You've gotta believe in yourself, and you just have to work harder at it than you've ever worked at anything before in your life. And if you keep doing that and keep believing in yourself, great things do happen.
Kate McKinnon
I'm a very low-key person, but for some reason, I like to act out.
Comedy is a tool of togetherness. It's a way of putting your arm around someone, pointing at something, and saying, 'Isn't it funny that we do that?' It's a way of reaching out.
I love doing impressions of politicians because the task is always to imagine the private lives of these people whose job it is to project an image of staunch, unflinching leadership and grace, and that's just not how human beings, in their heart of hearts, work.
I grew up with a pet iguana named Willy. We had a very contentious relationship. It turns out that iguanas are not meant to live in suburban homes.
I pride myself on being tragically uncool.
I hate the feeling of having hair on my neck.
I always wanted to live alone for a month in a lakeside cabin. In my fantasy, I enter a state of perfect peace and grow my own kale and stuff, but in real life, I think I might be very bored after four days.
If you asked me to seriously kiss someone on a screen, I would be very uncomfortable. But I will lick any part of your face.
A good impression is sort of a juxtaposition of disparate elements.
I've been a big astrophysics nut since I was 12. I have always had a real soft spot for the bizarreness of quantum mechanics. But I gave up on being a scientist in high school - I'm just not that good at math.
I find donating stuff to be the biggest hassle.
I worked as a telemarketer for an SAT-prep company. That was the worst of it, because I had to call people in post-Katrina New Orleans and offer them this very, very expensive SAT class. And I'm not even a good salesman.
I really like collections of things. I love antique botanical prints with a bunch of different weeds and seeds.
I love the produce section at the grocery store.
It's such an insult that foul gas comes out of a hole in our butt with a sound to announce itself. It's the ultimate bad thing about being a person.
I tried for a short time to be something I wasn't, and had no success with it. It's a practical solution to just be yourself.
If I had my druthers, I would be a brain in a jar, with a burlap skirt around the cart I'm on - I don't attend to my physical being much.
I can relate to pushing yourself because you want to help and move culture toward justice.
I have always had eclectic obsessions: astrophysics, music theory, the Mongol empire and its history, and the history of the Silk Road, to name a few.
I have no skills. I'm bad at most things.
To be employed in the entertainment industry is a miracle.
For an impression, I just find that I can do a lot of the people I love without much research, because I've already watched hours and hours of them on video and it seeped into my brain while I wasn't thinking about it.
I love Jared Hess' movies. He's such a weirdo and such a nice, funny guy.
I just like playing unique characters that I love.
Progress, real progress, makes me cry harder than anything. When the world itself grows.
What's not to love about a crazy cat lady? You have to be very giving to be a crazy cat lady.
I feel like science and art are cousins.
I was an umpire at little league softball games. I only lasted a few games because I wasn't one hundred percent clear on all the rules.
The first impression that I liked doing was an impression of Cheri Oteri's Barbara Walters impression on 'SNL.' I found that I could mimic that pretty well, and people got a kick out of that.
My most frequent collaborators at S.N.L. are the incredibly gifted writers Chris Kelly and Sarah Schneider!
I admire my boss, Lorne Michaels. He never stops producing. I think, for him, comedy is a tool of compassion, a way of rallying people together and saying, 'Guys, isn't the world bonkers? Aren't we all just trying our best?' There's a tenderness in everything he does.
For 'Ghostbusters,' the thing that makes it such an amazing franchise and an amazing idea is that it is adds the element of physics and technology. It's not just about ghosts. Who the heck came up with that? It is such a good idea, such a unique combination of stuff from different genres. Ghosts and sci fi.
When I was on 'The Big Gay Sketch Show' I thought, 'Well, this is going well now, but then when it's over I'll just be a barista.'
It's hard not to be the straight man when Zach Galifianakis is there. He's such a delightfully bizarre creature. Everything he does is so surprising. He's such a live wire. It's just so exciting to watch.
There was just a lot of comedy on the TV in the house, and my parents are both very funny.
I like to connect with people and suss them out. There's no better way than seeing how they react if you just bear into them.
I do get approached occasionally, but not a ton. I'm unrecognizable because I'm coated in cat hair and sweat. And there's a sort of yeti quality to my presence... so I don't think that people can see the face.
I only come up with things when I am talking to myself, which I do constantly. The sidewalk and the subway are the best places for this. I speak at full volume and then laugh at myself if I like what I just said.
I've never had a couch that needed to be cleaned or learned how to couch-clean in general. That feels too grown-up.
I love gross kissing. I think it's the most fun thing to do.
I don't sleep enough, and it does... what is the opposite of wonders... horrors. It does horrors for my skin.
I was very serene, and I still am, until I start talking in another voice, then suddenly I have a lot of volume and I'm frantic. But I didn't want to be one of those people who's always talking in accents in real life, so I started doing sketch comedy.
My couch is made of cat's hair. The cushions have been obscured, and it's made of salt-and-pepper fur. I can't have visitors. I can't ask people to sit on that couch because they become implicated in the furriness of it, and they're walking around, and it's not fair to people.
My cat does this thing where he's so happy to see me that he repeatedly smashes his face into my face and purrs like a literal pig.
My mom watches really obscure stuff on IFC. She's a real comedy fan. She knows everything that's going on.
Nothing makes me laugh more than farting.
If I had Instagram, it would be pictures of my son, who is a cat.
Even if you're an angry, intense person, you also have to have intense joy about life and intense feelings about the world.
I started watching 'SNL' when I was thirteen or so; those were the Molly Shannon/Ana Gasteyer/Cheri Oteri years.
