The San Francisco call., 1903-01-11


before. when 1t
comes 10 the fnales
Mr.. Librettist is verN
apt to feel. IL. indeed, he\
hasn't felt so before, that
a conversation with the
composer might prove very
interesting In this he is not
disappointed. The talk is sure
TO be interesting to the point of Y
excitement And after it is over
the writer of the book and lyrics
feels surer than ever that in the fin
ishes 10 those acts he can "see" his
own finale. Sometimes these are not
written until the music, book and lyrics
for all the rest Of the piece have
been completed They are the most i'm
POI Ttant Of the single epis odes of the work
1t is probable that prior to this the
author has been moved by occasional in
spirations and bursts of whatever genius
ne may De blessed with, to throw off from
time TO time versified gem for one OF
his Characters to sing. But now is the
logical time TO sit down and systematic
ally begin the task of writing the lyrics
As have sa ID. the speeches introduciue
these have been written, and the motive
and motif OF each lyric has therefore
been supplied.
have known lyrics that after
ward made sensa tiOnal hits to go
for nothing on the first few
trials. just because they had
been put in at places In
the piece at which the
audience had not been prom
erly worked upon to make IL
receptive to this kind Of a song
One must feel as nearly as he can
the moods and attitude OF the an,
dience at each given point, and then
strive TO get his effects to harmonize
as closely as possible with this frame
of mind.
But now for the crafty tricks that ge.
the laughs.
It IS not always easy to draw the
line between horsepIay and artistical-
" funny tricks. have never tried to set
down the difference between these two
kinds Of stage humor. but / believe l can
make my meaning clear by saying that
Lorseplay is q process OF creating laugh
ter by the employment of mechanical or
acrobatic work alone. with no aid from
the intellect whereas. the more legiti-
mate style of comedy tricks must bring
about the thing to be laughed at a
result of brain wit or thought.
TO illustrate. take the ancient ''wheeZe'
of the siphon bottle of seltzer. I can
think of more bald example of cheap
clownlng than for one character on the
stage 10 deliberately soak another by
holding the stream of settler on him. 1t
required no wit or gift of humor 10 invent
that piece Of business and the public
laughs at II. not because II contains
humor-for II does not-but purely from
force OF habit
On the other hand. there arc many
ways in which the same Identical business
is done In a legitimate and artistic way
and thus becomes honestly funny anc
much more laughable.
Among the numerous cases OF this kind
I'm my own experience one came up when
we were putting on The Idols Eye.
You will recall that in the title role j was,
among other things, an aeronaut, and
you will not have forgotten my startling
entrance in Act IL The scene was the
interior Of an East Indian temple. At the
close of the previous act had made my
escape I'm balloon. Suddenly there was
an awful crash in the lofty dome of the
temple and amid a shower Of broken
glass ! was seen to fall like a shot
through the dome and into the cellar OF
the temple with the ragged remnants OF
my collapsed balloon hanging TO me.
The effect Of course was unique and II
appealed to me; but argued that 1t was
when one came down to facts, nothing
but an elaborate and massive case OF
horse play and ] hesitated about using
it. The very first night We played It be-
fore an audience I discovered to my de-
light that / had been entirely wrong ir
my reasoning 1 had overlooked the real
situation. which was. not the fall from
the balloon. but my demure and uncon-
cerned entrance from the cellar, mo-
rnent after the fall. as happy as ever and
none the worse for wear There never
was a laugh on the fall; but the moment
the audience saw me bob up serenely
from the cellar there was a roar all over
the house.
Thus II became a good legitimate, and
vet wfthal. crafty comic opera trick
Again in the Wizard of the Nile %
for instance. during one act / wore a
short skirt in my disguise as an Egyptian
wizard It is here that the canny
Scootchmun. with his disagreeabIe ha biz
Of appearing at all sorts OF disconcertinp
moments. suddenly startles me with his
thunderous "Hoot, mon"
Every time / heard this 'Hoot mon' Il
was part OF my stage business to lose
my skirt through fright. About the third
time this happened 1t used to strike the
audience as hilariously funny and with
each succeeding repetition It seemed to be