The Savannah morning news., 1902-01-12
WHAT Is 1T FOR.
WHAT DOES IT DO.
col DIS

presses their attitude. A Philadelphia
audience is appreciative, attentive and
jolly. L have often appeared in one
Jheater where the Tuesday night or
the Wednesday night audiences are
the same every week in the year The
people get acquainted, and a sort of
fellowship among them keeps them in
good humor and ready to be amused.
Other smaller cities have their pecu-
liarities. Montreal for instance, wants
almost nothing but comic opera. Now,
the floating population of New York
is, l think, even larger than people
imagine, and an audience here par
takes of the qualities of all these To-
calities.
II sometimes find that a joke or a
story is appreciated in one city but
not in another. for no apparent rea-
son; but L generally keep in such close
touch with my audience that 1 can
avoid line of humor that 1 find does
not take. L never follow a hard and
fast monologue form. Here is an ex-
ample: Speaking of wise men. The
wise men all came from Ireland The
wiser they were the quicker they
came That was understood here, but
never got laugh in Chicago.
Americans in general do not care
so much for the intellectual as they do
for the absurd in humor, and for what
you might call optical effects. Boston
has sense of humor more like the
English one. 1 remember at Warwick
Castle in England / once told of the
man who dreamed he was dead, but
the heat woke him UP, and an Eng
lishman remarked, You must have
very hot nights in America
In any locality everything depends
on the particular audience The
weather and a hundred other things
affect them. A big theater party, or
even single person, can carry a whole
audience along"
Boston and PHILADELPHIA Easiest to
Amuse.
AS samples of jokes laughed at in
one city, but not in another, James T
Powers recalled the following two.
POSSIBLY if enough examples of this
sort could be collected they would
show exactly what New York's sense
of humor is). In San Toy" the ladies'
maid missed her alarm clock and in
hunting for it asked the Chinaman
(who had really stolen it) if he had
seen 1T. Where can it have gone top
she asked. did you set it?' inquired
the Chinaman. yes" "Then, perhaps.
it went off by itself"
That got only a moderate laugh
AACAC NAlAC DOSIOn WAS one OF
the hits of the piece. Just the reverse
was true of the next, which went well
here, but not elsewhere. The moment
before an Introduction one character
says: You are going to be presented, -
with what?" is the response.
Mr.. Powers thinks Boston and Phil
adelphia the easiest cities to please,
but the large cities do not differ great
ly. In going to "one-night stands"
hnNUnNa1. iS -
action rather more forcible, to throw
the lines" at the audience. A New
York audience prefers a quieter de-
livery, and likes to pick out for itself
the points to laugh at. 'In the spring
and fall" said Mr.. Powers, 81 some
times find an audience laughing at
things that l did not consider funny
myself. That shows the presence OF
strangers, such as the out-of-town
buyers. They see things a little diff
ferently. When 1 am thinking of
something else and saying the lines
half unconsciously, 1 sometimes get
laugh for a point that never was
laughed at before. Other times 1 try
one way after another of saying a
line until 1 find the right way, per-
haps by accident. An audience will
catch very fine point of infection.
In musical comedy you cannot de-
peAu DIT all OH SlludIlOnS. In InlS II
differs from farce"
Laughter is not, after all, the only
criterion by which to judge the sue
cess of a humorous play. David War
field spoke especially of this point:
Chicago, Philadelphia, Sap Francisco
and New York are cities that are
easiest to amuse, but they do not laugh
equally. Boston, especially, is more
reserved. The people there may thor
oughly enjoy a play, keep on coming
to it, and praise it to their friends,
though they do not laugh uproariously
at the time. Another thing, locality
doesn't necessarily like best the kind
of humor it produces itself When
The Belle of New York was taken to
London the managers wanted to cut
out the local jests and illusions. They
decided, however, to give them a trial
first and they were the best hits
Londoners liked them because they
sounded new"