Waterbury evening Democrat. [volume] (Waterbury, Conn.) 1887-1895, 1894-02-05

discovery that the audience was laughing
at my frown. Like n flash, it occurred to
me that it was very natural thing under
the circumstances, and thereafter during
the run of The Grey Mare" l always had
my OminOus frown with me. Miss Effie
Shannon, who played the opposite part,
adopted the suggestion, and together we
succeeded i'll getting more laughs out of
the characters than either of US had ever
believed were in them. In my somewhat
limited experience have known of at least
4 dozen cases of that sort.
am afraid that shall be accused of ut
tcriug we'll worn truth when | say that
what every comedian is always striving for
is spontanety, but it is such an absolute
prerequisite to success that | shall repeat
it here. Different actors employ different
methods for the attainment of this end, but
| naturally can speak only of my own.
do not place any faith i'll the old idea of
reading Il part carefully dozen times and
locating with great care the exact points at
which you expect the risibilities of youl
audience To yield to your Establishments
| do believe that Il comedian, before COM
hitting his part to memory, should read it
sufficiently often to get thoroughly zen rap
port with it. But if lie goes beyond that
bis work is apt to become mechanical and
wOOdeny.
When AN author reads play about to be
put into rehearsal, certain portions are apt
to strike the members of the company as
being irresistibly funny. The comedian
makes up his mind that here or there is a
fat scene in which he cannot fail to con-
vulse the audience. The new piece is pro
duced, and the very bits of which you ex-
pectcd a great deal fall fiat, while others to
which 10 one had paid the slightest atten-
tion go with bang that startles all the
actors, the comedian included. This have
observed on several OCCASIONS and it would
appear to demonstrate the fact that it is in
iudicious to PREDICATE the laughs, for by so
doing one puts himself in position where
he is unable to take advantage to the full
of those portions which the audience con-
sidercd funny, but the humor of which had
escaped his observation.
Too much stress cannot be laid upon
facial expression in comedy work. have
known it to kill q very funny line, and, on
the other hand, have in mind II case in
which a few stupid words which the actor
had furgottrn and through which he nftu-
rally blundErud with very puzzled express
sion on his face brought rurrs Of laughter.
He WIS bright enough to take advantage of
his fUrgetfu1npSs, and, rfke my fruwn in
"The Grey Mare" he always had Ms puz-
Zled expression on tap during the rest Of
the play.
do not wish it to be understood that
believe that comedian should sacrifice his
art with the sole object in view of causing
the thoughtless to litter. Farce comedy
methods are seldom warranted by the cir
cumstances, and l must admit that the
greatest enemy of the funmaker of a stock
company is the person who encourages him
to forget the integrity of his art by laugh.
ing at him when he does something which
is not strictly legitimate. A half dozen
"hawhaws" from different parts of the
house should in most cases serve as warn
ing to comedian that he has gone step
or two over the boundary, for If what he
has just said or the manner in which he
said it were worthy of praise it would
come from all over the theater. Theater
goers are, as rule, very liberal minded
persons, who are quick to appreciate good,
conscientious work, just as they are prone
to resent slipshod performance.
Comedy offers many temptations to the
ambitious young man who adopts the stage
as profession Everybody likes to make
other people laugh. There is an inetfable
satisfaction is knowing that you have aided
in making the world merry This is doubt
less why numbers of men have tried come
dy and failed when they would have sue
ceeded admirably as ''heavies' and in some
cases as leading men.
FRITZ WILLIAMS.