I did stand-up comedy for 18 years. Ten of those years were spent learning, four years were spent refining, and four years were spent in wild success. I was seeking comic originality, and fame fell on me as a byproduct. The course was more plodding than heroic.

The banjo is truly an American instrument, and it captures something about our past.

I just believe that the interesting time in a career is pre-success, what shaped things, how did you get to this point.

I never thought about success. I always thought about doing the job at hand. My goal was getting through the show that night.

I’d always liked having a laugh with my friends, and I’d done comedy in plays; but then my friends asked me to join this improv troupe and it went well and I started performing with them."

I chose to stylize 'Among Friends' and add a dark comedic element because I didn't want to get pigeonholed as a genre director. I have a pretty dark sense of humor and knew that in order to get distribution, I had to do something in the genre for my first time out.

What a strange world this would be if we all had the same sense of humor.

My father was a very funny man, and one of my strongest recollections is hearing him laugh. He didn't like people who had no sense of humour.