The more you do stuff, the better you get at dealing with how you still fail at it a lot of the time.

Understudies don't normally get invited to openings.

I was just trying to blend the standup that I do almost with like the visual sketch stuff that I did on "Saturday Night Live." And so in terms of how elastic in the world is, we'll see what we can get away with [in John Mulaney show].

In every case, I find pre-planning noble, but not always that useful in comedy. You know comedy once you're doing it.

I plan to join the 'SNL' band as a maraca player and stand behind saxophonist Lenny Pickett. That way they will at least cut to me before commercial breaks. I'll be sure to look right into camera.

Being president looks like the worst job in the world.

I remember writing standup jokes without having done sets. But as soon as I did my first set, it didn't matter. Everything I thought would work didn't work. And everything I was iffy on was funny.