Radio mirror (Nov 1936-Apr 1937)

■p HOUU TO TELL LEARN IN ONE HILARIOUS EDDIE CANTOR KEN MURRAY once knew YOUR pet bore has that funny gleam in his eye, that apprehensive smile, that threatening way of clearing his throat. He may be your best friend, but at this moment, you're positively afraid of him. He's about to tell a funny story. Oops — there it goes: "Have you heard the onj about the time Mae West . . . "Stop me if you've heard this one, but . . ." "I can't tell it in dialect, but there used to be an Irishman "Knock, knock . . ." "Say, you'll die laughing at this one . . ." But you don't die laughing. In fact, you're pretty miserable. You shuffle your feet. You fumble with the buttons on your vest. You cough nervously as the endless joke goes on. Finally, you force a laugh. You wish that something could be done about it. Something can be done about it. With a little effort in the right direction, you and your annoying friends can learn how to tell a funny story well. The problem is to find that right direction. Comedy technique is something like those old facts of life when it comes to frank discussion. There are so few people you can go to for the truth. I went to Joe Penner. I went to George Burns, Gracie Allen, Eddie Cantor, Ken Murray. I laid my cards on the table. The time had come, I said, for a little missionary work on their part. They had won their way to the top, to big reputations and big incomes, by making people laugh. That was fine, no one could grudge them that. But how about the rest of us? Sure, we want to go on laughing at their jokes. But we like now and then to tell them ourselves. And as often as not we don't seem to have much luck. What about letting out a few trade secrets? Now this may surprise you, but every one of these big radio performers heaved a great big sigh of relief. Every one of them said this was something he'd wanted to get off his chest for a long while. You see, they explained, they're in the same boat with most of the people in their audiences. Off the radio, off the stage, off the screen, they're 32 RADIO'S ACE COMEDIANS REVEAL THEIR TECHNIQUE FOR YOU PARLOR COMICS WHOSE JOKES FALL FLAT up against the same social situations that other people have to meet. Count them in on this crusade to wipe out the scourge of bad jokes. They proved as good as their word. They haven't held back anything they've picked up in the course of their careers as comedians. Maybe you've envied them at one time or another for what seemed to be a natural talent for evoking explosive, hearty laughter from listeners. Why, you said, they don't even have to try. Oh, don't they, now! Take their word for it, comedy isn't a gift, but the result of conscious application to a well defined problem. The remarks that cause spontaneous laughter are concocted just as carefully as grandma's recipe for spice cake. "A pinch of this, just a sprinkling of that, and lots of raisins." In other words, there's a method in a comedian's madness. And there should be method in yours, too, if you crave to be the life of the party. Not that you'll have to sit down and start a filing case for jokes. Every professional comedian has one. But that's only because he has to draw on a bigger than average supply to meet a bigger than average demand. For your purposes, memory will suffice to store all the jokes you need. But you have to use your memory. Like the professional, you should develop a series of jokes which are applicable to a variety of situations and moods. You'll have to develop a repertoire of stories if you want to be the sort of person who can get a laugh out of almost any crowd in almost any situation. That's Joe Penner's hint to the amateur comedian, anyhow. "How many times have I heard people say, 'I never can remember a story!'" Joe said. "I've been guilty of the same thing myself. But it's sure as shooting you can't repeat a story properly unless you remember it — all of it. The thing I'd suggest is to jot down the ones you hear and maybe give them a new twist. There aren't many new jokes in the world, you know. Most of the things you laugh at are old as the hills. The point is — they have a new angle." To illustrate the point, Joe gave me an example from his personal life. One day he told his wife an old-as-the-hills I i