John Oliver Quotes
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I'm not really much of an actor, so when I started on 'The Daily Show,' I was just trying to adopt the faux authority of a newsperson. Having a British accent definitely gave me a sonic leg up on that because there is a faux authority to the British accent in and of itself.
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When you're doing stand-up, you want to stand onstage and, to the extent that you can, uncomplicatedly entertain.
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A Southern accent is not a club in my bag.
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I wanted to be a soccer player. I knew that couldn't happen.
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You don't really know when stand-up material is TV ready; it's just at what point you're willing to let it go and not work on it anymore. I'm not sure there is a point at which you think: 'And that is finished.'
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I did sketch comedy, but I never did improv. So I've just tried to learn as I go.
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People in Britain see Richard Quest as a kind of an offensive cartoon character.
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There are some people who watch NASCAR for the highly skilled driving - but most people watch it for the crashes.
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I know I'd be an absolutely horrendous politician.
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My first 'Daily Show' piece was pretending I had this terrible immigrant journey, so I went to talk to an immigration lawyer who would help out people, and I ran into him in Penn Station about three months after I'd gotten the green card. I said, 'I got my green card yesterday.' And he hugged me because he understood that level of relief.
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Stand-up comedy seems like a terrifying thing. Objectively. Before anyone has done it, it seems like one of the most frightening things you could conceive, and there's just no shortcut - you just have to do it.
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I'm British; pessimism is my wheelhouse.
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People are always going to say stupid things, and you're always going to be able to make jokes about that, but it should be the last thing you add in, because it's the easiest thing.
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I feel more at home knowing I'm not really at home. It takes all the pressure off you trying to fit in!
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Politicians don't really bring up religion in England.
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There are two kinds of hecklers: the destructive and constructive hecklers.
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People really have come for a dialogue when they go to a stand-up show in the U.K. They say, 'I understand that you have now finished your little comedy monologue; now I have something to say regarding what I've just heard.
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My family are from Liverpool, so I have some twang there - I have a Midlands accent, and I was raised about an hour north of London, so my voice is a mess. Although, to American ears, it sounds like the crisp language of a queen's butler.
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You have to do stand-up quite a long time before you learn how to do it well.
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People are friendlier in New York than London.
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I knew I was going to go into the field and make fun of people to their faces. I knew what I was getting into.
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Americans just don't understand dry wit.
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I'm not really much of an actor, so when I started on 'The Daily Show', I was just trying to adopt the faux authority of a newsperson.
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I realize how desperate it sounds for me, as a comedian, to ask you to laugh at my jokes.