TV Guide (January 22, 1954)

N occupational hazard and one of the major causes of trauma among comedians is that dreary audience that refuses to laugh. It has long since become dogma in the radio-TV industry that a studio audience must be on hand to be insulted by the comics and cued by off screen claqués so that the folks at home will know when to laugh. And if a studio audience doesn’t laugh? As a precaution against such disasters, most shows employ a preshow audience warm up so that when airtime rolls around, the audience will be giddy enough to laugh at anything. A Gag For A Kick-Off The kingpin at audience priming is of course that old pro Bob Hope. Approximately a minute before air time, he reads from the script what is allegedly the first joke on the show. He then ceremoniously rips the first page off, crumples it in a ball, throws it on the floor and kicks it. Mr. Hope has this timed so well that the audience will be in gales of merriment at precisely the moment the show goes on the air. Announcer Jack Lescoulie does the warm up on the Jackie Gleason Show. A typical warm upinvolves lining up Jackie, Audrey Meadows, Art Carney, June Taylor on stage,then going into the following spiel: “Ladies and gentlemen, I’d like to introduce you to the cast. Cast, meet the audience.” With this, the cast’ runs out into the audience, shaking hands all around. The Warm Up THE STARS GET BENEFIT AUDIENCE OF A PRE-HEATED 3 es ® Big Payoff aide warming up audience. The cast then rushes onstage just in time for the show. Milton Frome, one of Milton Berle’s -alter egos, does the warm up on the 10 Berle show. In line with the theory that a studio audience is several cuts lower in intelligence than the one at home, Frome goes out on the runway at the Center Theater wearing a preposterous toupee. He then rants at the audience, “If you don’t laugh tonight, I'll tear my hair out,” then, “I think