How is comedy like an orgy? It is best done in the dark and it should have a lot of people involved. I know that sounds like a dirty riddle but it’s true.
Comedy, is a vampire’s art, best done when the Sun has set and indoors. Do you think that’s nonsense? Name one outdoor comedy festival, I’ll wait… That’s what I thought. Music loves to play outside but jokes are hiding in the basement.
The reason is, and you may well know this, but under the cloak of darkness, people feel free to laugh. It’s like wearing a mask on Halloween, that sort of anonymity is freeing. Being in a large crowd enhances that.
While it’s easy to turn down the house lights, it’s not always easy to fill the audience up. Especially as you continue to do shows on a regular basis, even more so when it is a performance workshop.
I was in one such workshop, the Wingnuts. We did shows every other week, which is a great way to learn, you can’t stop a scene in a show because it’s gone off the rails, you need to figure out how to right the ship. I’ve mixed my metaphors but you know what I mean.
One week, we had more people on stage than in seats, which is never good. Except one of those people was a man named Dave Storck. Dave was a former Wingnut and came to support us. He’s a good improviser and a good guy. He sat in that tiny black box theater and laughed his ass off.
There may or may not have been other people at that show, but it didn’t matter because Dave was there. He was not self-conscious about being the only one laughing and it made it easy get through what might have been a soul crushing evening.
Sometimes, all it takes is one person to laugh to get things off on the right note. And if you’re lucky, you have someone like Dave there. But if you can get Dave, do it, he’s got a really good laugh.
The Writings of Leo Byrne Jenicek 