A Humorist, by my definition, has always a message behind his jokes, and his set must be thematic with a consistent point of view. I don’t know too many Humorists, (and, how could you know too many?), but, the finest example that comes to my mind is Samuel Clemens, better known as, ‘Mark Twain’. I believe it was Mr. Clemens who fostered my love of laughter, and I know it was his humour which first reduced me to tears. A funny guy indeed! His material was almost always thematic, a delivery of information and attitude etched in wicked wit. This ‘Thematic’ delivery, of necessity, reduces the proportion of laughs to material; at the same time, because it deals with serious matters, or themes, when well done, the laughs, when they do come, will be huge. John Cantu, of the, ‘Holy Zoo’, a little comedy club that produced Robin Williams, was first a comedian, and then proceeded to become a Humorist. He said, “A Humorist who gets five seconds of laughter for each minute on stage is a comic genius.”
Comics and Comedians have a slightly different challenge; for either to be a genuine success, they must generate a minimum of eighteen solid seconds of laughter for each minute of stage time. Because of this time factor a comic or comedian must toss off any pretence of their material being thematic, or carrying a message; it must be a constant barrage of shock and awe!
While every comic, to a degree, must be a comedian, it is true also that every comedian must have in his repertoire a little of the comic. There was a time I didn’t think that there was a difference between the two, but Mel Brooks changed my mind on that count; he said, “A Comic says funny things; a Comedian says things funny.”
This summer I was at one show in the city, and the comedians I was with were not doing very well; there was little in the way of laughter coming from the audience. Why? I don’t know! Many of us were doing new, untried material, but, one fellow I know went up and did ten minutes of his best material, material I’d seen many audiences howl at over the last year, and he fared little better than the rest of us. Then, a friend of mine got on stage; be began by harassing the audience ...and continued the same throughout his set. It worked! He got more laughter than the rest of us combined! As he swept off stage, and waltzed past our table he smirked, “That’s the way it’s done boys; piss ‘em off, then make fun of them!”
While I’m not fond of that approach, I will concede that sometimes it is essential, and I hope that I’m not often required to perform in a venue where it’s necessary. A friend of mine attended a show put on by two other friends of mine in a nearby community; he is quite familiar with the material of both of them. “It was a great show”, he said, “but both those guy have material that’s comic gold, and none of it worked! But they could stand on stage and tell the audience that they were morons, and they’d laugh like crazy!” He went on to tell me that the audience was only about twenty people due to so many of the locals being in the midst of harvest. Those that were there were already pretty sloshed when the show began, and quickly proceeded to become more so! When they have that much alcohol in them it is difficult to have your ‘wit’ appreciated, and it is then time to let peoples’ natural susceptibility to feelings of superiority take over. It’s one of our baser instincts, and evidences itself most plainly in school kids and drunks, (if you’re ever caught up in a crowd of drunken school kids ...watch out!) Don Rickles was a master of this technique, and, while I was never a fan, I’ll admit that he elevated it to an art form. To me that is a comic; there’s not much ‘comedic’ about it.
At the other end of the comedy spectrum is the comic who, “says things funny!”, and here I’m going to use as examples, Groucho Marx, Steven Wright and Jimmy Carr. These are, all three, masters of writing and editing, and, just as important, polished perfection in their respective deliveries. I love all three, and, to myself, they represent as close as human kind have ever come to pure comedy. Their acts will fill huge comedy theatres with wave upon wave of roaring laughter. At the same time, I’ve been in bars in Northern Saskatchewan where their material just wouldn’t work as well; and it’s in just such venues where a certain aptitude for the other end of the comic spectrum comes in real handy, but ...more on that another time!
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