Eliot Stein's interview with Dennis Miller
©Eliot Stein
ELIOT: What is meaningful in life to you?
DENNIS: My wife and my kids. My brothers and sisters and my friends!
Showbiz was very important to me at one point in my life...but now it is
less so.
ELIOT: Let’s find out about your childhood. Were you a happy child?
DENNIS: I was a quiet kid in school. I was average in mostly every way...
My mother was a delight. She was good to me.
ELIOT: Were you cynical as a child? Many people feel your comedy is
cynical.
DENNIS: My comedy is the comedy of pragmatism. The world around us
encourages you to be cynical. I live in a world where I've seen cops beat
the hell out of a guy...and then a woman cuts her husband's penis
off...it's a cynical world.
ELIOT: When did you start doing comedy?
DENNIS: I got out of college in 1975, I have a B.A. in journalism...I got
out of college and started doing comedy in Pittsburgh!
ELIOT: What was your first big break?
DENNIS: Saturday Night Live--I came on in 1984 or 85.
ELIOT: How did you get to do the news segment?
DENNIS: That's all I was hired to do. I'm not an actor. I think they hired
me because I also wrote 90% of the news segment.
ELIOT: How long and how much research goes into a comedy
monologue?
DENNIS: Each one of my HBO specials takes about 2 months of intensive
work.
ELIOT: Please comment on the death of John Candy.
DENNIS: I did not know him. He must have been a sweet man. The death of a
young father is a sad thing and I mourn his loss like everybody else.
ELIOT: Some people may be surprised that you didn't know him. Why do
people assume that all comedians in Hollywood know each other?
DENNIS: Most people think of us as guys who bond together out of our
need to be around laughter.
ELIOT: You do some of the best political comedy around.
DENNIS: I'm bored by politics. I poke fun at it as a catharsis. It's fodder
for humor. I don't care for it otherwise.
ELIOT: Which magazine would you like to be on the cover of?
DENNIS: I'd like to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
ELIOT: Dennis, what do you think of computers and the Internet?
DENNIS: The info. superhighway is a fortunate casualty of contemporary
American culture. I don't think it’s been paved yet.
©Eliot Stein
ELIOT: What is meaningful in life to you?
DENNIS: My wife and my kids. My brothers and sisters and my friends!
Showbiz was very important to me at one point in my life...but now it is
less so.
ELIOT: Let’s find out about your childhood. Were you a happy child?
DENNIS: I was a quiet kid in school. I was average in mostly every way...
My mother was a delight. She was good to me.
ELIOT: Were you cynical as a child? Many people feel your comedy is
cynical.
DENNIS: My comedy is the comedy of pragmatism. The world around us
encourages you to be cynical. I live in a world where I've seen cops beat
the hell out of a guy...and then a woman cuts her husband's penis
off...it's a cynical world.
ELIOT: When did you start doing comedy?
DENNIS: I got out of college in 1975, I have a B.A. in journalism...I got
out of college and started doing comedy in Pittsburgh!
ELIOT: What was your first big break?
DENNIS: Saturday Night Live--I came on in 1984 or 85.
ELIOT: How did you get to do the news segment?
DENNIS: That's all I was hired to do. I'm not an actor. I think they hired
me because I also wrote 90% of the news segment.
ELIOT: How long and how much research goes into a comedy
monologue?
DENNIS: Each one of my HBO specials takes about 2 months of intensive
work.
ELIOT: Please comment on the death of John Candy.
DENNIS: I did not know him. He must have been a sweet man. The death of a
young father is a sad thing and I mourn his loss like everybody else.
ELIOT: Some people may be surprised that you didn't know him. Why do
people assume that all comedians in Hollywood know each other?
DENNIS: Most people think of us as guys who bond together out of our
need to be around laughter.
ELIOT: You do some of the best political comedy around.
DENNIS: I'm bored by politics. I poke fun at it as a catharsis. It's fodder
for humor. I don't care for it otherwise.
ELIOT: Which magazine would you like to be on the cover of?
DENNIS: I'd like to be on the cover of Sports Illustrated.
ELIOT: Dennis, what do you think of computers and the Internet?
DENNIS: The info. superhighway is a fortunate casualty of contemporary
American culture. I don't think it’s been paved yet.
