Comedy is good for the heart
One of my hobbies is standup comedy. So when I saw this article on Science Daily, I was *heartened*. I've been fascinated by comedy since I was a small kid. I can even remember the first joke I ever learned. And I also remember holding an audience of several adults at the school's open house with me and my little puppet.
But my first experience of doing comedy as a public performance came when I played a bit part in a junior high school play. The two central characters of the play were Felicity, who was always happy, and Dolores, who was always sad. They were the princesses of a kingdom and I was the hypnotist brought in to convince Dolores that she was really very happy. It didn't work for Dolores, but I had never seen an entire auditorium erupt in laughter over something I did.
At some point around the same period of my life, I took a class in improvisation. I saw how we could create jokes and stories out of nothing but goofing around. We weren't quite as advanced as "Who's Line Is It, Anyway?", but we had buckets of fun.
Then, my desire to do comedy went into hiding for one reason or another, until recently. It had been mumble-mumble years ago since I had done any perfomance art when I found an ad for a local improvisation class. I put it in my Palm Pilot to call them and each time the reminder came up, I kept putting it off for another week.
And then finally one night, I called. "Hi, my name is Scott and I'd like to learn more about your improvisation class. I have some acting experience from long ago and I'd really like to just have fun. I have no interest in becoming an actor."
"Oh, that's great! We're looking for people like you!", he said. So I went.
By the end of that first evening, I was hoarse from laughing so hard, and my cheek muscles were sore from grinning all night. Now that is a ringing endorsement. I was hooked. So for the next couple of years, I would go there every Wednesday night and learn how to think on my feet, stay sincere to the scene and how to set up the other guys on stage so that they could say something funny. Yeah, I learned how to play straight.
And then I hit another turn. Someone in the group announced that they were going to teach standup comedy. The rest of the story is history for another blog.
Mr. Scott
But my first experience of doing comedy as a public performance came when I played a bit part in a junior high school play. The two central characters of the play were Felicity, who was always happy, and Dolores, who was always sad. They were the princesses of a kingdom and I was the hypnotist brought in to convince Dolores that she was really very happy. It didn't work for Dolores, but I had never seen an entire auditorium erupt in laughter over something I did.
At some point around the same period of my life, I took a class in improvisation. I saw how we could create jokes and stories out of nothing but goofing around. We weren't quite as advanced as "Who's Line Is It, Anyway?", but we had buckets of fun.
Then, my desire to do comedy went into hiding for one reason or another, until recently. It had been mumble-mumble years ago since I had done any perfomance art when I found an ad for a local improvisation class. I put it in my Palm Pilot to call them and each time the reminder came up, I kept putting it off for another week.
And then finally one night, I called. "Hi, my name is Scott and I'd like to learn more about your improvisation class. I have some acting experience from long ago and I'd really like to just have fun. I have no interest in becoming an actor."
"Oh, that's great! We're looking for people like you!", he said. So I went.
By the end of that first evening, I was hoarse from laughing so hard, and my cheek muscles were sore from grinning all night. Now that is a ringing endorsement. I was hooked. So for the next couple of years, I would go there every Wednesday night and learn how to think on my feet, stay sincere to the scene and how to set up the other guys on stage so that they could say something funny. Yeah, I learned how to play straight.
And then I hit another turn. Someone in the group announced that they were going to teach standup comedy. The rest of the story is history for another blog.
Mr. Scott
posted by Mr. Scott at
5:04 AM
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