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SHOWMANSHIP
For
MAGICIANS
CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Without any doubt, comedy is the one audience appeal that supplies the greatest possibility to the entertainer who uses magic as his material. It is one of the most popular types of entertainment and is always in great demand. Our most prominent entertainers, and the highest paid, whether from the stage, motion picture or variety, are almost invariably comedians.

Often a gift for comedy is combined with other talents, such as juggling, ventriloquism, musicianship, singing, etc.

Many times performers start out as one type of entertainer and through comedy talents entirely shift their field to comedy alone. Offhand the names of many come to mind. W. C. Fields was a juggler. Will Rogers was a rope spinner. Cantor, Jessel, Jolson were all singers. Jack Benny was a violinist, as was the lamented Ben Bernie. Fred Allen was also a juggler.

When a magician essays comedy it is best that he forget entirely that he is a magician. I do not mean that he should not perform tricks. I do mean, however, that he should subordinate his magic to his comedy, that his magic should be used only for what comedy may be elicited by it. Magic, wherein a person performs a trick the means of accomplishing the effect of which is stressed as a puzzle, or a problem, is a very serious business. There is little in a problem that lends itself to comedy.

Russell Swann is one magician who changed his viewpoint and became primarily a comedian. Fred Keating and Louis Zingone are others. Clarence Slyter is another example. All of them use magic. But all of them stress particularly the comedy side.

Yet comedy, itself, is a most serious business.

Since the magician who desires to entertain with comedy is primarily a comedian, and not a magician, his study of how to gain comedy effects and how to sell comedy should be made OF COMEDIANS, not magicians who do comedy magic. How to do comedy best must be learned from the top experts at comedy. These men are the Fred Allens, Jack Bennys and the like. They have made outstanding successes at selling comedy, far above any comedy magician, and THEY SHOULD BE YOUR MODELS. These are the best schoolrooms of comedy, the performances of the best comedians. Don't confine your study to radio comedians alone. After all, as a magician you must be seen. Therefore, the VISIBLE comedy of the stage and screen stars must be studied. Don't affix yourself to any one comedian, either.

Study the methods and the ways of getting laughs employed by AS MANY GOOD COMEDIANS AS YOU CAN.

What I have said before about individual talents and propensities, and how carefully you fit to your own equipment the type of comedy you eventually attempt will have considerable bearing upon your eventual success. If you aren't built for certain types of comedy, you can't do them successfully. So try to analyze what type of comedy will fit you best. Then go after it.

Comedy has many phases. It may excite laughter by a faithful adherence to nature and truth. It may consist in the representation of lively and amusing incidents, droll characters or anything ludicrous or comical.

Humor is a species of comedy that flows out of a person. It runs in a vein. It is not a striking flow of wit but more of a pleasing and equable flow. It may display itself in actions as well as words. But humor is deep, thoughtful, sustained and kindly. It has more of sympathy and tolerance.

On the other hand wit carries with it intellectual brilliancy, quickness of perception and a talent for expressing ideas in a sparkling manner. Wit signifies knowledge, particularly that faculty of mind by which knowledge or truth is perceived. It is that faculty, usually spontaneous, of discovering agreements or disagreements of different ideas. It is a natural gift that seizes with an eagle eye that which escapes the notice of the deep thinker. It elicits truths that are in vain sought for with severe effort. It may be a single brilliant thought. Invariably it displays itself only in the happy expression of a happy thought. It is ingenious, sudden, surprising, keen, brief and sometimes severe.

Just as there are two kinds of comedy sources, humor and wit, so are there two kinds of comedy expression. Comedy may be expressed either in the form of a jest or a joke.

The jest is done in order to please others. It tells a story directed at its object that may be a person, thing, state of affairs and the like. It is intended to make its object laughable or ridiculous. It is seldom harmless. Even the most serious target may be degraded by a jest. Characteristically, it treats a thing more lightly than it deserves through raillery, repartee or hoax.

A joke is launched to please one's self. It is a sort of a game in which sport is made of its subject. It is usually directed at the person or on the person, and its chief object is to excite good humor in others or to indulge it in one's self. It may dispel dejection. Frequently it is harmless. Like the jest, in treating a thing more lightly than it deserves, it is intended to contribute to the mirth of the company. It may be applied to objects in general, whether a person or a thing or a condition.

Comedy may be of several general types.

If it is laughable, which is one general type, it is caused by objects in general, whether personal or otherwise. It may excite simple merriment independently of all personal reference. It concerns that which arises from the reflection of what is to our own advantage or pleasure. It is usually caused by the nature of things themselves. Ordinarily, it is without any apparent allusion to any individual, even remotely, except the one whose senses or mind is gratified.

If the comedy, however, is ludicrous, it comes from reflecting upon what is to the disadvantage of another. However, it is less to the disadvantage of another than it is ridiculous. A thing or person may be ludicrous without implying moral demerit or deprecation of the moral character of the object. It arises from a cause independent of the subject. As an example: The pompous, dignified president of a bank would be ludicrous if a suspender, quite by accident, should be seen hanging below his coat tail. It is associated more or less to that which is personal and it causes laughter because it is absurd, incongruous or preposterous.

When something is comical or droll it does not leave a painful impression. Rather it applies more to the impression it produces. As for example: Suppose a man was to get on a crowded bus with a paper sack full of potatoes. Suppose the sack was to break and the potatoes should fall to the floor and roll about the bus. This would be comical, IF IT DIDN'T HAPPEN TO YOU.

Ridicule is a type of comedy that has laughter blended more or less with contempt. Its reference is more or less personal, and is produced by a strong sense of the absurd or irrational IN ANOTHER. The ridiculous always arises from reflecting on what is to the disadvantage of another. Things produce it more than by persons. Usually it refers to things of a trifling nature. Usually it shows itself in verbal expression. We ridicule a person's notions by writing or in conversation. We ridicule that which is maintained by a person. Usually it has simple laughter in it. But the ridiculous springs from positive moral causes. It reflects upon the person to whom it attaches in a definite manner and produces positive disgrace. It implies deserved contempt, and excites derision because of extreme absurdity, foolishness or contemptability.

The humorous type of comedy implies the existence of wit. It is facetious, jocular, jocose, droll, comic, farcical, funny, laughable, amusing, diverting or entertaining.

Satire is a form of comedy employed in personal or grave matters. It is a personal and censorious form of wit that openly points at its object and exposes a folly or vice.

Irony is disguised satire, saying less than it thinks. It takes aim in a covert manner and seems to praise when condemnation is really intended.

Caricature and burlesque are closely related. Both are overloaded with exaggeration. But caricature is an overstatement or over-coloring, in humorous imitation of a person or thing, which greatly exaggerates defects or peculiarities in order to make its object appear ludicrous.

Burlesque is an exaggerated assemblage of ideas extravagantly discordant. It is a trifling or ludicrous imitation of an action or occasion.

All of the above types of comedy may result in laughter, mirth, ridicule, merriment, glee, gayety or any of the other synonyms for the general term laughter.

True comedy excites laughter by unexaggerated adherence to nature and truth. But when it takes greater license than true comedy, when it is full of exaggeration and drollery, when it makes use of nonsense and practical jokes, when it does not hesitate to make use of any extravagance or improbability, it becomes farce.

Since all of these various forms of comedy, coming to us through two sources and expressed in two ways, produce what eventually becomes a form of laughter, it is certainly advisable to discover, if we can, what causes laughter. Now I am well aware that greater brains than I can lay claim to have probed this matter. It seems to me that I recall such hallowed brows as those of Spencer, Darwin, Aristotle, Brisbane and others having been knitted deeply on this subject. And without conclusive result, either.

So, even though I venture into what is almost certain trouble, I do so with the knowledge that much greater men than I have wrestled with this adversary, and have failed.

First of all, I can save myself a great amount of trouble by eliminating some complications. I'm not interested in all types of laughs, hysteria, pleasure, happiness, emotional, reflex, relief or covering up embarrassment. I'm interested only in what there is in comedy that causes laughter.

If we can find out what ingredients of comedy cause laughter, we can consciously apply these principles in creating comedy of our own, and genuine comedy deliberately created. It is worth trying, even though the result to me may only be the elimination of some intended comedy I have witnessed to my intense distress.

People are inherently cruel, even the most civilized of us.

That which we call comedy invariably develops in connection with somebody else or the things belonging to someone else. We NEVER laugh at ourselves or at the things we own, except when sufficient time has passed so that we may view ourselves or our possession in perspective, and in a way look upon it and ourselves AS SOMEONE ELSE.

WE FIND COMEDY IN THE DIFFICULTIES, SHORTCOMINGS AND INCONSISTENCIES OF OTHER PEOPLE, CREATURES AND THINGS.

So there is your field. The only significant thing I can see at this moment in connection with the above statement is that not an inconsiderable part of Jack Benny's success has been achieved because he has consistently adhered to a policy of planning his show FROM THE SPECTATOR'S VIEWPOINT. He, himself, has been that "other people." Benny is consistently the object of the humor in his shows.

Many other comedians have used this audience viewpoint when they have made the "difficulties, shortcomings and inconsistencies" their own, so that the spectators could laugh at them. I can think of The Mad Russian in the Cantor show; Fields; Bergen, who bears the brunt of Charlie McCarthy's sallies; Cantor and a great host of other prominent comedians.

On the other hand Fred Allen's type of humor is more mental. The chief charm in his programs is Allen's ability at "ad libbing," which is merely a stage technical term for spontaneous wit.

Now it strikes me that a magician is in a peculiarly advantageous position to make himself the brunt of the comedy in his routine. There is no more helpless, hopeless or totally demoralized performer in the theater than a magician whose tricks have gone awry. A singer can hit a sour note, but he can recover during the remainder of his song. A mistake is only a minor part of a dancer's routine, or an actor's, or a talking comedian's. But when a magician's tricks go wrong, where is he?

Also, there is nothing more delighting to an audience than to see a magician get into a jam. It comes from some sadistic psychological quirk which always enjoys seeing the "wise guy" in confusion. In the usual magic show, where the secret of the trick is the important thing, the magician by the very nature of things, regardless of how charming a personality he has, is always something of the "wise guy." The so-called secrecy of the methods of operation puts him in that position.

Ballantine, the comedy magician who has been referred to previously in this text, uses this principle of a magician in trouble excellently. He just can't seem to get away with any of his tricks. Therefore, the audience is laughing at the character he plays.

The dividing line between comedy and tragedy, as has been said so often by many authorities, is extremely fine. We laugh at the difficulty of the other fellow, PROVIDING HIS DIFFICULTY IS NOT LIKELY TO BRING SERIOUS CONSEQUENCES TO HIM. We laugh at the shortcomings of the other fellow, PROVIDING THEY ARE NOT LIKELY TO BE SERIOUS HANDICAPS TO HIM. The same may be said of the inconsistencies.

In all oases it is comedy, IF IT IS NOT ACTUALLY SERIOUS TO THE OBJECT, no matter how the object may feel at the time. THAT IS, UNLESS THE OBJECT IS AN UNSYMPATHETIC CHARACTER WHO DESERVES WHAT HE GETS.

And even this exception sometimes doesn't hold. The character of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice was originally intended as comedy, but the consummate interpretations of capable actors twisted the character to a tragic one.

Now let's see what specifically is the cause of these laughs by examining the nature of these "difficulties, shortcomings and inconsistencies."

  1. Physical difficulties which may bring a sense of distress or inferiority. These difficulties may be a black eye, a tooth-ache, a sore foot, a restriction such as being tied or handcuffed, or being drunk, or being given to stuttering. They are so numerous a list is impossible. However, usually the difficulties cannot be too serious to the person afflicted or the comedy becomes tragedy. I might cite the frequent references to Fred Allen's homeliness in his programs, or W. C. Field's appetite for whiskey.

  2. A mental difficulty, or difficulties, which bring a sense of distress or inferiority. Such difficulties, too, are numerous. But typical examples are weak will, absent-mindedness, vulgarity, uncouthness, superstition, laziness, stupidity, ignorance and the like. Jack Benny is constantly stressing an undeserved conceit, penuriousness and a weakness for glamorous women, Max Rosenbloom stresses illiteracy and Hugh Herbert is jittery.

  3. Exaggeration of the importance, distinction, size of or any other quality of a person, place, thing, condition, happening, talent, quality and so on. This is a frequent source of comedy as when the comic tells of the size of the lion he strangled with his bare hands.

  4. Inconsistency in the association of persons or things. For example: A character of the type of Max Rosenbloom might explain that he used to be a professor of Chinese literature at some university. Or a physically weak character might explain how he beat-up on some notorious hoodlum.

  5. A voluntary or involuntary misunderstanding of the nature, character, behavior, interest or importance of something or someone. As an example: A weak-minded character holding a lighted bomb, thinking it to be a hand warmer. Or a character booting the bride's father when he thinks him to be a rival for the girl's hand. Magicians use this when the kids yell for them to "open the other door" in the Die Box trick.

  6. A mistake of some kind. This is used frequently in farce comedy when the comic opens what he thinks is an ordinary door and falls down the elevator shaft. Or when he mistakes a real bear for a man dressed up in a bearskin.

  7. An insult of some character may result in comedy, when a person attempts to promulgate an insult, or to avenge or prevent one. Almost every week the insult formed one type of comedy during the perennial Benny-Allen feud over the air.

  8. An imitation supplies comedy. One character may imitate another. Or an imitation ring may be given the girl instead of a real diamond. A person or a thing may be the imitation, and the comedy may result in doing or acquiring the imitation or avenging it.

  9. Repetition of a person, statement, saying, condition or anything else. Fred Allen had one character who constantly used the expression, "That I can. That I can."

  10. A burden, in the form of someone or something inflicted upon someone. The old vaudeville act, "The Piano Movers," used such a situation with the little comedian constantly staggering under the load of the piano while his big helper stood around and told him what to do.

  11. Loss of control. The control lost may be of the temper, of one's actions, speech, something, an animal, another person, a machine or almost anything. In the old Keystone Cops pictures, the driver invariably lost control of the flivver in which the cops were riding. A magician could use this in connection with the rapping hand, or the talking skull, or the bell. Charles Waller devotes a section in "Up His Sleeve" to what he calls "Perverse Magic." This is simply loss of control of the objects with which he is working to the extent that the objects do what they please, regardless of the performer.

  12. Failure. Here a plan, a hope, an expectation, a person, a skill or something else, upon which the person is relying, fails at the crucial moment. Many comedy situations have been built around a comic's bluff, which fails when called. Or a tire failure during a chase brings complications. Or the inventor of a pair of wings jumps off of a building. Or at the launching of a boat the vessel keeps on going down - to the bottom. Failure of a trick, even when not intended as comedy, invariably brings laughs. Here's a good clue for a magician. This is one of Ballantine's strong points.

  13. An expose of a person or thing. This is a painful subject with magicians, so I shall pass it by gently except to observe that it has always gotten a laugh when I've seen it done apparently accidentally. But classic comedy situations abound with exposures of impostors from "Charlie's Aunt" to the wizard in "The Wizard of Oz." The smash laugh at the climax of the International Magicians version of the doll house was an expose., No, no, not of the trick! Of the gal's boy friend.

  14. Ejection. This is evidenced usually in a struggle to avoid or in actually having someone evicted from almost anywhere. As, for example, when the irate father tosses the unwelcome suitor out of the house. The immortal Cherry Sisters' act specialized in this form of comedy with the "hook" constantly menacing them., As, perhaps, it has menaced even you or me.

  15. A revolt or a reversal. This is illustrated repeatedly as when the worm turns. Or when the long-suffering husband finally turns on his termagant wife, as in "The Taming of the Shrew." A magician could use this to advantage by sitting down in the audience while a member of the audience acts as the performer, a self-working trick might solve the technical problem.

  16. Trouble. Threatened misfortune or mishap is always a subject of comedy. This may be brought about by the loss of someone or something, a threat from someone or something, an assault, or a test, or any other dismaying difficulty. I've never known a magician to fail to laugh when he discovers that a fellow magician has broken the thread for his (the other fellow's) rising card trick, particularly if the accident happens during the performance. Magicians could use this in a different way if circumstances should be so arranged that it would seem impossible for the performer to do his trick. An example is the assistant's theft of the shell bottle in one version of the passe bottle trick. Russ Swann uses it effectively in connection with his version of the Rising Snake trick, when the snake apparently refuses to go back down into the basket.

  17. A struggle or an assault to escape or achieve an objective. Some magicians use this for a laugh when they offer the pack for the selection of a card and then slap the spectator's hand and yell, "Not that one." Olsen and Johnson used struggle in their version of the straight jacket escape.

  18. Meekly humbling one's self, in an attempt to gain something. As when Benny begs Rochester to do something for him.

  19. Ridicule of a person, quality, possession to disarm, demoralize, discourage or defeat some unwanted happening. Like the shaking comic who seeks to avoid being drafted by making believe he is a weak, undesirable character.

  20. Victimizing someone in an effort to gain something. An old burlesque classic is a con game involving the betting of money. There are many, many versions of this. The handkerchief vanish where the handkerchief is thrown over the head of the unsuspecting spectator is an excellent example in the magician's field.

  21. Resemblance. Where persons or things, totally different, are shown to bear a similarity in certain aspects. This may be used to praise, exaggerate virtues, to make fun of or even defeat someone or something. As for example when the rustic swain, courting his corn-fed gal, tells her she reminds him of his pet mule. Or when a comic compares the bravery of the bully who menaces him to the bravery of a lion. Or when someone compares an inferior person to a very superior person and the like.

  22. Something that seems absurd is actually the truth. An example is when an enemy is discovered to be a friend, where a blundering person succeeds in spite of himself, a person succeeds because he didn't know he could fail; anything which creates an opposite effect from what is expected. Many magic tricks are in this class fundamentally. What is to be done seems impossible, yet it is done.

  23. Just reward. It may be any sort of failure, punishment loss, or discomfort inflicted upon an unsympathetic character. As when the ornery old squire falls in the mud hole. Or the officious cop gets bopped in the eye with a custard pie. There are so many of these situations that a list is impossible.

  24. The destruction of something treasured. Tricks in which watches and rings are smashed, bills are torn and burned and other similar effects instantly come to mind.

The above twenty-four factors are what I believe to be the basic comedy situations from which all laugh-provoking situations arise. They may be used singly or in combinations.

The way to use them is simply to try to inject as many of these complications into your lines and situations as possible. Deliberately try to find where some of those conditions may be naturally applied to your tricks or presentation. Variety of attack and imagination in the use of it is of extreme importance.

A few more words and I shall be finished with what I have to say on comedy in this work. Because lines are so important in magic presentation a few final suggestions might be of help.

Among the ways in which wit may be utilized are

  1. Turning an adverse comment back on the speaker

  2. To seize, apparently or really, a meaning different from that intended:

  3. A remark that may be interpreted two opposite ways.

  4. To cause harmless discomfort intentionally; and

  5. To point out a weakness in a person's armor.

There are many incongruities and inconsistencies that are of great value in comedy. Some of them are

  1. A dignified person in an undignified situation

  2. Two opposing qualities such as big words from a dumb-looking person, a definite type of person in contrasting surroundings, a large person with a small umbrella, etc.

  3. Misuse of big words

  4. Betraying a weakness such as a noble person having a weakness for wine, women and song, or a religious person swearing, a brave man who is actually frightened, a timid woman who is courageous

  5. Simulating a feeling opposite to that which the person actually feels

  6. Loss of dignity

  7. Embarrassment

  8. Hitting a man under the guise of a friendly slap

  9. A mistake of words, identity, date or place

  10. Clumsiness

  11. Excessive capacity

  12. Excessive work, especially to accomplish a small objective

  13. Excessive punishment

  14. Mistake of another’s intentions

  15. Being prevented from doing something, like two lovers wanting to kiss; and

  16. Surprise.

Dialect is also a potent source of good comedy.

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