From an OC Weekly interview with Janeane Garofalo:
OC Weekly: With war brewing, are you venturing into foreign policy?
Janeane Garofalo: I can’t think of how to say something funny about how I feel about a preemptive strike in Iraq. But I am on top of all the news, and I am endlessly disappointed in the news. I am extremely angry. . . .
I once heard Steve Martin say he gave up standup because of the audiences. He said their aggressiveness has killed comedic timing—that Jack Benny couldn’t make it today because, during one of his long pauses for effect, somebody in the audience would yell, “Yeeeow!”
When you do the Joe Blow Comedy Club, you can’t do Jack Benny. It is unbelievable how sophomoric the average comedy club denizen is—in the audience and onstage. The type of morning-DJ humor that passes for comedy is quite pathetic. I won’t go to a show where there isn’t proper removal of people who yell stuff at the stage. But if you’re lucky enough to do a theater tour, it gets better. You just have to hang in there for 18 years. If you have 18 years to spare, you can do it.