FADER: Interview: Hannibal Buress

Naomi Zeichner: When did you start doing standup?

Hannibal Buress: Almost nine years ago. At first I was doing it as an amateur and really trying to be a professional comedian. Now it’s my job and people pay me to do it, so I keep that in mind and approach it like that. I wasn’t super into comedy when I was young. My interest in comedy really happened right before I started. I guess when I was young I watched “The Cosby Show,” so Bill Cosby and Eddie Murphy and those guys. I wasn’t a big comedy fan as a kid; I didn’t really study it like that.

NZ: But people must have let you know you were funny—

HB: I think Seinfeld said this: “When you’re a kid, everybody’s funny.” Who had a friend that never said anything funny? I was funny with my friends and in class sometimes, but it wasn’t anything I decided to pursue until college. I saw that some people weren’t that good at it so I tried it.

NZ: And your move to New York worked out well.

HB: It’s going pretty well, I write at “30 Rock,” and I used to write at “Saturday Night Live.”

NZ: What’s the difference between the two?

HB: It’s two different formats, a sketch and a sitcom. I put a lot more work into the writing of a 30 minute show. SNL is written the week of the show with some pieces even being written on Friday, so it’s more of an against the clock type of thing, whereas at “30 Rock” you’re working on it for a while, and it’s rewritten and written.

FADER: Interview: Hannibal Buress / BY: NAOMI ZEICHNER

Comedy and Everything Else Episode 137: Jimmy Pardo

Jimmy Dore: Its just that thing that we’re doing is very… in the words of Jerry Seinfeld, “It’s amazingly delicate.” People have no idea how delicate comedy is, or even just performing. You know, and to do it at a certain level. You know it’s not just about doing it, we want to do it at a certain level… and the little things that can screw it up. And I don’t think its being a diva. Instead, comedians have such a trial-by-fire… we have everything thrown at us.

Jimmy Pardo: Everything is by fire.

JD: Yeah, everything. My wife Stef (Zamorano), who comes from the sketch world – she was at Acme, and when she comes to some gigs, stand up gigs, her mind is blown at how people act… there’s no reverence for the stage. There’s, you know, people on stage taking pictures before the show, or that kind of shit. Its not like Bill Cosby is going to sit down on the chair and everybody is going to….

JP: No, you’re right. “Hey its your birthday, get up there and take a picture.”

JD: And they’ll come up to you, “Could you fuck with…” This isn’t a carnival. This isn’t a side show. But people think that. Because when comedy is done well it looks effortless.

Comedy and Everything Else Episode 137: Jimmy Pardo / aprox 1:14:00

(thanks Mark)

The AV Club Interview: Joan Rivers

AVC: The scenes where you’re doing standup are much rawer than people might expect.

Joan Rivers: Comedy is raw; that’s what comedy is today, and that’s where I’m at today. I always say—I go to play Cleveland, Ohio, and I always tell the interviewers, the ones doing the pre-press, “Don’t come for a walk down memory lane.” Those people shouldn’t come. It isn’t going to be grandma jokes. I think I even say that in the film, because my comedy has always been strong and outrageous, and that’s just where it is today.

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AVC: In a movie, you don’t get to pick the take they use, but onstage, you’re essentially autonomous, unless the audience doesn’t want to hear it.

JR: If they really hate you, but you’re still autonomous enough that you can turn to another subject. Bill Cosby, who’s a friend, said, “I go out there and I work very hard for about five minutes. If they don’t like me, I go into automatic.” I go out there, I work very hard for five minutes, and if they don’t like me, I work harder. I go to the very end. I think, “Maybe you want to talk about… babies!” I punch the end.

The AV Club Interview: Joan Rivers / June 9, 2010

Bill Cosby Interview (1969)

Bill Cosby: The first time I saw Bob (Robert Culp) was the first day we read for the series; I walked in and we shook hands, but we didn’t really have a chance to talk before they gave us scripts. Then it was the moment of truth for me: All the fears, anxieties, and apprehensions were bubbling and boiling, because now I had to prove myself. Although the producers were with me, they were really listening to see if I could act. I’d never read a single line for Sheldon Leonard — and when you think about that, about a producer banking half a million dollars on a guy whose comedy routine he liked, it becomes quite a gamble. Well, they listened, and I was embarrassed, because I was no good — really no good. I fumbled and mumbled and couldn’t concentrate or do anything right.

But afterward, Bob and I got to together and talked and, at Bob’s suggestion, we agreed to make the relationship between the white character, Kelly Robinson, and the black man, Alexander Scott, a beautiful relationship, so that people could see what it would be like if two cats like that could get along. Bob’s a fine actor and a fine human being. He could have made it tough for me; he could have made me paranoid with criticism, because my ego came into play. At the time, I was a pretty well known, up-and-coming comic and if he’s been rough on me, it would have been too easy for me to say to myself, “What do I need all this for?” In other words, if Bob hadn’t been the great guy he is, I might have copped out.

Playboy: Were you still nervous when the filming began?

BC: It was really weird man. As a comedian, I can walk out in front of 5000 people and not worry about a thing. Not a thing, believe me. But to stand up a face a camera and crew of maybe 15 guys and get uptight about it — to me that’s weird. It took a lot of weeks before I felt relaxed and able to do my thing without being self-conscious.

Bill Cosby Interview /May 1969 / Playboy Magazine