Comedian

Our country's social revolution lends itself to jokes and I use them.

Our country's social revolution lends itself to jokes and I use them.

For artistic fulfillment I prefer to work live. For career advancement, I go to the media.

I was so scared the first time I flew the flight attendant called me Whitey.

There's no money in television, but TV provides the wherewithal to get the dollars for live performances.

If you see me on the street, don't just say, 'There goes Nipsey.' Walk over and say, 'Hello Nipsey,' and give me a warm slap on the back and hand me a few dollars.

I knew racial discrimination at its worst in the 1930s. I lived with the humility of it but I never lost my sense of humor. Humor is the escape valve from the deadly reality of adversity.

Jack Paar was my first TV patron saint.

I don't drink.

Word games are very easy for me.

Some college athletes don't want to turn pro, they don't want to take the cut in pay.

I've dropped a lot of race humor from my routines, not because I think it is in bad taste, but because I don't want to be guilty of telling old jokes.

In all my years in show business - on stage, clubs and TV shows - my audience has been 75 percent white. In Las Vegas and Atlantic City I look out at the crowd and only see a few black faces here and there. But I can't allow myself to be conscious of the race factor. I couldn't perform my best under those conditions.

Real progress will have been made when people don't care or even notice the color of a comedian when they'll just be concerned with whether he's funny.

Humor is based on the way a man looks at life's ironies, and being a member of a minority group can certainly be ironic.

Game shows are like golf and tennis are for some men. It's not like going to work.

I feel the life expectancy of a comedian is 30 seconds. If you don't hook an audience in half-a-minute, you're dead.

If you see me on the street, don't just say, 'There goes Nipsey.' Walk over and say, 'Hello Nipsey,' and give me a warm slap on the back and hand me a few dollars.

Comedy is based partly on mean-spiritedness.

My mother just liked the way the name Nipsey sounded.