Chris Gethard: We don't judge people for dying in car crashes. But we...

In music so many people who have been addicts or suicidal are legends. People have this mentality, still, of thinking that if they go take care of themselves then they won't be as creative as they used to be. But I think that's bullshit. I bought into that one for years and I regret it because when I first went on medications, I thought I wouldn't be funny anymore. I thought I'd have to figure out a new life path but at least I'd be alive. But it turns out that I'm actually way more funny and organized and able to have a career now that I'm able to have my head on straight.

Chris Gethard

suicidal regret thinking

Many comedians - both male and female - do have an "I will never date another comedian" rule.

Chris Gethard

males comedian female

The best advice I've gotten in terms of that was someone who said, "People will surprise you if you let them."

Chris Gethard

surprise advice people

The whole romanticized sad clown thing, we have to get rid of that. That has to go. That's just getting sick people to voluntarily stay sicker and sadder than they have to be.

Chris Gethard

clown sick people

I think you can make good things happen if you look for them. Life is a very positive thing.

Chris Gethard

life-is looks thinking

If I could have enough money that I know I could buy a house someday, and if I want to have kids, I could raise them - I don't need the money grab. I don't need to have a mansion. I just need to be creative and happy.

Chris Gethard

creative house kids

Talking about the fact that I get depressed or that I've had some suicidal issues in my life is not easy. I don't know of many comedians who are going all in on that. In some sense, I think I've maybe sacrificed some momentum doing that. In another sense, I'm in a place where if I can talk about that and if it helps some kid in a way that gives them some help that wasn't available to me when I was a kid, then I gotta do that. Put being a good person first. If you have a platform, use it for stuff that's noble and good and worth putting out in the world.

Chris Gethard

suicidal kids thinking

I think people kind of come up and go, "Why hasn't that person busted out?" Almost always at the end of career, what you find out is that either consciously or subconsciously success hasn't happened because that person hasn't chosen for it to happen. Either through walking away because it wasn't the life they wanted or through self-sabotaging because they weren't ready.

Chris Gethard

kind people thinking

Both creatively and organizationally, being medicated has helped me immensely. My career did not start until I was medicated. And then I can track - the years I was off medication, things dipped. And the years I went back on medication is when things started to get good for me again career wise. It is 100 percent in my case undeniable that being medicated helped my creativity.

Chris Gethard

track creativity wise

I'm just trying to do my part before I get hit by a bus.

Chris Gethard

bus trying

Suicide - when I think of it, to me it means someone had a lot of problems and they couldn't fight through them anymore. That's not cowardly. It's sad and nothing but.

Chris Gethard

fighting suicide mean

You see people - maybe in a frustrating fashion - that don't get embraced, when they should. You get some people who get embraced too early, and they tend to flame out, but it's really rare that someone gets lucky. It's usually a combination of a lot of talent and a lot of hard work.

Chris Gethard

flames fashion hard-work

Outside of performing, (a comedian) is someone who is analyzing life, thinking about it and trying to be observing so much. In my opinion, it can make you feel on the outside looking in.

Chris Gethard

comedian trying thinking

Growing up and being a kid, I knew that creativity was at the heart of what I wanted to do. I always had this feeling of wanting to be a comedian and wanting to be an actor.

Chris Gethard

growing-up heart kids

I just like testing myself. I just have that thing in me. Whatever it is that people tell me I can't do, I've gotta try it.

Chris Gethard

testing trying people

The thing that I like about public-access is that I am often in the middle of chaos.

Chris Gethard

access chaos middle

It's very interesting being an artist and a comedian, (because) you aim for jobs that will feed your ego, but when you get up to the precipice of them, you actually have to deliver. You actually have to understand that you're reaching a new level where there are way more eyes on you, way more expectations and way more pressure.

Chris Gethard

eye artist jobs

People ask, why hasn't that person busted out? Almost always, at the end of it, consciously or subconsciously, it hasn't happened because that person has chosen for it to not happen. Either walking away, because it wasn't the life they wanted, or through self-sabotaging.

Chris Gethard

walking-away self people

If people tell me something is impossible, I just want to prove that. I want to know that that's for certain. I don't want to not do something because someone says I can't.

Chris Gethard

impossible want people

Mania is fun. I won't lie, it's fun. But it's usually followed by a soul-crushing depression.

Chris Gethard

crush fun lying

We don't judge people for dying in car crashes. But we do judge people when they die of suicide.