A Quote by Michael Pena

I wouldn't say I have comedy chops. I guess you get lucky with good writing because I don't think I'm a comedian by any stretch of the imagination. — © Michael Pena
I wouldn't say I have comedy chops. I guess you get lucky with good writing because I don't think I'm a comedian by any stretch of the imagination.
Most people with a big idea, great talent and/or something to say don't get lucky at first. Or second. Or even third. It's so easy to conclude that if you're not lucky, you're not good. So persistence becomes an essential element of good, because without persistence, you never get a chance to get lucky.
When you get on a comedy show, people assume you're a comedian. I'd say I'm more of a comedy nerd.
Maybe it's because I come from a very utopian world of being a comedian, but I'm used to many live comedy performances going on in any city I'm in, and each of us is trying to be the best at what we do. I don't think of it as a competition so much as a thriving comedy economy.
It takes a while to realize that just because you're a stand-up comedian and you do comedy, you're not going to be good at all comedy.
When you're a comedian, and you show up on set to a job where you're not writing, and you get handed material that's as good as we do on 'Brooklyn Nine-Nine,' you just feel lucky every day.
A person who is a comedian does comedy in real life, too. But then there are others, too, who are very good in real life, but can't perform in front of the camera. They get nervous. Nevertheless, an inborn comedian does comedy whether he is in films or not.
I wouldn't say that I've had a tough life by any stretch of the imagination.
Every day, no matter what is happening around me, I consciously try to discipline my own feelings and my mind about what I have to be grateful for, because by any stretch of the imagination - even during the worst times when people are accusing me of things and doing all that they do - I'm a very lucky person.
I get very confused about being called a comedian, because when you say 'I'm a comedian,' people expect you to crack a joke. Maybe I use laughter and humour to make people think. I don't know what you call that - a humourist? A satirist? A pessimistic comedian? I don't know. Satirists can be very dark.
I do all these various activities like painting and writing, comedy and films probably because not that I'm good at everything but because I'm not good at any of these things.
There's a saying that we use in golf: "I'd rather be lucky than good." Of course, to be lucky and good is the ideal. If you study hard, you can get good. And if you get lucky and get the proper parts for people to be able to appreciate what you're doing ... I'm sure there are many actors that are quite talented who have never been a success because they've never had the right opportunity and the right material. My mother used to think I had a guardian angel.
I was so thankful that I got to go back to comedy and I felt bad that I had abandoned something that I guess I was naturally given and lucky to have an loved all of my life, but didn't love it anymore because I didn't get to do it the right way.
I don't think that you can say by any stretch of the imagination that all Wisconsin or Brooklyn-based poets write in a particular way. Similar sensibilities can spring up next to each other in the flower bed, or across oceans.
I think it's great training for any comedian to start on cows. Because with cows, you expect them to be bored and just stare at you blankly. And that's exactly what you'll get at a comedy club. If you can toughen up with a cow audience, then you'll never be worried with a human audience.
I'm no good at anything but comedy, which I think I'm good at. I'm absolutely no good at networking; I'm terrible at acting; I'm terrible at dealing with executives; I'm terrible at collaborating. And I say whatever I want to say. But I think I'm good enough at comedy that I can survive. And I don't really have an ambition for money.
I don't come from a comedy background or a stand-up background, but I think that sometimes there's a misconception that an actor who works primarily in comedy is a comedian. There's nothing wrong with being a comedian, but I'm absolutely not that. I can't think of anything more terrifying than doing stand-up!
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