The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-29


II WANT one thing understood before
say another word. And that is
that 'if 1 am funny it is not be-
cause I have a long, prehensile upper
lip like a giraffe or a camel or tapir
or the late lamented Mr.. Crowley. of
Central Park. 1t is not because of
that, for / have no such upper lip.
Every photographer and every artist,
not excepting the genial one who drew
fthis picture, who shows me with a long
upper lip, is a liar and a libeller. I only
look that way in my makeup, and art
lists only give me that lip because it's
easy to draw.
Personally, on the street and in my
happy and we'll populated home, look
as unimpressive and not at all unlike
a self respecting postman on his day
off,
Neither long upper lip nor any other
popularity will make an actor funny.
Being funny enough to make people pay
you for 1t is an art, and, like all arts,
is the result of careful study and long
experience 1t has taken me 40 years
nacle of the drama on which I now SO
gracefully perch.
To be funny you must seem to be
spontaneous, to do and say everything
right off the bat. And seeming to be
spontaneous every evening and at mat
inees is the outcome of painstaking
preparation. Every effort has to be
o1o,,I al haf
don't get your laugh precisely the same
way every night. Audiences differ just
like individuals, and real comedian
can tell whether he's got quick or
slow audience after the first laugh, and
he varies his performance accordingly.
That's where experience comes in.
Experience-thats almost the whole
humor and the brains to be something
of hypocrite. If you get big hand
on your first entrance--a reception" we
call tit doesn't make any difference
how stuck on yourself you are, you've
got to bow in foolish, bashful way and
make them really and truly believe that
you think you don't deserve 1t a bit.
AnOIneT tDiIlS is cuilouSs tOO. lctQ
an interview with Mark Twain once
where he said a very true thing and
something had always felt myself
| If 1 may mention Eddie Foy in the same
breath with him, for he makes all the
rest of us funny chaps feel like pikers-
and that is that he always knew himself
when he was being funny. think every
| c.1I
the laugh coming before hear a sound
And speaking of Mark Twain, any one
of his manuscripts is the best example
I know of the work of the funny man
being the result of careful study and
preparation II 1t is to seem spontaneous
Ever see Mark Twain manuscript?
WE'LL it's the most awful looking mess
Of erasures words put in afterward.
sentences transposed. paragraphs crossed
out and all, the evidences OF having been
done by the sweat of the brow that you
ever laid eyes on. And being funny
over the footlights is got at in the same
way tss
One of the secretly of being funny is
to get the close attention of your audi
tncts II YOU cdii W THAT you We Juiilptu
the big hurdle. And getting an audi
ence's attention is an art In itself. Shout
ing at them won't do it. Noise makes
them sit up for a minute. but It makes
them fidgety after a bit and you can't
get your best lines over to them. Abso-
lutte silence will do the trick better. and
best of all is as quiet g. voice as can
be heard all over the house. coupled
with perfect repose of action.
But the great thing, and the hardest
to get the hang of, is the art of sug
costing what you wish to convey, either
in action, words or song. instead Of ac-
tually working 1t all out In detail. AL
ways leave something to the Imagination
Of the audience. It flatters them. takes
J less d your. own hreathsr and besides.