I took an acting class. After the first day the teacher quit so they said take another. When I saw 'How to be a Stand-up Comedian ' it resonated. I realized I'd rather make 200 people laugh than make one person cry.

I didn't want to be the archetypal sponging brother-in-law so I didn't go into acting when I got to the States. I thought 'No I'll go to school and then I'll be an English teacher that'll be fun.' But I was horrible as a teacher. As hard as I tried I just couldn't inspire those kids to take an interest in Milton and Shakespeare and Donne.

My first acting job happened by accident when I was really young. I was in fifth grade and my teacher saw an ad in the paper and took me to the audition after school and I got the part.

I don't find acting to be a particularly noble way to make a living. I'm not saving anybody's life I'm not a teacher I'm not working for UNICEF. I don't think I'm some big deal.

I was 20 years old working as a roofer and a telemarketer and driving a taxi just barely getting by. A friend of a friend suggested I try acting. I was like 'Why? What am I going to do? Community theater?' But I took a class and the teacher thought that I had potential so I moved to Vancouver and started auditioning.

I think my parents were happy that I'd gone to university and gotten a degree in history so they thought 'Well if acting doesn't work for him he can always become a history teacher or something.' Fortunately the acting worked out.

I do readings at the public library. I just did a benefit scene night for my old acting teacher.

I kind of fell backwards into acting. I was studying to be a high school teacher. I look now and I understand completely or actually barely how much work it is to be a teacher. It's an incredible amount of work.

I've always remembered something Sanford Meisner my acting teacher told us. When you create a character it's like making a chair except instead of making someting out of wood you make it out of yourself. That's the actor's craft - using yourself to create a character.

I was raised in New York City and raised in the New York City theater world. My father was a theater director and an acting teacher and it was not uncommon for me to have long discussions about the method and what the various different processes were to finding a character and exploring character and realizing that character.