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Excerpt
When
British actor Edmund Keane was on his death bed, a comforting friend said,
“This must be very difficult for you.” Keane replied, “Dying is easy.
Comedy is difficult.”
It’s probably indelicate to quarrel with a man’s dying words, but Eddie was
wrong. Well, maybe he was inaccurate rather than incorrect. Since he wasn’t
feeling himself that day, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. Humor is
more intimidating than it is difficult.
It’s like speaking before an audience. Some survey taken
a few years ago listed the fear of speaking in public more potent than the
fear of dying. People admitted that they would rather jump into their death
bed than be required to deliver a speech. Yet, speaking in public is not
difficult. A person who can speak can speak in public simply by getting in front
of a public and speaking. It’s that simple.
But some can’t do it. I once asked a friend of mine whom I had guided into
the comedy writing field to address a seminar I was holding for aspiring
comedy writers. This gentleman said, “Gene, I owe you a lot. I will wash
and iron your shirts for you. I will mow your lawn biweekly. I just can’t
stand in front of a group of people and speak.”
People are intimidated by speaking and by humor. They’re
afraid they’ll do badly. Consequently people surrender. “I can’t do humor,”
people say. At the comedy writing seminars that I used to conduct annually,
I encouraged aspiring writers to try to deliver their own comedy. It was a
way of appreciating good comedy writing. If a person did well, she realized
how valuable good comedy writing was. If a person did badly, he realized
how damaging weak comedy material could be. It generated a genuine
appreciation for the craft of comedy writing. One writer, though, actually
said, “If I stand up there and try to tell jokes, people will laugh at me.”
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