Thursday, February 5, 2009
Izzard's Stage Presence
As we were watching the latest Eddie Izzard video, I realized I was laughing just as much (if not more) when he put action and facial expressions into his jokes as his actual jokes. For example, when he was talking about Humperdink being dead and he kept going back and forth merely using his eyes and simple hand gestures, I was CRACKING up! (For a refresher, try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o78MkSWe8Mw&feature=related) In this skit, he proves even the simplest things can be funny. I think this could be why I respond to visual humor as opposed to reading humor; to me, it is those funny hand gestures, facial expressions, acting out "fake" scenes (how he came up with the name Engelbert Humperdink, (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ckGmMO0zbJo&feature=related), etc, that make me laugh the hardest. I could read Izzard's whole skit in writing, and there is no doubt that I would laugh; but what he adds to the skit visually makes it so much more funny in my opinion.
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Hi, Courtney,
ReplyDeleteI hear what you're saying about the Izzard performance. I, for one, am all about inflection and delivery when it comes to humor. Your comments about reading v. performance make me wonder why I love reading plays but hate seeing them performed--especially since I totally agree with your assessment that Izzard would not be funny in print.
I wrote my MA thesis on a playwright I love, Martin McDonagh, who wrote an directed his first full-length movie this year--In Bruges. I read the screenplay before I saw the movie and absolutely loved it; it was my favorite of all his works so far. But the movie was just "ehh." It might have even been boring for some audiences (which is my nice way of saying "it bored me" without insulting my cherished Martin). Bottom line, performances never turn out to be as great as what I imagine as I read.
I think the essential difference between why stand-up works for me and plays don't is that I feel a lot more pressure to interpret plays. I have to make meaning out of what I see--a universal, or at least transcendent, meaning. With stand-up, the comedian doesn't ask for that. They just ask for a laugh and try to make what they say resonate with your faults or habits. And I have a lot of faults.
I completely agree- there's just something about watching a talented comedian act out his jokes that makes it funnier to me than reading. Humorous facial expressions and body language that accent a bit make a funny joke a hilarious joke. Timing is also a big (BIG) element of comedy that is hard to capture in writing, but can again be used in live performance to really bring out the comedy.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, I think a lot of written comedy falls flat when performed because we have a certain expectation of how things should act and sound. When live actors and comedians fail to meet expectations or interpret the material in a different way, we don't find it as funny.