A Quote by Madeline Kahn

Comedy is created when someone is trying very earnestly to do what he feels is the right thing to do at that moment.

Madeline Kahn

Quote Topics

Comedy Created Earnestly Feels Moment Right Right Thing Someone That Moment The Right Thing Thing Trying Very

Quote Author

Madeline Kahn
American - Actress
September 29, 1942 - December 3, 1999

Comedy is such a vulnerable thing. With drama, you're not trying to make someone cry. If you do, great, but that's not your goal. With comedy, you're trying to make someone laugh, so to me, it's harder because you are in such a vulnerable position. You're like, 'I hope people like this. I hope I do the joke justice.'

Harley Quinn Smith

Music is very similar to comedy: It's all about texture, timing, context, vocabulary, performance. When someone's onstage doing a solo, essentially it's the same thing as what a comedian does. They're in the moment. They're listening.

Reggie Watts

I wasn't trying to fit into a thing... it was not like I was like, 'Right, I'm the Han; I'm the Leia; I'm the Luke.' I was just like, 'Okay, I'm Rey, just trying to do me, just trying to do this scene, trying to do the right thing,' and I think that was a huge advantage because I think if not, it would've been a very different thing.

Daisy Ridley

A dance feels finished to me when I suddenly see this moment in the movement that feels like closure and makes me want to cry. And then I'll realize, "Oh, that's the end. This whole thing is working because it all led up to this moment." It pulls all this together and it sends the correct message in a very poetic way.

Dana Tai Soon Burgess

I'm not saying that comedy has to be a certain thing - I'm not trying to define comedy, where it's like, it can only be silly things. But I think part of what makes a comedy is that at least part of the mantra of the show is trying to make people laugh.

Thomas Middleditch

When you get in situations where you cannot afford to make a mistake, it's very hard to do the right thing. So if you're trying to do the right thing, the right thing might be to eliminate the cost of making a mistake rather than try to guess what's right.

Ward Cunningham

If someone gives you a piece of advice that sounds right and feels right, use it. If someone gives you a piece of advice that sounds right and feels wrong, don’t waste so much as a single second on it. It may be fine for someone else, but not for you.

Etgar Keret

It's something that has informed quite a lot of my comedy - that idea of someone who is always trying to get in there with the right crowd, always trying to be a certain type of person and never managing it.

Jack Dee

The nude thing, I don't know. It's sillier somehow. It's more like physical comedy. But kissing someone, it feels invasive to have everybody watching me.

Ilana Glazer

We praise a man who feels angry on the right grounds and against the right persons and also in the right manner at the right moment and for the right length of time.

Aristotle

When I'm in a session with someone I don't know, I like hanging out for a moment and talking and seeing if we can find some similarities in whatever conversation we're having. The best thing is when you just go for it - just do something that feels good and makes you feel free in the moment.

Do it [stand-up comedy] because it feels like the right thing to do. Do it because you don't want to do anything else. There is something in you that does not want you to do anything else other than comedy.

Russell Peters

If something feels right, I do it. If it feels wrong, I don't. It's really very, very simple, but you've got to be willing to take your chances doing stuff that may look crazy to other people - or not doing something that looks right to others but just feels wrong to you.

Oprah Winfrey

With comedy especially, it feels like such a clear-cut thing to be a writer-director. There is so much nuance and tone in a comedy that it's hard to contextualise it in a script.

Todd Phillips

I'm very interested in trying to make comedy shows that are a bit bigger, more theatrical, more of a "show." Some people might say I'm trying too hard, but that's a compliment to me. I like to inject a bit of production value and flair to comedy, or at least to my little corner of comedy.