Jermaine Fowler

“My friend gave me a VHS tape of Eddie Murphy's 'Raw.' I watched it so many times, I fell in love with it. I would watch it every day, just picking it apart. And then I started doing open mics around Maryland and D.C.: that's where I'm from. And I haven't stopped since.”

“In entertainment, if you have a message in a film, no one wants to be spoon-fed the message. No one wants to be told how to feel. At least, I don't.”

“My parents argued a lot. It was pretty tumultuous at times.”

“I started pursuing stand-up comedy in 12th grade.”

“I sat down with CBS, and we talked about me developing a show for them. At the time, I was meeting with a lot of networks. And I told them, 'I don't want to be acting on your show as the token black guy. I want to do something that will change a network and will change the way people view African-Americans on TV.'”

“Society, they look down on teenage moms and dads, but I think those people are just jealous because they'll never know what it's like to be raised by someone who's still being raised.”

“I was always causing trouble in school. Doing impressions of Bart Simpson, interrupting class - I liked the attention and entertaining people.”

“I did my first set at a talent show, and I couldn't finish because the judges didn't like my jokes. They were 'offensive.'”

“I like glazed donuts.”

“I was influenced by a lot of comedy growing up, I had good parents. They were funny, too. My mom was hilarious; my dad was hilarious. I guess being at home around the environment was just a good stage to get started.”

“I used to record 'Futurama' episodes on my cassette player and play it to help me go to sleep.”

“I see myself touring internationally - everywhere, every theater, every arena - and putting out stand-up comedy specials until I can't even stand no more. Even then, I'll probably do my comedy special in a hospital bed.”

“Nick Cage is so underrated.”

“I grew up watching people and companies commercialize Black History Month. I watched old McDonald's commercials, and they'd blacken up the commercials for 28 days then go back to normal in March. It got annoying to me.”

“You can't teach standup comedy. You can teach someone how to formulate a joke, but making it funny is different.”

“Broadcast TV has a very classy but old-fashioned way of doing television. That's what it's always going to be. But you've still got to introduce young talent and ideas and shows to the masses. That's the way you build a bigger and younger audience, introducing younger writers, comics, TV shows to viewers.”

“Humor and comedy have always been the best way to deal with real life issues and just reality.”

“In Hollywood, it's not what you know but who you know.”

“I'd been writing sketches since high school, but 'Friends of the People' really taught me about structure - how to wait out a joke, how to stick with it for a while. It also made me more confident onstage as a performer.”

“As comics if you aren't rubbing people the wrong way, to me, you suck.”