Comedy and making people laugh is a big part of my life. I have been reading this book recently; “The Grand Olde Art of Making People Laugh,” by ‘Marvelous’ Marv Zimmons. Written in 1921, Marv describes his nearly 20 years performing in various Vaudeville shows as well as many solo shows. He describes his philosophies on comedy, which I found fascinating, as there are so many similarities to his ideas of comedy back then, and my ideas of comedy today. Here is a short excerpt which I’m sure you will find interesting:
“Sometimes getting a feel for you audience is easy. Obviously, you can’t just walk up to an old biddy and say, “How do you make a five year old cry twice? Poke him and wipe your dirty old chap on his teddy-bear!” Even if she wasn’t picking her grandchildren up from Sunday-school, most likely she would be offended. Now, if you laughed, even a little, then this is the right book for you, but if you’ve got a swarm of bees between the knees, I’d suggest you stop reading and get back to sewing or laundry as you are probably a dried up shrew, or a dandy fop. If you chose to continue you are probably a sick fuck. It’s OK, being a sick fuck is great! You’ll almost certainly enjoy life more that the whiney old sourpusses. Look, it’s science-fact that all jobs are soul crushing, and the person who laughs more is 20% less likely to go home and swallow the business end of a horsepistol. So, go ahead, admit it, you’re a sick fuck, and proud of it! Just remember; sick fucks joke about child rape, crazy fucks rape children. Sick fucks also joke about crazy fucks.” (pg 23).
No comments:
Post a Comment