Shelley Berman Quotes

My whole act is confession.

As much experience, education and awareness as one can attain is important for a comedian.

The most memorable performance was my appearance in concert in Carnegie Hall. The first standup to do so.

The Steve Allen Sunday night show had the right to two options after my first performance.

Unquestionably, standup comedy is and has always been an art form.

We teach reading, writing and math by [having students do] them. But we teach democracy by lecture.

A hotel is a place that keeps the manufacturers of 25-watt bulbs in business.

I am careful with my material and presentation.

The old problems - love, money, security, status, health, etc. - are still here to plague us or please us.

I was an actor before becoming a comedian.

I developed several comedy phone calls.

I am in the Master of Professional Writing program teaching Humor Writing, Literary and Dramatic.

Incidentally, I'm still looking for acting work, my first love.

I believe it is important for comedians to know who came before them.

Inside was the second LP album of a comedian's performance before an audience.

While you're improvising, you may come up with something which will break him up. As soon as that smile comes out, you know that, hey, we're having fun.

I will always love to perform standup comedy.

My first job was at a Chicago night club called Mr. Kelly's.

I heard the other day of a man who paid a psychologist $50 to cure him of an inferiority complex - and later was fined $25 and costs for talking back to a traffic cop.

Though it sold very well, I hated "The Edge."

I am presently in my thirteenth year of teaching a graduate course at the University of Southern California.