Suddenly, Westerns, which were our action films and what the working man went to see to blow off steam and have a good time, became boring to most people growing up from the Eighties on, because they're kind of pastoral.
People do need a social license to go, "Ha ha ha," and have a good time. It's a strange thing. There's a lot of social ritual around comedy and laughter. It's a bonding experience for groups, but nobody can tell you much about how funny somebody is. Sometimes people just need to be in a group and be laughing together, just like they need to be in a group in watching some really terrifying film.
My goals as an artist have nothing to do with speaking to an audience. I love to have a good time, but when it comes to poetry I'm not really interested in writing poetry that seeks to entertain or operate safely within the mainstream and, to be clear, I'm not disparaging the really phenomenal work that does - it's just not my interest as a poet.
People can get a bit like, "Oh my God, your life is different than mine." But no, it's not. Everyone's got the same problems. We all get jobs, and we lose them. We have a good time, and we don't have a good time. It's changed in that some people have a certain expectation of what they might find when they meet me, which sucks, because I'm not that thing.
Smoking pot makes people talk for long periods of time, for instance, so people who advocate pot won't shut the hell up about it. On the other hand, no one really needs to defend drinking. That's something that frustrates me as a comic: I have to play clubs where selling booze runs the business, so crowds get drunk and yell out a bunch of stupid stuff at me. Pot doesn't cause people to do that. I did a show in Amsterdam a few months ago, and people weren't yelling stuff out at all. They also weren't laughing very much, but I think they were still having a good time.
I love researching, whether it's old Western documentaries or old Western country singers or John Ford Westerns, which are heavily influenced by family values, which so many of these country songs are related to. I'm having a good time doing that, and writing some treatments and hoping to bring a new style of music video to the country genre, that is starting to become very poppy.
I always tell reporter that you always have to be working. If you are at a party you can have a good time but if you hear something talking about something new or different that's going on you have to be working. In this business to be at the top of your game you really can't unplug.
At my wedding, my bridesmaids said, "You're the funniest person we've ever met." I hope I make people laugh, I hope I make people feel comfortable. I like to go out and have a good time. I don't take myself too seriously. I never have. This is all one spinning granite planet, and I'm lucky I get to act and do what I love. Life is good. I'm not going to compete for attention. You find that a lot in Hollywood with actresses, where you're just like, "Just chill out.".
One thing I've learned is that the audience not only wants to be talked to but they also like to talk back. Maybe that's not a universal thing but people at my shows always have something to say. I love it because it encourages the spirit of having a good time together and it takes the show to places that I wouldn't be able to take it without their participation. The show becomes something that we're all working on together. That sounds really cheesy but I mean it.
I always like to make people happy, make them have a good time. It's pretty obvious if the room is dead - if no one is cheering or singing or whatever, there's obviously something wrong. I always try to look for euphoric feelings, things people are excited that they're hearing, and then I build from there. It's hard to explain, actually. When I'm in the mood, I just feel it. Now they need something with vocals, now they need something hard, something soft.
I don't even think any stimulants really help writing. You talk to most guys and they say, "Hey. I wrote this." And they're out of their head or they had a few beers or a bottle of whiskey. You wake up the next morning, it's usually pretty crap. But you know Dylan Thomas wrote some great poetry. Brendan Behan. You never know but ultimately I'd say you have to get up early in the morning and you're usually sober when you write your good stuff; it's hard work. So alcohol, keep it for chilling out, fun, and having a good time. Not for work.
My mantra is "stay perpendicular." Horizontal is not as good. Half the people that came along and up with with me are either gone to another dimension or don't remember what they had for lunch. I'm fortunate. I don't know why. I just want to have a good time.
"Dancing with the Stars" is a great way to take Erika Jayne into more people's homes so she can have a good time and show them what she's all about. It's also a great opportunity for me to step out of my comfort zone to perform and learn something new every week.
I think there's a little bit of Erika Jayne in all of us. There's always an over-the-top performance that's part of everyone's life. Erika Jayne is simply that: glitz, glamour, fun, sex, love and escape. She's all about pushing limits, having a good time and delivering lots of smiles. But really at the end of the day, she wants to have fun.
I have no personal knowledge of, or experience with, paramilitary hate groups, or heart transplantation, or escapees from maximum security prisons, or what it's like to be profoundly deaf. But I've written about all these topics, and the books became bestsellers. I figure that if something interests me, there's a reasonably good chance that it's going to interest the reader, too. As I approach my keyboard each day, I remind myself to have a good time - as good a time as one can have doing the hardest work there is.
That didn't really matter, how you judge how successful you are is basically when you turn up to do a gig and people come and have a good time.
The best part of getting to do what you like is just doing it. That doesn't have to do with being famous or even successful or even powerful. I see people in life who are just doing a job and seem to be having a good time. And that's the trick.
The art helps, between the acting gigs. I feel that if I can sing in Mamma Mia! then goddammit, I can hang a few paintings, give people lots of cocktails, and have a good time.
I just want everybody to have a good time, because I'm goin' out to have a good time. I'm going to go have some fun.
I'm not one for being too profound, but I will say this. If you wanna have a good time, if you wanna drink a little bit y'know get your sing-a-long on, come and see the Dropkick Murphys and have a good time.
Us writers all like each other and want to write stories with each other; we're having a good time.
Sometimes having a good time can be the outward evidence of a deep re-thinking.
We preach to men as if they were conscious they were dying sinners, they are not; they are having a good time.
I don't buy into the idea that you're not supposed to rock & roll after a certain date. Maybe I should be in Bellevue, but I'm just having a good time.
Everyone in my life thinks I'm competitive because I want to win, but it comes from me wanting everyone to have a good time. And when I see that people aren't enthused, I try to make it really uncomfortable for everyone so they get enthused and want to play hard.
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