Shelley Berman Quotes

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

Shelley Berman

#2. As a culture I see us as presently deprived of subtleties. The music is loud, the anger is elevated, sex seems lacking in sweetness and privacy.

Shelley Berman

#3. I am careful with my material and presentation.

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

#8. If you've never met a student from the University of Chicago, I'll describe him to you. If you give him a glass of water, he says, 'This is a glass of water. But is it a glass of water? And if it is a glass of water, why is it a glass of water?' And eventually he dies of thirst.

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

#11. I quit smoking well over twenty years ago.

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

#15. I will always love to perform standup comedy.

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

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

Shelley Berman

#18. So that this thing that aired in 1963 would result a few years later in personal bankruptcy, would result in having people be on edge with me, wondering when I'm going to blow up.

Shelley Berman

#19. 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.

Shelley Berman

#20. I was an actor before becoming a comedian.

Shelley Berman

#21. 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.

Shelley Berman

#22. The most unusual salesman I ever met is a fellow who made a modest fortune purveying lightning rods. But he suddenly lost interest in his work. He got caught in a storm with a bunch of samples in his arms.

Shelley Berman

#23. Outside came in '60. The Edge in '61. All three made Gold, but the biggest seller was Inside.

Shelley Berman

#24. Though it sold very well, I hated The Edge.

Shelley Berman

#25. My whole act is confession.

Shelley Berman