Comedian

I'm living the life of liberty, happiness and pursuit.

Word games are very easy for me.

I don't want to get in a one-character rut.

The great part of appearing on game shows is that when you answer a question the camera takes a close-up of you every time. You get more close-ups than in a movie, and that's terrific for audience identification. The people have to see you to like you.

You see, the patience of an audience is very short, particularly with a non-entity. You're an intruder, and you must make them laugh within three or four seconds. My poems fit the requirements, and I'm always thinking up new ones.

There aren't any messages in my social protestations.

I've always had the ability to manipulate words and communicate ideas and thoughts.

I'm living the life of liberty, happiness and pursuit.

I don't want to get in a one-character rut.

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.

I talk too much.

I used to say, 'We've always had integration in the South... we just want it now in the daytime.

Divorces are getting so common that a woman I know doesn't bother getting a new marriage license. They just punch her old one and give her a transfer. You can't teach an old dog new tricks - so she keeps changing dogs.

I start with the joke line and write backward.

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 don't drink.

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

During all the years I entertained at the Baby Grand night club in Harlem, 90 percent of the audience was white. But when I tried to break Into television, I was told that white folks wouldn't understand what I was talking about.

I used to say, 'We've always had integration in the South... we just want it now in the daytime.

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