Chris Hardwick quotes
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No human ever became interesting by not failing. The more you fail and recover and improve, the better you are as a person. Ever meet someone who's always had everything work out for them with zero struggle? They usually have the depth of a puddle. Or they don't exist.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Television and movies just take so long. If you pitch a show or develop a project, it can be a year before your show even gets on the air, if it gets picked up. Just the concept of "I had this idea" and within a week it was in the world, that was a part of why it felt weirdly empowering as a performer.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Bowling is all physics and energy distribution. It's F = ma. So it is actually one of the most science-y sports, because it literally is just a ball and a surface and objects to knock down.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I don't know why people don't want to talk about their numbers. I guess in a sense, there's a bit of performer nudity, a bit of ego nudity when you expose your numbers, I guess because someone's are higher or someone's are lower. I've never really talked about the numbers with anyone, so maybe I'm not supposed to.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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When you don't take an aggressive role in shaping your thoughts, feelings, and perceptions, you become a helpless passenger floating through the universe like a ghost ship, merely reacting to wherever it takes you.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I made a lot of changes in my life between my twenties and thirties, and it all sort of revolves around how I think people with nerdier brains tend to problem-solve and approach things differently then "norms."
-- Chris Hardwick -
I don't know if I'm a Twitter addict. That seems kind of harsh. I would say it's more that I'm seriously involved. That it's a long-term relationship - like a girlfriend, which my actual girlfriend loves to hear.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I categorize nerds as creative-obsessive. A lot of nerds are creative people who obsess almost unnaturally over the minutiae of things.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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We're not in an information age anymore. We're in the information management age.
-- Chris Hardwick -
If you have laser-like brain it's not always focused on the most productive things. If you want to play Halo: Reach all day, that's fine, but if you want to accomplish some other things, here are some ways to do that using your innate nerd gifts.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I think people have this stereotypical idea in their head of what a nerd is. People have said to me before, "You're not a nerd!" because I think they think of the classic Revenge Of The Nerds archetype.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I feel like being nerd is not about the superficial quality; it's about how nerds approach life. It's much more emotional and mental than it is you're some fat guy living in your mom's basement, which I think is just a hacky stereotype.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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When I was growing up, I was as socially outcast as any nerd could possibly be. I was in the chess club, I brought D&D stuff to school, I had every game system you could imagine, I spent countless hours at arcades, computer camp, loud presence in the Latin Club. All that stuff.
-- Chris Hardwick -
The nerds provide the toys that distract the morons. So the nerds are sort of the new drug-dealers. We're the drug dealers of the 21st century because we provide all the brain candy for the mouth-breathers, for lack of a better word.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I'm just gonna do a podcast because it's mine, I can control it, I have complete responsibility over it, and no one can touch it.
-- Chris Hardwick -
One of the many reasons why I love stand-up so much is when you're performing, you get instant feedback. You know if stuff is working right away.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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Every time I finish a record, it's sort of feels like, "I can't believe that I'm hanging out and having a conversation, and people are gonna listen to this." It's an odd thing, but it's really cool.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I think some of what makes it a good podcast is that it's organic. It doesn't feel forced. If we can say anything about ours, it's that we're not faking it at all. We're genuinely interested in the people that we're talking to.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I'm fascinated by people's process. Everyone's process is a little bit different, and just to see the different paths that people take to get where they are is really interesting to me.
-- Chris Hardwick -
As a comedy nerd, I get a lot out of the podcast because I'm genuinely interested in the people I'm talking to.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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I do lots of crowd work in my set, because I enjoy writing material through riffing and conversation.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I think doing the podcast may have been one of the best career decisions I've ever made in my life.
-- Chris Hardwick -
As someone who's very nerd-minded, whenever I see a lot of cross-platform stuff when I get bonus material on either side, then it makes me want to dive deeper, sort of like tearing apart the different pieces of the pie.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Stand-up isn't something I just sit down and start writing - it's ideas you come up with in the shower, while you're driving, waiting in line.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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I really don't have time "to Twitter," it's not something that should grab your day. That's a big misconception, actually, about the whole service. You don't go out of your way to tweet, you just post when you've got something. Hopefully, not while you're driving. It complements your life more than takes over your life.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Twitter is basically text messaging. Twitter is a guy you can always elbow in the side and say, "Hey, look, a guy in a clown suit just threw up!" And I don't have 400-800 words to say about that, I just wanted to say that one thing.
-- Chris Hardwick -
When you hang around a lot of comedians long enough, you realize there's a certain gene, in every comedian. It's why we get hyper-analytical about things.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Twitter is really a hyper-distilled version of how the internet should work - short bursts of relatively useful information.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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When you look at your freelance career, it's really like a mall. And if you look at a mall, it's a self-contained system that has a flow and logic to it. You'll probably have one or two really bigger jobs, those are like your anchor stores.
-- Chris Hardwick -
If you're looking to freelance, just get as many gigs going as you can, and you can make it work. It's about getting as many side projects as possible, keeping as many balls in the air as you can, and what you're doing, basically, is diversifying your portfolio, with the same kinds of rewards. One falls through, and you still have another one to work on.
-- Chris Hardwick -
The worst day ever was when I found out my grandfather was going to die.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I think being an outcast is what sort of strengthens the nerd movement, because you're isolated, so you have time.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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I've been out of work so many times in my life that relying too much on just one job is terrifying.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I've gone from being bullied by jocks as a kid to being bullied by nerds as an adult.
-- Chris Hardwick -
If I wasn't acting or doing stand-up, I would be in animation. Or if I had the discipline I might studies physics.
-- Chris Hardwick -
In the '90s, you couldn't say the word 'nerd' to someone when pitching a show. They would have considered that too niche and wouldn't have listened.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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It's funny: when I first started getting vocal about how much I liked 'Doctor Who,' I didn't realize how deep the fan base was.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Comic-Con is interesting because there's so much going on at once, it's literally impossible to do everything. You need clones and some sort of hoverboard so you can surf over the crowd of packed-in nerds.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I probably get one or two days off every five or six weeks.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I played tournament chess from fifth grade up into high school.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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Any time you're lucky enough to get on a show people watch, it's a good thing.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Any nerd who grew up around the time that I did, BBC programming was a treasure chest for us.
-- Chris Hardwick -
A big company is like trying to steer a luxury liner.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Don't tell television, but there is some superior programming being made on the Interwebz.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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I am a freelancer. My services are available to anyone at any time.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I don't really read reviews and comments that much. There just isn't a lot to be gained from it.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I feel like so much of why I sort of want to work in television is so that people know to come see me live.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I had a personal blog, but why does anyone care that I went shopping for hats?
-- Chris Hardwick -
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I learned not to confuse 'busy' with 'productive,' but I'm still far too addicted to email to resist its early-morning digital snuggles.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I like listening to people talk about things that they love. They get to express things they don't normally get to express.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Bowling really was a big American sport in the '50s, '60s, and '70s, and then it kind of died off in the '80s.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Steve Martin said that philosophy is good for comedy because it screws up your thinking just enough, and I agree with that. Being forced to see life's metadata is good training for looking for interesting angles on a topic.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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We didn't understand irony yet in the '80s; we just kind of existed at face value, so there was no nerd cool yet because the digital revolution was still in its infancy.
-- Chris Hardwick -
The goal of almost every comic is to find a comedy voice - a specific point of view that an audience can latch onto.
-- Chris Hardwick -
You can't throw money at the Internet to make it work - it really is all about the quality of the content.
-- Chris Hardwick -
We are in niche consumption mode, but 'niche' doesn't mean 'small' anymore. Niche can mean focused, and particularly with the Web, which is a global audience you can have something niche and still get 10 to 15 million views.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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You don't need 30 million people to listen to your podcast. If 10,000 people listen to your podcast, which is not a hard number to achieve, then 10,000 people are listening, and you can build a community, and literally change the world just recording into a microphone.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I think for a lot of people, bowling is sort of a joke. But I love it, and it means a lot to me, so any chance to help promote it or celebrate it or not make the hackiest jokes - 'Bowlers are like plumbers and they wear the craziest shirts!' - I'm way into.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Our mandate at Nerdist is that we only get involved with nice people around things that we love. We have the luxury of being in the demographic that we're programming for.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I think because we're ourselves, we tend to think we're unique. 'I have problems that are just specific to me.' Then you connect with one of your parents and you realize, 'Oh yeah, we had all that stuff, too.' You're not that original. I mean, in a good way, because it makes you feel like you're connected and a part of the world and not an island.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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Traditionally nerd-based culture is now a big sector of pop culture.
-- Chris Hardwick -
The podcast movement was really a creative survival mechanism for standup comics.
-- Chris Hardwick -
The lifeblood of YouTube is sharing.
-- Chris Hardwick -
The 'Hipster Nerds' like stuff because they hate it. It's like they ironically like it.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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Real philosophy is like trying to read an alarm system installation manual in Korean.
-- Chris Hardwick -
My best friend, Wil Wheaton, identifies himself as a geek.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Like lycanthropy, the nerd gene can skip a generation. My maternal grandfather was a technophile.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Comic-Con is nerd Christmas. People go wanting to have fun.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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When comedians get successful, the fans that they have aren't the fans they would hang out with. I don't have that problem.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Even before I had an assistant, my calendar was color-coded and I had all these different e-mail rules for how to prioritize e-mails, so I made it a point years ago to figure all that stuff out because my life was a mess.
-- Chris Hardwick -
With stand-up, there's a little bit of an exaggerated reality because things have to be manipulated to create comedy, to create jokes.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I do find some of the meanest, most exclusionary people are the nerds. And they rebel against other nerds! What are you doing? As much as I love nerds and the nerd movement, the nerd-on-nerd violence is really bad. A lot of times, nerds are the meanest ones online. And also, the trolling can be very extensive because they're smart.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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When you first start working, you take whatever job is offered, because you have to build your resume. But you don't think about what you're building.
-- Chris Hardwick -
What's more unnerving than magnetism, ghosts, and unpurified water? Gadgetmongers who purport to protect us from metaphysical monsters that go bump in the New Age night.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Some people learn comedy, and some people just are comedy.
-- Chris Hardwick -
If you can build your career around your passions, then you're winning in life; that's one of the best things you can ask for.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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I almost think of nerd brains as rattlesnake venom; like, you can milk it. You can milk the pulpy venom out of the nerd brain and use it for good if you want to.
-- Chris Hardwick -
American television constantly tries to co-op British comedy and create their own version of it. Most of the time it doesn't work; obviously, in the case of 'The Office,' it did. But a lot of times, it doesn't really work.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Just as someone who's been interested in radio and programming for so long, I can usually tell when an interviewer is doing a segment just to fill a programming slot. They ask questions, but they don't care about the answers.
-- Chris Hardwick -
We're gonna have fun, god***it!
-- Chris Hardwick -
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For me personally, I have a fear of, 'If I stop, I'm going to die.' If I stop doing the things that are enriching to me or creatively exciting to me or if I stop creating, then I feel stagnant. If something isn't growing, it's dying.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Worry is a misuse of your imagination.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Every year on my birthday, I start a new playlist titled after my current age so I can keep track of my favorite songs of the year as a sort of musical diary because I am a teenage girl.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Nerds get caught up in minutiae, because there is a tremendous and fulfilling sense of control in understanding every single detail of a thing more than any other living creature.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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Comment threads are the new therapy for people. They just go and post the worst things they can think of because they feel bad, and then other people start attacking them, and then they attack back.
-- Chris Hardwick -
While the liberal media elite depict the bowler as a chubby guy with a comb-over and polyester pants, the reality is that bowling is one of the most tech-heavy sports today. Robotic pinsetters and computerized scoring were just the beginning.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I think when I look out and I see there's so much negativity in the world and a lot of people are unhappy and a lot people are anxious, it just feels like that's one view of the world. But you don't have to always focus on that view of the world.
-- Chris Hardwick -
My father was one of the greatest professional bowlers of all time. Seriously. Billy Hardwick: PBA Hall of Fame, Player of the Year in '63 and '69, and the first winner of the triple crown of bowling, among other things.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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The nerdist movement is less about consumers; there is a large contingent that are creative nerdists instead of consumers.
-- Chris Hardwick -
Comedy has sort of been my life-long obsession. I literally obsessed over comedy. I really didn't play sports - for me it was just comedy, computers and chess club; those were my big things.
-- Chris Hardwick -
If you do a joke that's really old, then what happens is people on Reddit and Twitter just go, 'Real original, you're just doing old jokes!' But bands do it all the time.
-- Chris Hardwick -
I think the mistake a lot of people make with new media is they just focus on one thing. But any one thing - just doing podcasts or just having a website or just doing television - isn't enough anymore.
-- Chris Hardwick -
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Trying to make strangers laugh is crazy and more than a little narcissistic.
-- Chris Hardwick
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