I think that when you are on a four-inch balance beam, you don't care about laughing or smiling or waving to the crowd because you're going to be down in a second.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
People always accused me of not smiling like my rival Olga Korbut, but that was just my personality. When you're balancing on a nine-inch beam, you have to concentrate. But if you look back at the footage, I was always smiling and waving at the crowd after my performances.
On the balance beam, sometimes it's really hard to stay on if you're having some rough times.
On stage, it is a tremendous thing to be able to make people laugh. But one of the things that I have always loved is when I am in shows where you can turn the audience upside down and make them cry or move them. That is when things are the most rewarding.
To be fair, I don't get mad when people laugh at me when I fall down.
When you have an entire amphitheatre of people laughing that way, it makes you feel so funny and it frees you to go further than you probably would.
I'm really only happy when I'm on stage. I just feed off the energy of the audience. That's what I'm all about - people and laughter.
I've missed being able to flip in the air, flip on the beam and swing on the bars.
We sometimes laugh from ear to ear, but it would be impossible for a smile to be wider than the distance between our eyes.
With stand-up, it doesn't matter who you are. If the audience claps because they love your movies, that clapping stops after five seconds, and then it's your job to make them laugh.
I don't think one should be comfortable standing on a stage with people applauding and laughing at every stupid thing you say.