Baron Vaughn

“When things get stressful and crazy and you think to yourself, 'When will this get easier?' it won't, because that's what a career feels like.”

“I come back to Vegas pretty regularly. Quick visits, and I usually just kind of lay low, see my mom, and then get out of there. But every now and then, I'm able to kind of come for extended stays and see some people.”

“The name of my first comedy album was 'Raised by Cable.' Coming up and watching all of these weird movies on different channels was such an influence on me and an influence on how I do standup. It informs everything I do.”

“Here's the best place that people can find me: go to this website called Google, and then type my name into it. So much stuff.”

“I actually wanted to study acting in a way that not a lot of people want to do any more. And I wanted to go to college and pay lots of money to do it.”

“Black people have to define who we are, or others do it for us.”

“When I have these negative thoughts and feelings, I like to dig into them because I like to get under them and see what's in there.”

“It seems that people are tired of everyone looking the same on television. And this seems especially true for white people. Even white people are tired of watching the same white people. That's why we've been importing them from Australia.”

“Worry less about having to fit, and focus more on what you want to make - this will always serve you.”

“In this age of the Internet, if you are going to go see someone, you usually look them up first. It can be an advantage and disadvantage. Most of the time, people can Google you and see a couple clips and say, 'Oh I am going to go.' They can kind of co-sign off on you.”

“I was in the middle of filming Season 3 of 'Grace and Frankie.' Then the writing process for 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' was happening at the exact same time. And then the pre-production for 'Fatherless' was happening at the exact same time as well.”

“New York is looked at as the grad school of comedy.”

“When you're working on a TV show, your schedule can be very unpredictable, which means it's harder to book shows.”

“I grew up on a very specific diet of certain weird movies. Of course, being black, there are more black movies in there. I'll get to bring some of those references into 'Mystery Science Theater 3000.'”

“Every podcast network has a different culture as far as I can tell. How they run things at Nerdist is totally different than how they run things at Earwolf is totally different than All Things Comedy or Maximum Fun or Feral Audio. And it's different if it's independent.”

“When the audience reacts all together, it's genius. The audience is its own being in a way. It's a weird, amorphous beast that is also somehow a golden emperor that is also somehow every adult you've ever come across in your life who doesn't approve of you - all in one place.”

“What makes a good festival, above all, is the audience. It feels disconnected when it's meant to bring in people from elsewhere and not meant for the people who actually live there.”

“I think we have a lot to learn from ancient cultures and different tribes.”

“Anxiety is your creativity turned into a weapon that you use to beat yourself up. And this is because anxiety is mostly storytelling - repeating poisonous stories that you've inherited from others. It feeds on your fear.”

“I like that part of the culture of 'MST3K' is this constant dialog on what movies could be done and what movies should be done. I've seen plenty of bad movies and walked out afterward thinking 'That would have been perfect for 'MST3K.''”