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I was probably a bit of a mimic when I was a kid, and I used to imitate people.

I was a mimic when I was a child. I mimicked the teacher and made friends that way, actually. That was a very subversive activity, because I was a goody-goody who never got in trouble. But if I went off in the corner and mimicked the teacher, people loved it.

I've been telling my students, 'Imitate, imitate.' And they say, 'Well, what if I plagiarize, or what if I'm not original? I want to be myself.' And I always tell them, 'Your self will shine through'... If you allow yourself to feel deeply and honestly, what you say won't be like anyone else.

I used to impersonate people a lot when I was very young. But the good Lord gives us teachers to make fun of first. And then, of course, by college, I eventually graduated to a more sophisticated kind of comedy more people were familiar with.

As a kid, I spent an awful lot of time pretending I was somebody else. I think growing up in the 1980s wasn't very exciting so you kind of create this secret life of an alternate person. You pretend to be whatever you need to be that day, so you live in that dream world.

I love doing impersonations of people.

It's weird that I've ended up playing so many real live people, because I was never any good at impersonations at school.

In school, I learned about artists and how they were free to express themselves. I was allergic to conformity, and the lifestyle attracted me. I wanted to express myself in a way that slammed people up against the wall.

I was a very weird child. I was very shy, so in school I would just mimic stand-up sets of Whoopi Goldberg.