The Birmingham age-herald., 1919-06-22

bless you. to steal an inspired phrase 1 of his own, he is ''as pink as the in- | side of a blonde cow" and it isn't be- cause of the pasture at the Lambs club, either. It is fine, honest whole some sunburn, and he comes by it at Rebel Ridge" his country place in | Ossining, N. Y.
 We had a great old talk about humor-Cobb and land somehow 1t all chimed in with his fondness for being caricatured. He has a notion that humor is an affair of counting yourself in, instead of counting your self out, whenever you crack a joke 1t is as if he were saying, Poor,
 weak, sillX. ridiculous people-myself, especiallyp' He will cry, What fools these mortals ber' but never What fools those mortals bel. He hates the Joker who takes what he calls 'birdseye view" looking down at life superciliously from away up wonder. He especially hates cruel fun. "Whats the sport in making 99 folks laugh when the hundredth runs away ru1- ping his shanks." Irv isn't cocky about this Although he has heart like meeting house, and thinks of numor as triumph of good nature, and doesn't make two enemies in 30 years, he confesses that he has writ ten confoundedly disagreeable jokes, nHu lIcn-dHQ crossed InGI1 out "A wonderful fellow! By George, he was so nice to me that I actually felt fat! And in the mood I am in, as result of an hour with Cobb. I understand perfectly why Ellis Parker Butler de- scribed him as a "big, juicy south erneI. with a chuckIe,' and why "Bon"
 Davis called him "a kind of fat Polly anna"
 SPECIALIST IN HUMOR ShraWd Spacia1iSt in hurpoi Is Cobb, and yet see how little set uI about that he is, One time he under- took to make a list of sure laugh get ters, and calalogued them in Every body's Magazine At a show, so he ob- served. people laugh q. When a performance starts to move and the trap drummer in the au- dience scrapes a resined piece of cord so that the comedian thinks his clothes are splitting.
 "2. When an Irish monologist speaks a sentence in German. "3. When clown acrobat poises himself to jump a tremendous distance and then suddenly changes his mind and walks off
 A. When a comedian starts to sing and the trombone player sounds dis cord, causing the comedian to stop and look at him threateningly "5. When a low comedian, in leaving the stage, walks up against something solid and hits his nose.
 "6. When monologist, contemplat- | ing the street scene on the back drop | behind him says, 'Ah, Philadelphia on a | busy day
 "7. When he looks in the window of a house painted on the scenery and pre- tends to see something funny going on. IS. When the black-face half of a musical team takes off eight or nine waistcoats of different colors in rapid succession.
 "9. When dancing comedian trips
 on something and then stoops down and picks up an ordinary pin. "10. When a charater comedian turns
 around and shows a red bandanna handkerchief pinned in the tails of his frock coat
 Il. When a comedy character wears white spats fashioned with large pearl 1 buttons and high hat. "12. When a comic countryman runs | his fingers through his chin whskers l his teeth suggestive of the night wind soughing through weeping willow l tree"
 As you read this list of our follies, | do you get the idea that Old Irv is 1 jeering us, and setting up to be a su- 1 perior person himself, and rejoicing that he is not as other men are? Never once! He shares our foolishnesS- proudly, almost think, or at any rate
 unaffectedly. He is one of us. He likes being one of us. He has not forgotten | that in the days of his youth he drove