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Daily Inspiration Quote by Allan Carr

"A lot of comedians, when they have a bad gig, will blame everything but themselves. They'll blame the crowd, or the room was wrong, it had a weird vibe, or the promoter promoted a weird atmosphere"

About this Quote

Carr is skewering a very specific kind of ego: the performer who treats every bomb as an act of God. The line works because it’s built like a familiar post-mortem you can hear in any green room: the crowd was “off,” the room had “a weird vibe,” the promoter “set a weird atmosphere.” Each excuse is slightly more abstract than the last, drifting from concrete conditions to metaphysical mood. That escalation is the joke and the indictment. If the failure can be blamed on “atmosphere,” then the comedian never has to confront craft, preparation, or the brutal possibility that the material simply didn’t land.

Coming from Allan Carr, a director and producer who lived inside the machinery of entertainment, it’s also a bit of industry ventriloquism. Carr knew how many moving parts shape a live show, but he’s pointing at the reflex to outsource responsibility even when the simplest explanation is the most painful: the act didn’t connect. The subtext isn’t that rooms and crowds don’t matter; it’s that professionals adjust. Blaming the venue is the amateur’s way of staying psychologically intact while staying artistically stagnant.

There’s a quiet power move here, too. By calling out “a lot of comedians,” Carr positions himself as the grown-up in the room, someone who’s watched talent rise and stall. In an ecosystem built on confidence, he’s arguing for the rarer currency: accountability.

Quote Details

TopicLearning from Mistakes
SourceHelp us find the source
CiteCite this Quote

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Carr, Allan. (n.d.). A lot of comedians, when they have a bad gig, will blame everything but themselves. They'll blame the crowd, or the room was wrong, it had a weird vibe, or the promoter promoted a weird atmosphere. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-lot-of-comedians-when-they-have-a-bad-gig-will-57301/

Chicago Style
Carr, Allan. "A lot of comedians, when they have a bad gig, will blame everything but themselves. They'll blame the crowd, or the room was wrong, it had a weird vibe, or the promoter promoted a weird atmosphere." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-lot-of-comedians-when-they-have-a-bad-gig-will-57301/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"A lot of comedians, when they have a bad gig, will blame everything but themselves. They'll blame the crowd, or the room was wrong, it had a weird vibe, or the promoter promoted a weird atmosphere." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/a-lot-of-comedians-when-they-have-a-bad-gig-will-57301/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.

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About the Author

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Allan Carr (May 27, 1937 - June 29, 1999) was a Director from USA.

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