“Dying is easy; comedy is hard,” according to the early 19th-century actor Edmund Kean. I would append to that statement: “Not feeling very well is easy; reviewing comedy is hard.”
The primary problem with penetrating the comic mind is that comedy is used as a shield, a defence mechanism, really, against all foes. Comedy comes from a dark place rather than the light place it seems to occupy. Another wise man, Mark Twain, once observed that “the secret source of humour is not joy but sorrow; there is no humour in heaven.” Heaven is for the civilized, the well behaved, the well dressed. It is a place where soft music is playing. Hell is for bad behaviour, childish antics, rage and criticism, not approval. Practitioners and creators of comedy, famously or infamously, are more often morose than cheerful.
It is difficult to see this at first. We bounce off the comic shield. The trouble (and the joy for us) is that when we laugh we are distracted, less inclined...
Joseph Kertes is a winner of the Stephen Leacock Award and founder of the first-ever full-time college program in comedy writing and performance. He is currently dean of creative and performing arts at Humber College in Toronto.
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