Pasadena, Calif. – Jim Carrey opened up about his life to help craft the upcoming Showtime series “I’m Dying Up Here” about stand-up comedy in the ‘70s, but the star is content working behind-the-scenes at this point in his life.
"I had so many incredible experiences. I’m lucky to be alive, really," he joked during a press panel at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour.
Though the show, is all about stand-up when asked if he wanted to return to the stage, Carrey was clear he isn’t interested.
“I’m in the process of shedding layers of persona at this time in my life,” Carrey, who is an executive producer for the series, said. “So I’m very happy to [be] here for these guys and watch these guys enter this world and create these characters who are looking to create a cadence and a persona and something that will draw people's attention to them…”
He recalled how “The Tonight Show” changed his career in a big way.
“At that time there was a beam that could catapult people to the stars, and that was ‘The Tonight Show,’” he said. “We all gathered around the heat of that. … If Johnny liked me it meant something to me, that I’m not only good at what I do but he thinks I’m intelligent and likes to talk to me.”
Carrey, 54, also touched on the current climate in America, hinting President-elect Donald Trump without directly mentioning him.
“We are about to be blessed in a major way,” he told the crowd. “Because every seemingly horrible and devastating thing that happens to us gives birth to something beautiful and that’s just the way it is and it’s a drag to have to go through it to get to it but that’s just the way it is.”
The show is also based on William Knoedelseder’s book "I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-Up Comedy's Golden Era.” It premieres June 4th.
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