Comedian and writer Anders Holm had some spot-on advice for graduates of the University of Wisconsin-Madison Saturday.
Holm graduated from UW-Madison in 2003 with a bachelor's in history, and was chosen by students there to be the commencement speaker this year. He's best known for his work as actor, producer and writer of the Comedy Central hit "Workaholics."
Holm, who was a member of the swim team in college, dropped by the Badgers swim team's workout earlier in the week. He also joked about spending time walking around Madison in his "state of the art disguise."
"To get what you want out of life, all you can really do is find out who you are, and do that," Holm said in his speech.
He told graduates it's fine if they don't know who they are yet, but they should start giving it some thought.
"Self-reflection makes you realize your shortcomings. For me, commencement speeches, obviously," Holm joked. "We're all thinking it, I'll say it."
Holm talked about how after he graduated from UW-Madison, he moved to Los Angeles and worked for years before breaking through with "Workaholics." He said before Comedy Central offered him a show, he spent two years bugging "Real Time With Bill Maher," which finally resulted in an entry-level job on the writing staff.
Toward the end of the speech, Holm ran through a few lines of advice for grads to remember. "Practice being curious, want to know things, ask questions," he said.
Another tip: "Consider what people think of you, but don't be afraid of what people think of you." Shortly after saying that, he called out a guy in the front row who was apparently straight faced and looked like he wasn't enjoying Holm's speech. Holm asked security to tase him, joking that he was allowed to have one person shocked.
Holm closed with a quote from Jamie Foxx that had nothing to do with the speech, followed by one of the most accurate lines a commencement speaker ever uttered: "No matter what you say, if you say it slowly, in a cool robe, it will sound more smarter."
Watch Anders Holm's entire speech in the video above.
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