FEELING
Here are some thoughts on comedy from an expert. It is part of an interview on the 'Archive of American Television', which can be found at...
emmytvlegends.org/interviews/people/jonathan-winters.
It's not quite verbatim, but almost.
"I find an interesting thing with the word “funny”… “comic”… “hilarious”… “comedian”… I can make anybody funny. When I say “funny”… I can give you a funny look… not just makeup, red nose on you… some eyebrows… not just a clown thing… a funny little moustache… a goatee beard. I can give you a strange wardrobe… sleeves are too long… funny pants… shoes. I can give you schtick*… funny, little cane… à la Charlie Chaplin. But… the big thing I can’t do… I can’t make you think funny."
*‘schtick’ is a comic
theme or gimmick.
Jonathan Harshman Winters III, born in 1925, was an American stand-up comedian, actor,
author, and artist. In a career spanning more than six decades, he appeared in
hundreds of television show
episode/series and films.
He made his big screen debut in the 1963 classic comedy, ‘It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’. The cast also included Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jimmy Durante, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Dorothy Provine, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry Thomas, and Spencer Tracy, alongside Peter Falk, Don Knotts, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Carl Reiner, Jim Backus, and Leo Gorcey (in his first film appearance since leaving the Bowery Boys in 1956).
There are cameos by Jack Benny, Ben Blue, Andy Devine, Paul Ford, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton, Zasu Pitts, Carl Reiner, Arnold Stang, and the Three Stooges.
He made his big screen debut in the 1963 classic comedy, ‘It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World’. The cast also included Edie Adams, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Jimmy Durante, Buddy Hackett, Ethel Merman, Dorothy Provine, Mickey Rooney, Dick Shawn, Phil Silvers, Terry Thomas, and Spencer Tracy, alongside Peter Falk, Don Knotts, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson, Carl Reiner, Jim Backus, and Leo Gorcey (in his first film appearance since leaving the Bowery Boys in 1956).
There are cameos by Jack Benny, Ben Blue, Andy Devine, Paul Ford, Sterling Holloway, Jerry Lewis, Buster Keaton, Zasu Pitts, Carl Reiner, Arnold Stang, and the Three Stooges.
The great Stan Laurel was asked to appear, but had made a
firm pledge to do no more acting roles after the death of his comedy partner
Oliver Hardy.
A devotee of Groucho
Marx and Laurel and Hardy, Jonathan Winters died in 2013, at the age of 87.
So, there you go! In pantomime certainly, clothes, along with greasepaint, and wigs, do not maketh the man, the Dame, the Villain... or any other character.
Think about it!
