WORDS,
WORDS, WORDS*
In his
book, ‘Tommy Cooper All-In-One Joke Book’ (Preface, 2013) John Fisher claims that Sigmund Freud “…famously states that jokes needed to convey their message
not just in a few words, but in too few words.” Mr. Fisher’s has the advantage
of me there, because I haven’t read ‘Der Witz und seine Beziehung zum
Unbewußten’, (‘The Joke and Its Relation to the Unconscious’), but Ken Dodd may
have, because apparently he once said, something along the lines of… “The
trouble with Freud is that he never had to play the old Glasgow Empire on a
Saturday night after Rangers and Celtic had both lost.”
That’s
true, Doddy, but then long before “Golden Siggie” appeared on the scene, Bill
Shakespeare informs us through the character of Polonius in ‘Hamlet’, that “…brevity
is the soul of wit…”
My regular
reader should by now, be fully aware of my admiration for the Austrian-born
American filmmaker, screenwriter, producer, artist and journalist, Billy
Wilder, director and co-author (with I.A.L. Diamond) of the screenplay for
my favourite flick, ‘Some Like It Hot’, made in 1959. Forty-one years later,
the American Film Institute listed it as the greatest American comedy film of all time. I suspect that there has been nothing since that came close to bettering it.
Tony Curtis
and Jack Lemmon play two Chicago musicians, Joe and Jerry, who just happen to witness
the St. Valentine's Day massacre. To get out of town and escape from the
gangster responsible, they disguise themselves as women, and join an all-female
band that’s bound for Florida. They certainly enjoy being around the girls,
especially Sugar Kane Kowalczyk (Marilyn Monroe), who sings and plays the
ukulele. Joe in particular sets out to woo her while Jerry/Daphne is wooed by the
millionaire, Osgood Fielding III (Joe E. Brown).
I remember,
quite a few overcoats ago, watching a BBC2 documentary about ‘The Viennese
Pixie’, where he dissected the scene where Jerry, disguised as Daphne, has been
nightclubbing with Osgood, so that Joe can ‘borrow’ Osgood’s yacht for an
evening alone with Sugar. It starts…
INT. ROOM 413 - DAWN
Jerry, still in his evening gown, is
stretched out on his bed, gaily singing LA CUMPARSITA and accompanying himself
with a pair of maracas. Joe appears over the railing of the balcony, steps
through the window into the room.
Wilder gave a riveting explanation of how he and his co-writer pared the dialogue down to the very minimum,
but then the whole script is as tight as Dick’s hatband, and the resulting
movie has been described as … “…a film of inspiration and meticulous
craft."
I’m not in
Mr Wilder’s league… but then, who is? However, in my own little way, I do try
to craft my scripts and I am a serial ‘tweaker’. Yes, I like alliteration, and
occasionally may overdo it, but I reckon that it can help establish a
character, and give some rhythm to the dialogue. In the right place, verbosity
can be funny
Of course,
as I mentioned in my blog, ‘NO LAUGHING MATTER’, (12 March 2013), an actor
needs to understand a joke before he or she can deliver it properly. Then there's the business of sticking to the script...
I once guested
as the director of an amateur production of Noel Coward’s ‘Hay Fever’. The leading
roles of Judith and David Bliss were being played by ageing Thespians with bulky
scrapbooks. Well into rehearsals, when it was time for “scripts down”, I realised
that they had both learnt only an approximation of the lines, and there was no
way they were going to ‘unlearn them’. What with “The Master’s” dialogue being
particularly precise and mannered, from then on, it was basically damage limitation.
In my
varied acting career, both as an amateur and a professional, I have always
tried to be word perfect. I reckon I owe it to the writer.
Have a look
at the following (edited) tips about acting comedy which I came across by chance on www.backstage.com. By gummy, it’s
always pleasing to find current opinions which match those one has held since
Moby Dick was a tiddler! Please pay particular attention to note number 4!
The Top
10 Tips for Becoming a Successful Comedy Actor
1. Find
your funny. In what way are you funny? What's funny about you? Being
aware of what makes up your personal "funny" - finding the comedy in
yourself and your everyday life - is the first step to becoming a successful
comedy actor.
2. Identify your comedy character. Knowing your comedic qualities will help you identify your
comedy character.
3.
Explore your comedy. To be a successful comedy actor,
you have to study the art form…
4. Stick
to the script. Comedy is all about rhythm, timing,
and pace, and it's your job as a comedic actor to identify those things in each
and every piece of scripted comedy you perform. Comedy, when done right, is
like a good song. Just as a musician plays the melody as composed, a comedic
actor must stick to the script. That means following the words exactly as
written. Don't add or drop words or attach handles to the beginnings of
sentences, like "Look," "I mean," "Well," and
"So." And don't change the punctuation! Always remember that a period
is not just the end of a sentence; it's the end of a thought. Blowing past it
or changing it to a question mark will not only change the intention of the
line but also the "music" in the dialogue.
5. Learn
to break down comedy scripts. Comedy is made up of two things:
desperation and the unpredictable. These themes are found in story lines,
jokes, and characters.
6.
Perfect your funny. As you develop your character and
learn your comedic technique, you'll also start to examine more-subtle but
important tools for your comedy, especially in the script itself.
7. Stay
committed. You and your character need to believe in everything
you're doing and commit to it wholeheartedly.
8. Be
still. One of the biggest things that can kill a comedic scene is
unscripted movement…
9. Watch
the comedy masters. There are so many legends old and
new in this business, and watching them work is vital to building your comedy
career.
10. Have
fun. When performing
comedy, you have to enjoy what you're doing. You need to do your homework, find
your character, perfect your technique, commit to the text, then… have fun.
Of course you could just ignore all this advice and do your own thing, as many ego-trippers do. That way you end up being unfunny.... or even anti-funny!
* Also a quote from 'Hamlet'.
