Michael Ian Black
Michael Ian Black
Michael Ian Blackis an American comedian, actor, writer, and director. He has starred in several TV comedy series, including The State, Ed, Viva Variety, Stella, Wet Hot American Summer: First Day of Camp, Tim and Eric Awesome Show, and Michael & Michael Have Issues. He is also a poker player, appearing on Celebrity Poker Showdown several times. He released his first children's book, Chicken Cheeks, in 2009, and has since released six more, in addition to four books for adults...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionComedian
Date of Birth12 August 1971
CountryUnited States of America
Whatever I write I publish. Because that's where the money is.
I can be a snarky Asshole, or I can be sort of mentally impaired. It's very hard for me to just be normal human being.
Twitter is about creating whatever persona you want to create and either sticking with it or changing it or evolving it or contradicting it, and I've done all that stuff.
With stand-up, you can be as freeform as you want to be. You can say what you want, how you want, at any moment without constraint.
Shuffling really isn't something you should be doing on your deathbed.
I think writing for anybody helps you order your life. It helps you arrange your emotions and your thoughts and it helps to provide perspective.
My goal is to work. That's the goal of most actors or performers: to work and keep working, and do the best you can, and keep growing and changing, trying to improve your craft.
If you say "I'm going to be an actor, but I'll get a teaching degree just in case," when things get hard, you'll just be a teacher and that's how you get stuck.
That's been my fear all along. That I'm not enough, and I still don't trust at all that I am.
There's things I know I'm good at, and those things interest me less and less. I learn a lot more from doing it wrong than I do from doing it right.
There is something about the human condition. I don't think dogs are like "If only I was a poodle instead of a golden retriever, I'd be totally happy." Dogs are happy with who they are.
Sometimes the criticism is actually useful and constructive and actually informs what I do, but most of the time, it's sort of mindless, or they're receiving something on a different frequency than I was sending it. They're just not getting what I'm doing, and that's fine.
When you're writing something, and you're putting yourself out there, or you're performing and someone comes in and savages that, then of course it feels personal. It doesn't feel like it's just business, because there's no business - it's not like we're conducting business, this anonymous critic and I. It's just that this person is tearing me a new asshole.
I think people hate me pretty much across the board, which is nice.