ENVY Magazine - June, 2009

"I’ve been doing standup for 19 years now, and for years it was like, “Are they going to laugh at this? Is that funny? Should I say that?” I can’t tell you how many times I said that to my friends who are comedians. Then you get to a point—and it’s different with everybody—when you lock into one moment when you put a real moment into a joke that’s superfluous and silly, it scares you and you start to realize that’s where the good shit is. When I’m a little bit scared and I can cathartically share something real that fucked with my head or impacted me in a certain way and make it funny and relatable—I am there to entertain, not to be woe-is-me—and I [snaps fingers] get the laugh or light out of people."

"At this point, it’s all about truth. Even if it’s something that just makes me laugh. It may be something [having to do with] my mom and dad, dealing with that and watching them become fragile and so sickly in front of me. And I was still doing shows and making them proud, doing what they raised me to do. They were the kind of folks that if you sat too long with them, they’d say, “I’m starting to feel a little sick” and I would ask, “What do you need?” and they’d say, “I need you to go do a show. I don’t need you sitting here with me. It’s bumming me out.” That’s both of my folks. What made them healthy was me calling from the road or from movie sets saying, “I’m doing those things I told you I was going to do.”

Click here to read the full article in ENVY.

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