In Woody Allen: A Documentary, Allen claimed, “I don’t have the concentration or dedication that you really need to be a great artist. I rather be home watching the ball game.” Well Woody, we beg to differ. But before going on to become cinema’s most influential, infamous, and prolific neurotics, he spent his time honing his sense of humor on the stage as a stand-up comic in the mid-late 1960s. And it’s that brilliant innate sense of humor and reverence for finding the amusement in everyday peculiarities and heightening them into the absurd that has followed him from his awkward days behind the mic to his most acclaimed, award-winning pictures.

So with Magic in the Moonlight premiering this weekend, we thought we’d take a look back on some the most hilarious stand-up moments throughout his career. From the bits that foreshadowed his later films like Midnight in Paris, to the running jokes that have become forever entwined with his voice, take a moment from your day to ease your anxieties with a laugh.

VEGAS

KIDNAPPED

THE ARMY

BROOKLYN

LOST GENERATION

SECOND MARRIAGE

NYU

THE GREAT RENALDO

UNHAPPY CHILDHOOD

PRIVATE LIFE