You know, I was a huge fan of comedy and movies and TV growing up, and I was able to memorize and mimic a lot of things, not realizing that that meant I probably wanted to be an actor.

Azaria reflects on how childhood enthusiasms can function as early, unrecognized vocational signals. His ability to memorize and mimic comedy and screen performances—skills often treated as mere play—turns out to be foundational actorly training: observation, timing, vocal control, and character imitation. The quote also captures the retrospective clarity many artists describe: only later do they see that what felt like fandom was actually apprenticeship. Implicitly, he suggests that talent can announce itself indirectly, through compulsions and habits, before it becomes a conscious ambition.