Ari Shaffir

The Comedy Store is my home!

My CD, my first release, was at the Comedy Works in Denver, one of the best clubs in the country.

One thing I hate in ethnic comedy is giving the audience the opportunity to laugh in a racist way at a thing. A lot of times dwarf comedians will do that, Arab comics, and gay comics will do it; everyone is laughing, but they're not laughing at the joke, they're laughing at this crazy character.

Laughs, just laughs. It's the only motivation of a comic.

The biggest thing I lost when I left religion was that sense of community and the culture. It was an unexpected kind of free-falling. When I was in it, I didn't understand how much the community was a part of my life.

I'm like an overgrown child! I don't know how to do anything!

My father said that I was lower than a dog, because even a dog believes in God.

I'm a cultural Jew, I was raised with it, so I'm still into it, like gefilte fish with kugel.

Failing is part of my process. A new bit never works the first time. I figure I have to bomb 7 times to make it good. So I tweak it.

To me, every time it goes badly I see it as a good thing - because that means I'm one step closer to where I want to be.

I think you're a comedian as soon as you start. I don't think there's a moment where you become a full comic.

I used to get a lot of death threats. After a while I realized that no one's gonna do anything or they would've.