Saturday 13 June 2015

Funny?

Funny is funny in a funny sort of way. It can be humorous, dark, uproarious, slick, jokey, hilarious, and much more, if it works. If this five letter word turns on you and doesn't work, it's like 'Death in a Moment'.
We can of course be funny unintentionally which is referred to as 'People Laughing Against Us', not funny.
What we need to be really funny is 'People laughing With Us' and some talent/ability. Not an easy task.
Yet everybody tries to be funny at some time or other, with some succeeding and others falling flat on the proverbial. Often there are those who just seem FUNNY funny, not a nice place to be. You have of course heard people say 'She's funny that way' sympathetically.

Jack Benny could be funny, hilariously so, by doing nothing, just standing on the stage, still. He is reputed to have done this for up to fifteen minutes. He had a reputation for being a 'Miser' and he certainly was, with jokes, based on the amount of time he stood still but audiences got value in laughs.
On one occasion he was in a restaurant and the manager passed a comment him "Your daughter is a bigger tipper than you" to which he replied "We'll she has a rich father, I don't".
He also played the Violin, of which he is reputed to be an excellent player but this is not what we saw on stage. When he removed the violin from his case it could be anything up to ten minutes before he hit the strings with his bow, before you heard a note. Usually bad ones which set the audience laughing, again mean with notes, at least good ones.

Tommy Cooper  often made us laugh by doing nothing  or doing something badly, a magician who couldn't magician.(If you know what i mean)

Les Dawson another English comedian, would stand there on the stage, cross his arms and twist his face or often just his lips and the audience would split their sides laughing. He also had some good monologues which were well written and ridicule his mother-in-law. "I have a soft spot for the mother in-law, its down the back garden".
It's funny really how this can happen, be funny i mean, when some people do it and not for others.
This is down to an undefined skill, 'TIMING' which takes years to practice and perfect. All of the above have this down to a 'T', T for timing.
It's funny really, but funny is a very serious business, which takes a lot of hard work,  practice, honing and trauma to make it work, funny that.
You will notice that when a great comedian tells a story or joke he or she will not laugh at it but you will. The exception to this is Tommy Cooper who never stops laughing from the moment he steps onto the stage, but gets away with it.
Norman Wisdom specialised in falling about in a manner that would be a credit to any world class gymnast. His eyes, body movement and general demeanor were funny.
Funny how that works.
What a funny old world,
Life is funny, being funny but its also funny being funny, funny that?

JC-Dublin-A city defined by its comics



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