The Providence news. (Providence [R.I.]) 1891-1906, 1899-04-06
BEING FUNNY.
Il Isn't Always Pleasant, Neither is
il Always Safe.
Mr.. Ezra Kendall Chats Agresaby on
Several interesting Topics.

1T isn't alawys pleasant, or even al
ways safe. TO be funny" said Ezra Ken
dali, the clever monologust, referring
when a man in the audience at Keith's
laughed so hard that he lost control of
himself and went into Mysteries.
Now probably he was not laughing
at my joke at all. but at some funny
thing in ~his own career that my stuff
recalled. j remember a man who went
into Mysteries during a performance of
"A Pair of Kids at the Coates Opera
House in Kansas City and died from
the effects of it,
II remember an instance of an hys-
terical woman in Baltimore She had
been laughing heartily. Suddenly she
arose i'm her box and began talking
to me incoherently. She was taken out
by her friends, laughing and talking
at the top of her voice. So you see
it doesn't do to be as funny as you may.
But that Pair of Kids! ii got TO be
dreadful-eleven years OF it. We played
IL from Nova Scotia 10 san Francisco
and from Winnipeg TO New Orleans.
They wouldn't let me do anything else.
We played it at every water tank in
the country and then had TO stop and
wait for more towns TO grow up.
Meantime l wrote a play called The
Substitute, which ran one season. |
thought it was so good that ] could
write plays between meals, so | wrote
another called Just Landed j put it
on the road and two companies playing
a Pair OF Kids and that's where |
was silly, for / lost ten thousand good
hard dollars.
II had seen vaudeville coming for
some time, and so / laid the Kids away
and sent my own particular kid home to
look after the babbies. and wrote a
monologue. They wouldn't pay me FOR
ii in San Francisco, so ] took il TO New
York. and they liked it-then san Fran
cisco wanted II. but every time they
asked for il my price went up 500
week, and when they finally got ii they
liked IL, too"
Mr.. Kendall has been in vaudeville
only since last November; but he went
TO the very top notch at the first jump.
MY first vaudeville engagement" he
said, was a the Chicago Opera House.
This was only secured after consider
able correspondence with the manage
ment. who were rather dubious as TO
my ability to make good for the am
cunt of salary / thought 1 ought TO
have. AS time is money In the con
tinuous,' / was slated for not less than
twenty minutes. | rounded out thirty
minutes without much effort ON my
part on my first appearance. AS the
audience seemed TO enjoy the materiql
! had prepared. it was fun for me TO
see them laugh My indulgence cost me
"A thirty minute mark forever after Ms
| speak rapidly l often use as high as
$50 words a minute. I'm thirty minutes
Of I
To exhaust ten minutes OF the time In
laughter. As nearly as | can Judge. /
use from 1000 10 5000 words al each per-
formance.
1T Is my endeSvor 10 always change
my material Gs much as Us posslbt2
each time / revisit y city. You can see
that it keeps one pretty busy changing
the sublime To the ridiculous and fig
urlng out the comic side 90 seriousness.
The stage joke today must be quicker
and more pointed than ~rVe years ago.
some people have an cnviabie dis
position 10 laugh oil the time at CV-
Crything: but there i8 large and
growing jury I'm every audience which
will render verdict Of eloquent sill
cnce without leaving their seats when
the gold bricks are being passed
around The attendance pays the per-
formers and the manager divides the
money among them 60 each. SO FER as is
possible a portion, according Co their
value: 90 some for names 60 others
for brains and 10 some FOR both.
AS to how long vaudeville viii last
rests with the performers. a few am
bilious ones can't make it perpetual,
but all must see that they 10 not repeat
their best things too often
--
Bismarck fought twenty Sigh due's
and IN all these conflicts received bat
one wound