A Quote by Matt Besser

People get recruited from sketch groups and put on 'Mad TV' and 'SNL,' but those aren't ensembles, they're all-star teams. — © Matt Besser
People get recruited from sketch groups and put on 'Mad TV' and 'SNL,' but those aren't ensembles, they're all-star teams.
I still have a desire to do some sketch comedy. My dream is to be on 'SNL,' to host 'SNL.'
The comedy community has embraced us, wholeheartedly. People that are more in the public and celebrity, but even stand-ups, sketch people on 'SNL,' those people - and it's been wonderful to have them embrace it.
Obviously Mad TV, SNL are one kind of show, whereas The State belongs to the kind of show that is entirely conceived written and performed by a set group that existed before the TV show.
'Mad TV' is one of my most favorite shows of all time and is a huge part of my obsession with sketch comedy.
You can talk about things indirectly, but if you want to talk how people really talk, you have to talk R-rated. I mean I've got three incredibly intelligent daughters, but when you get mad, you get mad and you talk like people talk. When a normal 17-year-old girl storms out of the house or 15-year-old boy is mad at his mom or dad, they're not talking the way people talk on TV. Unless it's cable.
I'm interested in working with groups of actors to tell complicated stories about what's happening to people, and that's because I came out of the theatre where I worked in ensembles, and I really loved that.
At any kind of Fox function, you'll see 'Mad TV' at the kiddy table in the back, next to the buffet. We're a late-night sketch show, and there is more money in prime time.
What makes you a rock star is what are you able to do when you get behind that microphone, when you put that guitar in your hands, when you wield those drumsticks, and when you raise your hand in front of twenty thousand people: do they respond? That's being a rock star.
My showbiz career started with 'SNL,' and to write an 'SNL' book... well, there are already enough of those.
In TV, kid roles are like this: You're either in a couple minutes of an episode playing somebody's kid, or you get in these procedurals where you're crying or you're playing a witness or you're playing a crazy person. Every once in a while you get a big guest star role, but there's a formula to those TV shows.
Coming off 'Sopranos' and 'Mad Men,' I was starting to feel like I was being spoiled creatively. I wanted to move forward as a director in TV and get more involved in the process. After having those two great experiences, doing regular episodic TV wouldn't be quite the thrill.
A sketch should be about two to three minutes, which is basically what most songs are. They're usually done by groups. Good examples of each build and have different parts and twists in them. I guess sketch would be the comedy version of music.
A lot of TV is put together by teams, by writing staffs and several different directors. It's a great, very smart way to make television. It's worked for however long TV's been around.
It's a real democratic time for comedy, and I think my special is a sign for that. You don't have to just be a classic stand-up to get a special, or you don't just have to be on Saturday Night Live to do characters and sketch on TV. The web has allowed me to show that there are different ways to make people laugh, and the special is a combination of those things.
What's interesting in scripted TV is different than what's interesting in reality TV. Each of their departments have their development process where they package things and put together the writers and put together the producers and the different elements and develop the projects. By the time you get to a network or to a studio, you're able to say this is the project, here's who the producer is, sometimes even here's who the star is, here's who the writer is. It's a well-developed project by the time it gets to the studios.
I'm attracted to ensembles: you get a lot of really good moving pieces. It's sort of like a horse race in a way, especially when you know that everyone is on this collision course. It's like, 'Who's going to make it?' And you can put people together in unexpected pairings.
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