Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1916-02-12
Concerning the Art of
Being a Real Comedian
A Famous Fun-Maker Finds Sincerity the Basis
of All Great Comic Art Upon
the Stage
By HARRY LAUDER

THE philosophy of stage persuasion can
J. he told in one word-sincerity. | mean
that comedian, to he runny, must laugh
with his audience If he would have the
audience laugh with him. Many have
held this to be otherwise. II has been
put forth that art not heart, is the ele-
ment upon the stage. ! have found it the
reverse.
You have here in America one great
character attached to the stage. He eX-
empifes more fully than any other one
the truth of my theory. He is George
NJ Conan. To know and study him off
the stage Is to understand his never-go-
wrong appeal on it and in everything he
touches of it. Cohan is as you say In
America, ION the level"
The day may be rainy. but George
Cohan has in his memory the sunshine
of yesterday and in his heart the sun
shine of tomorrow. Affnd you. he doesn't
pretend the sun Is shining today. But he
knows the sun will SHINE tomorrow, and
because he knows 1t he makes you believe
1t, That's why l say George Cohan is
the greatest comedian in Amerlca-one OF
the greatest of them all.
He is square with himself, his audience
and his own ideals. The reason that he
can deliver patriotism thrills where an
other man cannot is not because he
knows better how to, but because he feels
that patriotism more. He can make you
laugh because he would laugh at the
same thing. He can make you weep. be-
cause he himself is toucned, That is the
essential of stage greatness,
This is not so in other calllngs. A writer
may be a crouch or crab in his shriv-
eled soul, yet wit on paper. A painter
may be a rascal, yet draw an ideal con-
ception. But he does not face the public.
He does not have to satisfy the studying,
questioning eye of his fellow man, which
dlvines and discerns beyond any make
up, beyond any grOtesque TRANSPORTATION
of chalkline or grease paint, and, reading,
feels.
Material is the least OF stage workers
asset. II the soul be there it can color
and mold any suitable tunes, steps or
words. Pathos and comedy are twins to
such a one-so nearly do they resemble
one another that sometimes their own
creator can scarcely tell which is which.
when one enters and the other departs.
There is no specializing In comedy or
tragedy, except as certain vocal and
physical characteristics may aid in COM
pelling a plausible physical framework.
George Cohan Is known as a profess
sional American. | am known as a pro-
fessional Scot. But IL not Cohan's
Americanism and my Highland birth that
of loving a lassie. / think l can do 1t
as well in any language And the Stars
and Stripes are no better for romantic
or dramatic purposes than the Russian
Eagle or Erin's Harp ON green. It's the |
unseen and potential force of patriotic |
sincerity that gave COhan a tighter grip |
on your flag than Patrick Henry or a |
President
The heart is ernational-universal. |
Emotions are common TO us all. Enter, |
tainment Is good, bad or Indifferent |
mean entertainment delivered without |
trlcks-in proportion to the degree in which |
the entertainer can carry his audience /
with him In the spirit and atmosphere of |
his theme II one feels his stun he has /
no limitations Art has little to do with /
it, Some of our greatest artists are hope /
less as actors If one feels his stuff he /
Is like a lawyer arguing for client that
he knows is Innocent He does not need /
to make up an alibi. He lets the truth /
run hut the man who feels and thinks
black and talks and sings white must be
snyerhuman to convince others VINO are
human and normal, of that Of which he
cannot convince himself
4 sang as Well and entertained as Wen
when 1 was a mule boy in mine as
lsve ever done since, except that l have
aSouirad a keener discrimination and /
T,atured. experienced series Of viewpoints.
n,ade nv fellow miserables laugh then,
{ust as George Cohan, they tell me,
tsnt every one about him entertained
pefore he took to the stage az all Foot
uqhts cannot draw from within one that
which q not there. They are more likely
10 work IKE X-rays and reveal what Is,