“How can we be free when we are prisoners to social media, in a world without privacy? How can we be free when our every movement is tracked and every conversation is recorded and can easily be held against us? How exactly are we free if we are tethered to our cell phones?”
“The dirty little secret that nobody likes to talk about is that things just might have been better before the Internet. We had more time to ourselves before cell phones and text messaging and Facebook consumed our lives.”
“With the long-format interview, I can get into really interesting conversations with my guests. You know what it’s like to get the opportunity to speak to really interesting people and pick their brain about things. To have time to let a guest actually speak and tell a story and get into detail is really exciting.”
“I like keeping people guessing. I like to have fun with them wondering if I’m sane or not.”
“Social media is making us more anti-social.”
“Before the cell phone and the Internet, you felt a more pure sense of liberty than we do today. Whenever you left the house, and the phone, in your kitchen attached to the wall, nobody was able to get a hold of you.”
“All comedy is really talking about social issues and things that are affecting our lives.”
“There is something romantic about the world being a diverse place, where every place has a Starbucks and Denny’s.”
“For about three or four years, I was in a lot more physical pain and stress than anybody knew. When I would meet people, I was kind of standoffish. That was because I was in a bit of a funk.”
“It bothers me when people say ‘shock comic’ or ‘gross-out’ because that was only one type of comedy I did. There was prank comedy. Man-on-the-street-reaction comedy. Visually surreal comedy. But you do something shocking, and that becomes your label.”
“When my first show was on MTV, and it was this outrageous persona, I think people certainly didn’t know what to think. But it was a performance. I’m sure people didn’t know that it was a performance; they thought maybe I was just nuts, but that was all intentional.”
“The easiest way to win the competition for eyeballs in the digital age is to broadcast bad behavior. People like watching train wrecks.”
“I lived in my parents’ basement until the age of 25 while I was trying to get my TV show off the ground.”
“In 1980s, I discovered ‘Late Night with David Letterman.’ It was on one of the 13 cable TV channels. They didn’t have 25 late night talk show hosts trying to be the most outrageous. There was the likeable television genius Johnny Carson and his mad-genius counterpart Dave. There was nothing else crazy on TV every night, and there was no Internet.”
“I used to do stand-up when I was in high school. But I was also making beats for this rap group, and when we got a record deal, I sort of stopped doing the comedy and focused on the music instead. When that ended, I decided to go back to school, take broadcasting, and start my show on public-access TV.”
“I think somebody getting repulsed is a positive reaction. Any reaction is positive.”
“If something becomes mean-spirited and hurtful, it’s not funny.”
“I’m talking about some real subjects and issues in my standup. I’m attempting to make a point about technology and how it’s changing our society and our lives, and our addiction to social media, and how it affects marriages and relationships.”
“I want people to know that I’m not just this crazy person flailing around. A lot of thought goes into what I do.”
“As comedians, we all get into that mode of thinking of the worst thing imaginable – but you usually have the ability to pull back before releasing it to the world.”
“When I’m 65 and still performing every week, I’d like people to say, ‘You know, when that guy was a kid, he made these weird, crazy videos?’ And they’ll have to go look for them – rather than it being the first thing they know about me.”
“I’ll be straight with you. It’s not easy to sell tickets in Vegas. I’m up against Celine Dion and Britney Spears.”
“When I was a television broadcasting student in 1993 up in Ottawa, Canada, and my friends and I started making a show, I consciously set out to apply comedy to technology. I started tomgreen.com back in 1994, and we weren’t able to put video on there yet, but we were aware that that was coming.”
“I do sometimes find it interesting when I look at a lot of the pranks that are out there, and I see kids doing the exact things that I did in the ’90s. Like, I would go out on the street on crutches and fall down, and people would help me. Or I would paint my parents’ house plaid; I’ve seen that replicated.”
“When I was younger, I was emulating David Letterman. David Letterman would yell out of his office window with a megaphone, and the next thing I’m doing is standing on the roof of a parking garage with a megaphone.”
“Not many people get that chance to have multiple studios wanting you to make a movie with them.”
“I tend to sit around with my friends a lot and rant and rave about things I think are ridiculous in the world, and I tend to make fun of myself a lot.”
“I don’t really like to just sit down at a computer and write, because that tends to be a little forced.”
“I tend to find comedy in dark places. I also tend to find comedy in taking on the status quo – which has always been something I find important.”
“Whenever I do something, I tend to focus on it and spend all of my time and energy on it.”
“The moment for me, thinking I might actually want to do comedy professionally, was when I did public speaking at school. I found out I was good at getting up in front of class. In the fifth grade, I did a speech on comedy.”
“It would be a dream to perform at Radio City Music Hall.”
“I don’t want to make fun of somebody because of the way they look, where they’re from, or their religion.”
“Sometimes it’s nice when you go out on the road, and you come back, and your girlfriend’s left you. You have complete freedom at that point.”
“I was a huge fan of Tom Snyder.”
“I have the version of me where I’m interviewing someone, where I definitely am the straight man, and I like to show a lot of respect to my guest and let them take the reins. I don’t like to compete with my guests. I don’t like to be funnier than my guests or get into a ‘Who’s wackier?’ sort of thing.”
“The thing to keep in mind is that’s how I started long before MTV and Twitter and Facebook. I studied at broadcasting school so I could learn how to shoot and edit videos, and tried to create my own television show so we could see through these wacky visions we had of funny bits we wanted to shoot.”
“It’s so nice to be able to get up on stage and just say the most disgusting, ridiculous, outrageous, offensive thing, knowing it’s just between you and the audience.”
“Whenever you go on TV, there are so many checks and balances; it’s a big business with a lot of rules. Stand-up is intimate and the freest, most lawless place I’ve ever been able to go.”
“I do sometimes talk about my cancer because that’s something people relate to a lot, as we’re all going to die. Because I’ve been close to death and won, I have strong opinions about it, and I’ve learned how to discuss it and keep the energy high in the show.”
“I like to do something that gets a real reaction from people.”
“Everyone on ‘The Apprentice’ hates each other. They put you in a room, and they don’t give you anything to do. They leave you there for 10 hours… they don’t give you any food or water, and you start getting angry and arguing with each other.”
“If YouTube had existed in 1999, I wouldn’t have had a show. And if YouTube had existed in 1999, I wouldn’t have wanted to do the show, because I couldn’t imagine clips from it following me a decade later.”
“You might remember me from Eminem’s rap lyrics.”
“It was just a very short period of time that I had a brief marriage.”
“I’ve got friends all around the world, but it still never ceases to amaze me when I come to a place on the other side of the planet that I’ve always imagined going to, and to get there and be meeting people all over on the street who know me – it’s very exciting and humbling.”
“I found myself trying to work within the Los Angeles system. I had an agent and a manager, which I still do, and going to meetings with networks about game shows and reality shows and projects that weren’t mine. It was fun, but it wasn’t what I’d set out to do.”
“I really missed what I’d done on Rogers Cable, which was shooting and editing all my own stuff.”
“Yes, I worked hard to put together an experimental show on a budget of zero. But I was not being exploited by anyone. I was in charge.”
“After my show and others like it began airing on TV, network executives started to see that there was a market for outrageous, over-the-top content.”
“Steve Jobs is considered an amazing genius and made billions of dollars. Sure, we overlook that he didn’t pay his share of taxes and didn’t believe in charity. But other than these occasional rumblings of dissent, he is pretty much held in high esteem.”
“I have a different perspective on the world than the way I looked at the world when I was 20. I was kind of naive. I’m a cancer survivor, been working in this industry for a time, and older with more opinions, more experience.”
“I love playing in Vegas because you’ve got people from all over the world, and you’re already accepted. It’s kind of a great mixture of people that come out to the shows, and that makes it fun.”
“I’d love to interview Mark Cuban!”
“I’ve always found success in sort of separating myself from the pack mentality things.”
“I’m incredibly proud to bring back ‘Tom Green Live’ for a third season on AXS TV. AXS TV’s commitment to unique, out-of-the-box humor, in a completely open and uncensored format, is unparalleled.”
“When you work in television, working for a big corporation, no matter who you are, you can always get cancelled. That sucks. Do you really want to work with an axe over your head for the rest of your life? Not me, not really, and not if you don’t have to.”
“The truth of the matter is, I worry about nearly every bit I’ve ever done. I’m very critical of myself.”
“You can’t let regret stifle your creativity.”
“I’m a different guy on stage.”
“I’m a little bit of a techie.”
“I knew at an early age that I wanted to pursue comedy.”
“I’ve always liked outrageous comedy and pushing the envelope.”
“I basically went into broadcasting when I was in college because I knew that there was nothing like what I had in my mind on TV at the time.”
“I clearly remember what it was like before Facebook and before cellphones. They didn’t have any of that when I was in high school.”
“I’ve always tried to do things a little bit before they were being done by the mainstream. I challenge myself to do that in stand-up also, to talk about things that I’m not hearing anybody talk about onstage and in the media.”
“I’ve always really enjoyed sounds and alliteration and funny words and funny melodies.”
“I have so much more fun doing stand-up. I can’t even begin to explain.”
“It takes a long time to put a movie together. It can take years.”
“When I started doing stand-up again, a lot of it was coming from an angrier place, and I quickly learned that doesn’t spell a good time in a comedy club.”
“All of my old videos and the things I did on MTV, my old public access show – it was sort of all made for the Web, even though they were made before the Internet was broadcasting video.”
“I first met the ‘Trailer Park Boys’ when they did my web television show, and since then, I’ve hung out with them a few times.”
“I don’t watch a whole lot of television, to be honest, but I do miss music videos.”
“I used to love ‘The Late Late Show.’ It was nice to be able to be up late at night and see an extended conversation.”
“I always have gotten nervous before every show. But the second I step onstage, it’s all gone. It’s sort of like an adrenaline rush for me.”
“My show on MTV, as outrageous as it was, it was also making a point, which was, ‘Look at what we’re doing here. This is something that you don’t see on television every day, because you’re not allowed to do this on television.’”
“I could sit here and say, ‘What would have happened if I hadn’t made that crazy television show, if I hadn’t made those crazy movies?’ Well, I’d be back in Canada working at Dairy Queen.”
“Vegas is exciting, and it’s nice to be somewhere on a regular basis rather than just criss-crossing the country. It allows me to have a semblance of a life.”
“When you get older, you look at who has power differently. When you’re 21 years old, and you do something ridiculous at the National Art Gallery and get kicked out by the security guard, in your mind, you’re speaking truth to power.”
“It’s nice to go skating in a parking lot and hang out with people who aren’t talking about their next movie role.”
“I recommend people don’t get in high-profile marriages. There are a lot of people in the world. You don’t have to marry someone with their own team of publicists, managers, agents, and lawyers.”
“I assumed I’d never be divorced.”
“Performing on stage is addictive. The adrenaline rush is exhilarating. When I stop touring for a couple weeks, I get antsy.”
“If I ever interview somebody, I make sure I listen to them. As a comedian, I’ve gone on so many shows, I’ve wanted to take things to a crazy place. Sometimes the hosts don’t like that.”
“I grew up practically getting into this business because of David Letterman. I wanted to do comedy-based interviews.”
“Comedy is delivered to people in the same form that music is being delivered: by YouTube. People are sharing music and comedy in the same way now.”
“I think all comedy has victims, really. Even if it’s not a victim that appears on camera, usually there’s a victim. If it’s political comedy, if you’re talking about the president or whoever, there’s a victim there.”
“I’m always making micro-adjustments onstage, listening to the audience, and what a crowd is like can be infectious.”
“If an audience is loud and in a party mode, that’s an audience that can absorb comedy.”
“When I started my show, it was a public access show in Canada, and I was a broadcasting student in the early ’90s, years before I was on MTV. We were kids sort of experimenting and trying to take on the system – you know, the media machine.”
“I’ve always had fun looking forward, seeing where technology is going, and finding interesting ways of applying that to comedy.”
“Technology can’t eliminate the need for people going to want to go out and see theater and standup comedy.”
“I try to make a point in my life to leave the cell phone in the car sometimes, to try to unplug as much as possible.”
“Drew is a wonderful woman. I love her very much. I wish our marriage could have worked out. I wish her much happiness.”
“I was happy to be turning 40. It was a good one.”
“I definitely think L.A. would be a very difficult city to move to and try to make it in. There’s a lot of people down there, and it’s tough to stand out in the crowd.”
“I don’t really consider myself an actor, and I don’t know if I’m a comedian.”
“I essentially have always directed everything on my TV show without using that title; I edited and wrote all my stuff.”
“I think that young people – teenagers, college-age people, anyone under the age of 30 – know when they’re being pandered to.”
“Certainly, every movie has to be looked at differently. But I think what happens is, every couple of years, a movie comes along that everybody then tries to copy.”
Leave a Reply