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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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