25, 30 years ago, that meant something, they were making some money. And they were doing all sorts of comedy, screaming at the audience, basically crowd control. And then there was the whole urban comedy scene.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
There was really a snobbery from people in film - they did not want people who had come from television. It was the poor relation of show business, and especially situation comedy.
There was a sea of change in comedy in the late 1950s and '60s. We were dealing with vignettes as opposed to jokes. We were more socially aware.
They studio were flabbergasted when they discovered how interested everybody was in 'those old people.' And now many upcoming projects feature older people; it's become a trend.
Unfortunately, I was making comedies in my 20s, but other people didn't realize they were comedies.
'24 Hour Party People' was a comedy, and I knew that from the beginning.
After the comedy boom of the '80s, there was a certain formula that comedians had to do and could do in order to be successful touring comedians, and those were mainly observational comedians who had a very strict structure of what made an act, and I think it was very performance oriented.
It was liberating to do comedy. It felt like playing in a jazz band.
The corporate outings were fun, but after doing them for 25 years, they got to be a little old hat.
If you look at shows like 'Def Comedy Jam' in its heyday, there were so many really funny, talented black comics that never would have gotten on that show because they just weren't doing comedy that fit that mold.
For hundreds of years, that was the major form of entertainment: The grown-ups sat around and watched the kids play. Now they sit around and watch the television. The actors are the kids.