Zach Woods Quotes
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Sometimes you read pilots and, understandably, they're doing such a frantic tap dance for approval. I get why - it's such an incredibly competitive market.
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By the end of high school, I would do shows at the theater at night and then take the train home and go to school the next morning.
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I'm a very anxious person, and it's hard for me to be in the moment. Improv demands that you be in the moment.
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I think that if you're improvising on TV, it's a great way to help the dialogue between actors and writers.
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I've played a lot of characters who are creeps or weirdos, with a deep darkness underneath the surface.
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When I was a kid, I wanted desperately to be a jazz musician. I would practice the trumpet for hours, but when I got braces, that messed up my ability to play, so all of a sudden I had all this free time.
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If I'm doing comedy, I try to improvise a lot. Even if they don't use it, it helps me loosen up and figure out the character.
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When improv is bad, it's excruciating to watch, and to be involved with it is a unique type of torture.
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Sometimes you'll see people give performances in comedy with an ironic detachment where they'll sort of be remarking on the character from outside of it. They're sort of commenting as they're playing the character. I think it's hard not to do that. I've certainly done that.
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As I get older, I think I'm more interested in comedy that doesn't take cheap shots. But I watched some of that Justin Bieber "roast" and I thought it was hilarious.
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There's some boring advice for improvisers beginning their careers like "see as much of it as you can and do as much of it as you can." Volume, in a way, is the most important thing. Not, like, decibel volume - just immerse yourself in it as much as possible. I'd also suggest that you put a high value on your personal interests and tastes.
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A lot of times the movies I think are the funniest are dramas. I feel like dramas are so much funnier because they're actually capturing human beings. Humans are so weird and clumsy, and that, to me, often makes me laugh more.
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I'd like to be able to do complex math in my head. Any kind of adversity and I become very anxious, but if you're a robot, you have good equilibrium. I wish I was cooler under pressure, like a robot.
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I would love to do a drama. I did a couple of episodes of The Good Wife, which is more of a drama. I really liked that; I thought it was interesting. A lot of my favorite comedies play out as dramas.
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I would rather a sex tape make its way out than a video of me doing all of the different grunt sounds. I'm not eager for a sex tape to leak, but in terms of personal humiliation, I'd feel less vulnerable to be in a Kim Kardashian situation than seeing myself grunting in a booth.
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If I was a part of secret ninja group my power would be the power of apology. I would just apologize emphatically and freely. And my mech might just be a phone to send apologetic emails from.
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I think I gravitate towards characters who are slight outsiders. It's fun to play a character that wants so badly to be included in the normal activities of teenage life, but lacks the literal hardware to do it.
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The days that you record by yourself, you feel like a crazy person because you're saying the same line, 10 different ways, or they ask you for 10 different grunting sounds and you just feel like such a schmuck. It's crazy! When there's other people there, it tethers you to something, in a nice way.
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I feel all of the archetypes in Silicon Valley probably exist in some other form in other subcultures.
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For the first actual comedy-comedy I did, I took a comedy class in New York, which was full of slightly unhinged people. It was a pretty depressing crowd, very angry and strange people. But then I took a class at the Upright Citizens Brigade and I loved those people.
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It's always fun to improvise. What's weird is that when you're recording, you're by yourself, for the most part.
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Steven Spielberg name is synonymous with Hollywood. You sometimes meet people who revel in their own mythology, and he doesn't feel like that, at all. He's very approachable, accessible and sweet. Even if he wasn't, I'd have to say that because the man runs everything.
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I remember as a child listening to comedic musicals and thinking they were a real riot. I had pretty questionable taste in comedy.
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I actually really liked teaching. I started teaching at UCB when I was in college. I would get someone to fill out an internship form or something so I would get the credit. But why did I start teaching? I loved it. I loved doing improv and loved UCB and wanted to be a part of that world and that community.