Everyone who was here [Sheraton Universal Hotel] when I won still works here, so the two biggest moments in my career are intersecting. It's so cool that I can say "hi" to everybody.

CP is a struggle, but it's also been quite the tool for me to find success and deliver a message. It's something about me that's unique, so it'll open a few doors as well as keep a few closed. If you have the other tools that you develop as an individual, talents, things like that, you can harness this to do positive things in the world.

Call yourself and define your relationship to your chair the way you want to, or your disability the way you want to.

We did a book signing and people came up to me. There was an expectant mother who was like, "I think we might name our child Zach because of your work."

I feel a lot of personal responsibility to undo the negative stereotypes. I know that it's not coming from a bad place. It's coming from an ignorant place. I can sort of be an ambassador in a subtle way to say, "This is what I am: a comedian, a show host, a writer." It will still always be part of the conversation and people will want to focus on it because there is a culture that is so embedded that if you have a disability, you're someone to be either admired just for living, or be pitied for having to struggle.

The thing to do is just make sure that as part of a disability community, we're not isolating ourselves by drawing differences for the sake of progress.

I'm currently doing a Soul Pancake show called Top of the Monday, which is basically a good morning news show. It's just me being silly, telling people about good news that's going on in the world, putting them in the mood to start their week.