laughs
 

comedy     counter point     humor     ride the laugh    where the pie lands

5.

     How to frame the laughs? How to get laughs?    

     When you are reading your script and you know where the jokes are, put a slash mark next to it so you know when to do the beat.

 The beat is no more time than time to inhale.

     Example: "Who was that woman I saw you with last night?" "That was no woman, that was my /wife."

     Audience doesn't laugh accidentally, they laugh when you want them to laugh. That's the whole principle. You are in charge of the laughter. If they start laughing at you, you are lost. They got to laugh at your command.

     You have to know where the laughs are and then define them. Comedian has to decide where laugh is and leave room for the audience to react (laugh). Know in your planning the big ones, normal ones, chuckles, etc. Your laughs come from your knowledge of them, not accidentally.

4.

     Don't sacrifice characters for laughs.

    Principle:

don't go for all laughs, only ones that are important; creditability.

     Don't try to make it as funny as possible.

     Do it for real with the character, you will get laughs, not just busy.

     It's not just about getting yuck, yuck, yuck, yuck, that's not what comedy is. Comedy has to start with convincing. Unless audience believe it, there is no basis.

3.

     Greatest laughs, when there is no effort.

     Don't try to get a laugh on each word. Simple, simple, simple, until you get to the punch line. Throw a lot of stuff together, then a derailment.

     Getting the right laughs, not how many laughs, is what counts.

      Only go for characters plight, audience will do the laughter. If it is all clowning, that nothing is taken seriously, there is no story and there are no characters... then there's nothing.

2.

     Provoke laughter from audience.

     Humanity of it get the laughs.

     All of it is the sad story of life. It's the way life goes. It's sad, it's unfair, it's terrible, it's suffering, it's tragic.

     There is no good comedy without suffering.

     Audience says I've been there and laugh.

      Audience will not laugh if someone gets hurt.

1.

     What is the central thing people are laughing about?

     Audience laugh because they're like character,

 otherwise it's cartoon.

     Mean what you say as a character,

 don't just do things for laughs.

     Start a mad request for laughter, audience will build resistance real fast to that.

     Laughter is not any measure of success.

  1. Don't try to get a laugh on each word. Simple, simple, simple until you get to the punch line. Throw a lot of stuff together, then a derailment.
  2. Funny is easy. You can play anything funny, resist that. Make the people creditable. Laughter is not any measure of success.
  3. Humor is always based on the unexpected and opposite.
  4. Start a mad request for laughter, audience will build resistance real fast to that.
  5. The clown never smiles, the clown has a tear painted in the corner of his eye. Everything hurts.
  6. The scene is a scene of suffering. When you approach comedy look for the pain in it. Always look for the pain.
  7. Comedy is all about opposites.
  8. The secret of all comedy and all drama is difficulty.
  9. Theatre of the Absurd purpose is to provoke thought with laughter.
  10. What is going to make a person laugh?

"In the end, it can't look like acting."