murphy, robyn harris, chris rock, carlin, dave attell, louie

Steve Martin is the biggest influence, Nick Swardson, Ionesco, basically Brent Weinbach, Nick Vatterott, any and all the absurdists...

They're one in the same my friend. One in the same. (dips feet in a bucket of fish, reads about what Kant Can and Kant do)

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

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

Jonathan Winters! And Peter Sellers. Dr. Strangelove was the greatest dark comedy ever made.

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

This is how much I wanted to be a comedian and didn’t realize it: I had a paper route for years when I was a kid, and when I was on my route I used to recite George Carlin bits, Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy — I used to recite his “Hit by a Car” bit word-for-word. I would fantasize about doing it in front of my entire grade in the school auditorium. But I still wasn’t able to make the connection of maybe that means you want to be a comedian. It didn’t seem possible. But I know the exact moment when it seemed possible. I was working in a warehouse with this guy and he was into comedy — first time I’d ever met somebody who was into comedy the way I was. And I used to go over to his house to drin...[Read more]

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.

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