We are living in the machine age. For the first time in history the comedian has been compelled to supply himself with jokes and c...omedy material to compete with the machine. Whether he knows it or not, the comedian is on a treadmill to oblivion.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Comedy just pokes at problems, rarely confronts them squarely. Drama is like a plate of meat and potatoes, comedy is rather the de...ssert, a bit like meringue.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I am fully sensible that an historical romance, founded on the House of Saxe Cobourg, might be much more to the purpose of ... />profit or popularity than such pictures of domestic life in country villages as I deal in. But I could no more write a romance than an epic poem. I could not sit down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter. No, I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A tragic poet will never think of grouping around the chief character in his play secondary characters to serve as simplified copi...es, so to speak, of the former. The hero of a tragedy represents an individuality unique of its kind. It may be possible to imitate him, but then we shall be passing, whether consciously or not, from the tragic to the comic. No one is like him, because he is like no one. But a remarkable instinct, on the contrary, impels the comic poet, once he has elaborated his central character, to cause other characters, displaying the same general traits, to revolve as satellites round him.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
No one attaches a transcendent meaning to the "errors" of comedy, much less of farce. Mistaken identities, misunderstandings about... what some character said or meant, mistakes about bedroom doors--these help to complicate the plot and are all part of the fun. On the level of farce, Oedipus was mistaken about the identity of his parents, he misunderstood the true significance of what the oracle said, and he went into the wrong bedroom.... The difference in tragedy is that the errors are fatal and that, although they can be dissipated at the end, their consequences cannot.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Today's comedian has a cross to bear that he built himself. A comedian of the older generation did an "act" and he told the audien...ce, "This is my act." Today's comic is not doing an act. The audience assumes he's telling the truth. What is truth today may be a damn lie next week.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The only honest art form is laughter, comedy. You can't fake it ... try to fake three laughs in an hour--ha ha ha ha ha--they'll t...ake you away, man. You can't.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »