Gad Elmaleh

“My dream is not Hollywood, but to perform my act in English to 30 people in a Soho comedy club, to show New Yorkers what they look like from the French point of view.”

“My name, my origins, my background and my experiences are what leveraged my success. The angle of the immigrant, through which I examined the reality in France, distinguished me.”

“It's liberating to perform in another language. There are some subjects I would never talk about in French, where they see me as a public figure, that I talk about in English.”

“There were two things I used to do to seduce girls: jokes and music. Since I'm not a great pianist, jokes were my thing.”

“I like to do comedy. It's my real passion. I want to make people laugh.”

“If I were bombing with my jokes in English, I would go back to France. Maybe do that mime thing.”

“I discovered that it's not really about the language. It's about how the words are pronounced and the delivery. We have plenty of good English-speaking comedians. It's O.K. if I have my accent, my gestures, my way of speaking.”

“Americans don't like puns and plays on words, which is totally opposite in the comedy world to France or even Italy and Germany.”

“Actually, I don't like dogs. I'm from Morocco, and people there don't like animals.”

“It's only fitting that a Jewish comic makes his Just for Laughs anglo debut in a church, right?”

“There's so many funny things to say about being with Charlotte. I've worked on a few bits about it - not to be indiscreet but because the shock of culture and values is so interesting.”

“After New York, Chicago is my favorite city. It's just this great mix of Europe and America. The friends I have there are smart and witty and fun.”

“America is where standup comedy was born. It's the standard. So you want to go and do your job where this is the mecca of what you do.”

“If you are not on TV, you don't really exist. I want to bring my comedy to the world and tell my story to a bigger audience.”

“I talk about my dad and the American dream, and I just want to say to Americans how fascinated we are by America. We would love Americans to look at the rest of the world that way sometimes.”

“It's a good time to be here in America. You feel that people just want to be together and release the pressure and laugh.”