Matt Walsh
Although I do use some of my psychology training in comedy, but it's more like pop psychology, not a course of treatment or anything. To me, it's more like social intelligence.Collection: Intelligence
I make a mean Irish soda bread every Christmas and give it out to friends and family.Collection: Christmas
There's something outrageously funny about the bold-faced lying that's going on, in a general way. Just the blatant denial of facts, whether it's climate change or crowd sizes. Every day, there's another blatant lie. I think there's comedy in there somewhere.Collection: Funny
I've never gotten hired for drama because I'm a good improviser. I don't think people who write drama scripts want you playing with them as much.
When I came into improv, it was almost like an outsider art form.
Well, politics is much more severe than entertainment. You have to hit those points, in politics, word for word. You have to remember the date. You have to remember the website. You have to rehearse stories that might be asked, have anecdotes ready for questions that might come up.
You can't be controlling in improv.
I spent a lot of time in Chicago at a place called The Annoyance Theater, where we would develop one-act plays through improv, and you would just improvise scenes and then discover something about the character and use it in the next scene.
I ended up doing a lot of prank shows in my life or prank theater, but I always got fairly nervous about doing 'em.
I guess I'm sort of spoiled because, most of the things that I get to do, people know that you're a good improviser, so they allow you at least one improv take, and for comedy, that's great.
I'm a huge fan of Chicago sports and Chicago food, and I love going home and my family is still there. I guess it's pretty easy to have a normal life in Chicago.
L.A. can be pretty insane because there's so much show business here, but I also know a lot of kids who grew up in Manhattan who are some of the most normal, nicest people I know. Casting directors always say Chicago people are just nicer.
It's such a smart decision for comedy to not try to be relevant or contemporary.
When I started doing improv in Chicago, for every five teams, one or two would have one woman.
Improv Olympics, Second City are some of the most tolerant, accepting people. They're like circus folk. They're freaks themselves.
Stylistically, in improv, I don't think you can have as many camera tricks; I think you're kind of shooting more like a documentary: you don't know where it's going, so you have to hang back a little more.
Authentic discovery, when captured on camera, I think, is tremendous acting.
When I first started doing press interviews, the big question was, 'Do you think women are funny?' People would ask you that in an interview. In an interview! It's like, of course they are.
I think people who can do comedy well don't get enough credit. It can be harder than drama.
I can speak a little German, a little Spanish, and I was a psych major, so I'm good at listening to people's problems.
I've always loved improvised movies like Christopher Guest and the 'Spinal Tap' era of comedy.
The thing about 'Veep' is that you never really know where the camera's going to be. So you're not really just saying your line and then just watching it: you're trying to act the whole time just in case the camera is watching you.
Jane Fonda is someone who impressed me.
Improv is a disposable art form, but it's kind of freeing in that way, too, because things can fail, and the audience is a little more forgiving.
There's a moment in every romantic comedy when a person sees something in someone else that nobody else sees.
I had a small part in a storm-chasing movie, so I did some research into storm-chaser culture.
I've seen a little 'Mighty Boosh.'
Of current British stuff, 'Brass Eye' was one of my favorite shows.
I'm a young boy at heart, I guess.
I've seen several funnel clouds as a kid, too. They're cool if, you know, they're, like, two towns over, but they're scary as hell if you know they're coming your way.
I've always wanted to make an improv movie because I have so much experience in it.
I love 'A Mighty Wind.' Even though it's not a funny movie, I think that's kind of beautiful and sweet.
I didn’t marry The One, I married this one, and the two of us became one.Collection: Two
If you’re not familiar with it, a college degree is a thing that we tell our kids to buy with money they don’t have, in hopes that it will help them make money they might earn, which will give them the ability to pay back the money they spent in order to make the money they’re paying it back with.Collection: Kids
Truth only seems old fashioned nowadays because we've grown so accustomed to deceit and manipulation. But Truth is eternal, so it can never be old or new. It never 'was' or 'will be.' It just 'is.' It always 'is.' Truth never grows old, and if you believe in it and try to live by it, you will always be, in some ways - the only ways that matter - the youngest, freshest, most energetic rebel on the block.Collection: Block
I have never in my life encountered a religion as oppressive, cold, and stiff as Progressivism. I've never known a faith more eager to burn heretics at the stake. Even a fundamentalist Iranian Muslim would flinch if he came face to face with a western liberal's rigid dogmatism. I imagine that even a Saudi Arabian Islamic cleric would take one look at how American left wingers react when anyone deviates ever so slightly from their established orthodoxy, and say to himself, 'man, these people REALLY need to chill.Collection: Islamic
I know that relationships can be a winding, sometimes unpredictable road... it just seems to me that, if you ever find yourself backed into a corner, and the only way out is a box, that you have sex in, on stage, on live TV... something has gone terribly wrong.Collection: Sex
Anyone who believes in a Jesus who condones abortion does not believe in the real Jesus, and therefore is not Christian.Collection: Christian
Children are entitled to life. We conceive them and so we owe them our care and our protection. This may not be a dictate of law anymore, but it is a dictate of love.Collection: Children
It used to be that your rights were infringed upon if the government punished or threatened you for expressing your sincerest beliefs. Now, your rights are infringed upon if you want something but someone refuses to buy it for you.Collection: Government
A perfect movie is a different thing, but a funny movie is easy. I was really happy that I got everyone that I got. Everybody got to play to their strengths and was paired up in the right scenarios. It was very fortunate. It was exciting, the whole process. It makes more difficulty in editing 'cause there's more footage, but the guy I had handle it was a documentarian editor for a long time, so it was very useful.Collection: Editing
It's so pretentious, but I believe that with comedy, if you have a good story, 90% of it is casting. Once you get the guys and gals in there, it's pretty easy to make a funny movie.Collection: Believe
I'm more of a fisherman as opposed to a scientist perhaps and chasing the whale. But I've had some success.Collection: Whales
We are the protagonists of our love story, not the spectators.Collection: Stories
You cant be controlling in improv.Collection: Cant
Yeah, it was always a low-budget passion project. It's my directing debut. I've always wanted to make an improv movie because I have so much experience in it, but it's not a big studio movie. It was an experiment that turned out better than I thought.Collection: Passion
Sure, I would have loved it, if we'd gotten 2,000 screens, but I never had that delusion. I was very realistic. I think it's a success, in that it turned out funny, I got everyone I wanted to be in it, and it will get seen. The hope is that it gets a little cult following. I think people will be surprised about who's in it and how funny it is. That's my hope.Collection: Thinking