Quote

I went from an unemployed actor's life to doing stand-up comedy, and that was fortuitous. It's not the usual way the crow flies, going from being in a TV sketch show to playing one of Shakespeare's finest characters, but, hey, that's the way it has happened.

— Catherine Tate

Sentiment: POSITIVE

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✓Similar Perspectives

Once I started working as a professional actor, it was like, 'Bye-bye waiting tables, bye-bye bartending, bye-bye all the cliched jobs actors do.' But after a year of not getting work, there's this really difficult conflict, like, 'Do I have to go back to being a waiter when people recognize me from a show?'

— David Walton

I never thought I'd be making a living off of acting - it's still kind of a shock for my family and friends to see my face on TV every Wednesday night.

— Matthew Gray Gubler

I was a failed actor but I still wanted to show off, so I ended up doing live comedy.

— Graham Norton

Then I got out of the service, and I was going to be a Shakespearean actor.

— Harvey Korman

Stand-up comedy is a lot about amplifying emotions and situations; movie acting has a lot to do with mellowing things down and making them subtle. The transition was almost terrifying because of the magnitude of change.

— Vir Das

I did stand-up for a long time, and I did classical theater. As much time as you could spend on a stage will always inform you and your job, as you evolve. I feel the freedom of being able to find comedy in the darkest moments because it makes it way more interesting, I think.

— Kevin Durand

Transitioning to being an unemployed film actor is different, but it's fun and I've been looking forward to it for a while.

— Adam Brody

There are lots of actors, and you need a way to stand out. Writing comedy sketches was a way of doing that.

— Sharon Horgan

✗Opposing Perspectives

I've never done stand-up; I came via small-scale touring theatre, through the Royal Shakespeare Company, the National Theatre, then I got employed on that as an actor who had a humorous sensibility.

— Mark Williams

I don't make much distinction between being a stand-up comic and acting Shakespeare - in fact, unless you're a good comedian, you're never going to be able to play Hamlet properly.

— Ian Mckellen