The star of the north. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1849-1866, 1859-06-22
Funny People.

AS class, funny people are by no means
numerous. Indeed, they are great rarities.
So that it is chiefly on the stage that you
can see the model men and women OF the
order. The world of real life is dull and
dry for rearing the species and preserving
it's originality. 1t gets soured and crusted
with the atmosphere of society, and looses
its specific levity by the requisi;ion of grav-
ity instead. Fun is generally great favor
| ite-so much so, that even in church, if it
should be met with, it seldom causes a
frown. With some this hnny propensity
is natural and unadected--wiih others il is
artificial, aiming at effect. With the for
mer it is generally done gravely and seri-
ously, as II Unconscious ethe fidicuie'
about TO be excited. The funniest of all
people never laugh at their own fun. You
never see old Kelley laugh his vile
laughs, for she wants the same power as he
of commanding the counten,nce, but for
that very reason she wants his humor -
Kelley looks grave as Bottom, when all the
house is roaring with laughter; nor does
there appear the slightest effoit on his part
to restrain his countenance. 1t was the
same with Liston-that cool, in:milable
drol,-who always seemed TO be the only
person present who was not aware of his
own absurdities, or amused by his own
drolleries.
1t is chiefly in this perfect restraint or
command of the coun,e nance that the diff
Guilty Of comic acting consists. 1t it rare
gilt Not one man in len thousand can
preserve his CO untenance unmoved, in the
midst of good-natureG voiiey Of mirth and
fun. Anger may dc it for him sometimes,
when he would rather indulge in it; but
that is only another proof of the almost in
superable difficulty of controlling the exqui-
site muscles of the mouth, in which lie the
whole of the the passional expression Of
the cour tenance. In the young, it is per-
haps immpossible, and some youngsters
suffer severely from the irrepressibilily of
laughter when ludricous ideas are present.
ed 10 the mind Young girls, also, when
they would be merry and very funny, gen.
orally laugh SO much when telling their
funny stories; that it is no easy mat
ter 10 know what they are saying A
real funster can SO surcharge his story
with fun that his hearers shall be compell-
ed 10 laugh, whether he himself laugh or
not, which he seldom does, except for So
ciality and exercise for his lungs. But
who has not real funny genius supplies
the want off by the laughter that nature
has ordained 10 accompany it. If you sec
a girl telling story and laughing inordi-
nately at every two or three words, as if she
were rather hearing some one recount the
tale than recounting it herself, you may be
quite sure that that girl has not The genius
for telling a funny story, but only the sus-
ceptibility for laughing a: one.
But if you see two or three young wo-
men laughing most historically, and one in
the midst of them talking quietly with al.
most imperturable, but yet good.natnred
smiling countenance, you want no more
evidence-that is funny fiirl, the funniest
of the bevy. She has got the genius for fun.
She is an actress and star in her own
sphere. =.