Don’t Overdue Humor When You Are On Stage
Tuesday, June 13th, 2006I just watched a very funny video clip of Steve Martin on the Tonight Show. His routine was entitled “The Great Flydini.” He spoofed traditional magicians by making objects appear out of his pants; scarf’s, eggs, a lit cigarette, glass of wine, and even a telephone. The routine was funny because it was original, but also because Steve Martin didn’t overact the part of the magician. I like the humor of Steve Martin but he often goes too far and overacts when he is doing stand-up comedy.
His characters that he portrays on stage tend to be too ridiculous for me sometimes. I never could get into his “wild and crazy guy” routine, but “The Great Flydini” was brilliant because it was underplayed. He didn’t say one word during the four plus minutes he was on stage. He didn’t make any ridiculous facial expressions to kill the humor. He just acted like any bad magician performing.
When performing humor especially mocking a group of people it is important to get the mannerisms down. Usually if you nail the mannerisms you don’t have to try to be too funny. It will be. My parents made a very good living spoofing acrobats. They didn’t put acrobats down by overacting. They played their parts serious, and let their actions get the laughs. Had they overacted, the act wouldn’t have been believable and they would have only received a few laughs rather than the thunderous laughter that they received every night. They would have been recognized as a second class act and wouldn’t have played the top notch theatres of their time, like the London Palladium.
Many acrobats would complain that my parents didn’t do any tricks in their act. They would wonder why they were so popular and got top billing. The acrobats would say we do a triple axle or some impressive stunt and my parents didn’t do anything how come we have to open for them. Occasionally an act would insist on following my parents and they would always pay the price. After seeing my parents the audience wasn’t impressed with the other act.
Quite often comedians make the mistake of telegraphing the punchline. They start to overact, laugh, and do something that says to the audience I am trying to be funny. When you send that message out many times the audiences says you’re not funny by not laughing. When doing physical humor play it straight and let the situation be funny.