Is there anything more dire, more unpleasant than to have to spend several hours with a humorless and pathetic drone of a human being, short of being placed in an Iron Maiden (a popular torture device from the time of the Spanish Inquisition)?
Yes, there is something more dire. PAYING a lot of money to spend several hours with a humorless and pathetic drone of a human being, that’s worse. And that’s how the audience feels when they see a performance (or complete work) lacking in all humor.
Part of our job, and this is something easily forgotten, is to entertain. Even the worst bad guy can have a sense of humor, albeit black. Even the stiffest Dudley Do Right good guy can laugh at his own stiffness for a moment or two, can’t he.
Generally, people do not care for others who cannot laugh at their own insufficiencies. And make no mistake, we all have insufficiencies enough that we should be laughing, given that the alternative is despair. I’ve worked with a few…very few, thank the powers that be…actors who had limited senses of humor. I didn’t care for them much as people, and I truly did not care for their performances.
Humor is a symptom of intelligence, and the ability to see the difference between what is and what should be. All comedy is based on the idea that we just don’t live up to what we should be. Classical tragedy is about mankind striving for perfection. In comedy, the hunt for perfection is surrendered, replaced by lower and simpler pleasures. In tragedy, the soul rules. In comedy, it’s the body. But, sad to say, even when mankind aspires to be one with God or the Gods, he’s still dragging along a body for the ride. In the darkest of tragedies, there should always be a sly glimmer of humor. Hamlet preaches to a skull, and speaks in ironies about the sort of work of art man is. If Hamlet can jest, any character can, if subtly.
There have probably always been actors capable of raising a smile while in the dark grip of drama. Some of these are “over the top”, playing a bit large for the moment, or are inappropriately small given the tragedy surrounding them. Some are self-deprecating, at moments when they most need their confidence. Regardless, their reaction is INAPPROPRIATE for the surrounding events, and this is funny. The great tragic hero, climbing the jagged mountain with bloodied fingers, only inches from the top and nearly able to grasp the hand of God…will suddenly scratch his butt and nearly fall. Why? He’s human. He’s flawed. Like all of us. And we will love him for his flaws and accept him as one of our own. Though he is greater than we, we’ll root for him, as we do for Hamlet, Lear, and the others.
Perfection does not need to, nor should it include, a lack of humor. And no character represents a perfect human being. Find the flaws and exploit them occasionally, maybe as a surprise. Humor, so long as it isn’t inappropriate to the piece and the moment, is golden.
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EXERCISE: Take a scene from a play, one you’ve worked earlier. Decide where in the scene the character displays or might display flaws which would show up as physical actions. Start with the easiest and most obvious moments. Run the scene with a partner five times through, experimenting with these moments, until you feel you can accurately display character flaws which are comic.
Then, find moments in the scene which would NOT seem to support a character’s flaws being presented. Decide on a single flaw which could physically show up at that moment, one which will reveal the tension or pressure the character is experiencing. Some physical trait, action or glitch that let’s us know he’s in trouble or upset without having to tell us. Play the scene through at least five times mastering this display of inner incompetence or failure or angst. At first, play it broadly, very obviously, and then, make it ever smaller and more subtle until it’s just big enough to be seen by an audience if they’re paying attention. When you know you can present a character flaw and get a laugh from it, at any size of play from large and obvious to small and subtle, you’re done with the exercise.
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