Comedian

If the social evolution leads to jokes, I use them.

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

My exercise is pall-bearin' for athletes and food faddists.

Six good guest shots on top shows during one season are more than enough and any producer who wants to make me happy could offer some floating guest dates for discussion and panel shows. It's generally agreed that I love to talk, so shows of this kind are right down my alley.

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

I haven't got a Cadillac. I've got a subway token.

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.

One character mistook me for the model and remarked 'That Man-Tan sure works wonders!' That ain't Man-Tan. I'm tan, man. From my head to my toes.

As far as television is concerned, I'm just not interested in working on a series. Why should I settle for being someone's second banana? And that weekly grind is unrewarding and too demanding.

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.

Truck drivers stop me and say, 'What is the poem for the day?' or 'Give me a poem for my girl.' I have one on almost every subject.

I talk about things that are front page news.

My only mission is to look for fun, the lighter side of life. I spell it fool-osophy.

As far as television is concerned, I'm just not interested in working on a series. Why should I settle for being someone's second banana? And that weekly grind is unrewarding and too demanding.

Many times good actors I have known in New York accept series. I tune in at the beginning of the new season and think 'He's really working.' But six months later, if I tune in again, the actor is on a treadmill, grinding it out as best he can, and he can't help it.

My only mission is to look for fun, the lighter side of life. I spell it fool-osophy.

My mother just liked the way the name Nipsey sounded.

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.

I start with the joke line and write backward.

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.