intellectual kind of guy, and he didn't really take to that super stardom. >> he was such a popular comedian, and then he just stopped. and i was there on a night that i think in my mind had something to do with it, where he had this routine about how he blames himself for his girlfriend's death. he's laying all the material to get to the punch line. and right before he got to it, some guy out in this huge audience in the very back of the auditorium gave away the punch line. and you could tell he was pissed. >> today i realized that i misunderstood what my last year of stand-up was about. i had become a party host, presiding not over timing and ideas, but over a celebratory bash of my own making. if i had understood what was happening, i might have been happier, but i didn't. i still thought i was doing comedy. >> comedy goes in waves that way where we what accept as normal or offbeat is within the