Evening star., 1912-07-07


changed, noticed confederate take the place
of the other; but the general effect the crowd
the Without the confederate, lot. of people
would have laughed at the toy; but the loud laughter
OF this one man killed the laugh sense of the Others
Laughter Not Contagious
V/HY was this?' of us asked the other
- moved away. And, casting our minds relevantly
to the theater audience to the conclusion that
the laughter of IN crowd was lntr1nslcally
provocative of feeling in those about him not of mrth
but of startled curiosity Human nature is such that
unless its emotion exactly or at least very nearly the
the emotion of its neighbor in the sight and
sound of the episode it Immediately becomes sus
picouS of the other fellow.
That is, if Bill and Gus 60 to play together and #,
at certain sad episode, Bill snlf1es, while Gus only
smiles, each forthwith begins to think something is
wrong with the other Bill will look at Gus and vice
Bill thinks it strange that Gus was not affected
by the sad scene and Gus having according to
his dea something silly in the sad situation, thinks
it strange that Bill didn't and smile Human ma
ture wants its neghbor to be much like as IS posi-
ble And so, when laughs and the rest OF the
audience doesn't the rest of the audience, instead OF
following the laugh lead of the man. wonders what's the
matter with him.
We hate to bring in any registered and recorded
science to prove pont-we didn't know, IN fact,
science supported until years after had "doped'
the little problem out for ourseves,but you will find
in the authoritative works psychology such state
rnents the following, which we have quoted from
Titchener's Outline of Psychology:
Laughter consists OF certain play OF feature and OF
o. long % 0l oees unp e most
gayed conditions We speak Of it as sardonic, contept-
GUS dersve. sympathetic hyserica joyous ETC.;
presses the sentiment of power and it follows tickling
certain acute pains No explanation which has yet been
offered IS entirely satisfactory.
With this wide variety of the intrinsic basis
motive of laughter it wonder, is it, that the rest
of the audience which has felt like laughing at the
comedian is curious as why the other man-the one,
solitary man-is laughing He may be hysterical! He
may be kidding, derisve! He may be contemptuous!
And so on. Hence, instead of blndly following his
aughngead, the rest Of the audience is given over to
startled curiosity.
Comedians Nightmare
THE SO called 3cold house is one of the Nightmares
OF comedians For purposes OF definition, let US
explain that SO called "cold house. is audience
that for other not in the spirit OF the
entertainment; that will not laugh where other audi
have laughed; that in short isn't responsive to
the performers the stage. Without wishing to seem
too pretenous, it still remains that we have yet to
cold house and not sell" 1t our huTor; that
is not win it to laughter. Obviously, the method
have employed in winning one "cold house wouldn't
do at all in making another cold house laugh, and
vice versa.
The problem OF the 3cold house"-and it is problem
that conronts public performer now and again,
no matter what his line of entertainment happens to
be-is problem that has almost many sides as the
number of "cold houses that call it forth. The cold
house demands instantaneous application OF the
remedy.
Here is our system In the first place. is fact that
a comedian comedian tell when his house IS
"cold, the moment he comes on the stage Some come
dians finding themselves faced by such cold house,
prefer fight fight, fight against the audience with all
the extra resources they have their command in the
hope of winning the laughter of the audience sometime
in the later course OF the evening.
Warming Up the House
MOT for US! We set about when we formed our part
y nership years ago to figure out ways to win the
cold audience right off the bat That means IN the
first FIVE minutes. And plan has been peasurably
successful Say, when out the stage for the
first time, find of these unexplainable unre-
sponsve audiences out in 'front.' The battle on Find
regular dialogue and business is not getting the