Jim Carrey’s comedy fail

Jim Carrey used to "bomb so badly" on stage.

The 55-year-old actor used his own experiences as a stand-up comedian to inspire the Showtime series, ‘I’m Dying Up Here’ and admitted he suffered a number of setbacks on his path to fame.

He told Entertainment Tonight: "It’s a series of little explosions of excitement and really, really hard times. Some nights I’d go to the [Comedy] Store and I’d be a king and everybody would revere what I did on stage, and the next night I would be experimenting and bomb so badly that I would have to crawl under the piano for the next four acts and close the lid on myself. It was insane."

Although Jim, who is Executive Producer on the series, is known for his comedy roles, he wanted to show the "darkness" of the industry.

He explained: "This show is what I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. And Michael Aguilar and Dave Flebotte helped me bring it to life in ways that I could never imagine. But I always, I always wanted to show the darkness where these diamonds are formed, you know?

"There’s little pieces of me in each character, and it’s really gratifying to see it. I’m very proud to be the one to kind of bring this era to light."

‘I’m Dying Up Here’ is set in the Los Angeles comedy scenes of the 1970s and shows the pressures comics are under to give a good performance.