#37: Comedy Tonight! (oh, not the show I’ve been quoting for a month)
Tuesday 8/20/24
Let’s talk about comedy. This is a huge topic so I’ll drill it down to just one area. Rhythm & Pace.
Rhythm is crucial. People often ask me how I landed a joke and 99% of the time, it’s simply pace & rhythm. It’s when I chose to speak and at what tempo.
Comedy lives in the uncertain. If you develop a rhythm and stay with that rhythm… then the joke won’t be funny because the audience already understands the rhythm, tempo, and pace of the scene or monologue. Comedy f*cks that up. Comedy is unexpected. Comedy is a sudden change or pace or a pause so long that the rhythm is interrupted. We laugh at the unexpected.
A fast pace is driving us toward a point. Being slow and controlled slows us down. Those are opposites. Use both.
A lot of actors think and were brought up believing that every word is crucial. I believe what Sondheim says “the audience gets about 30% of the words”. Good… you got it. That means that you can determine what “30%” is crucial. How do you build pace and rhythm around those moments.
Keep in mind that there is no fast without slow. You do need to establish rhythm and pace so that you can shock and surprise. If you find yourself struggling to vary your lines, grab a highlighter and color code the super critical words aka the 30%.
I hate to give an example of myself LOL but I’m going to because I simply can’t think of anything else off the top of my head. In Sweeney Todd, after Anthony tells Sweeney that he’s getting Johanna and they are going to run off - he exits. Sweeney has a line “she’ll only be here for an hour til he carries her off to the other end of england”. And my line is:
“Oh, that sailor? Let him bring her here and since you’re so hot for a little (cut throat) thats the throat to slit dear”.
Every interpretation I’ve seen of this line glossed over it OR got a teeny tiny laugh. To me, it’s like critical information and also funny to tell him to kill this kid just for fun. I wanted to REALLY hit a joke here but from a place of sincerity. Rhythm…. Pace. I got a 10 second laugh & applause every single performance.
Here’s how I structured the line:
My language internally: “your joking that little scrawny sailor? Please. Use him to get johanna here and then kill the f*cker and move on”.
How it landed:
(high pitch): “OH THAT SAILOR… (not a question)
(beat): whatever
(convincing): let him bring her here
(fast): and since your hot for a little
(audible throat slit sound in the rhythm)
(hit each word low and point at anthony each word) THAT’S THE THROAT TO SLIT, DEAR”
Every rehearsal and every performance it landed. And only when people stopped laughing or clapping did I move on to my next line.
I broke the rhythm. I established the pace, I set a rhythm, and then I broke it. And it broke the audience each and every time.
Great writing helps lol.
Try it out!
Dreams Don’t Die
Julie