On Comedy Directing

First, and foremost, don’t be intimidated by the idea of directing a comedy.  I’m sure you’ve heard the saying, “dying is easy, comedy is hard.”  That’s not completely true. Every director of comedy would like you think that however. Why? Less competition.  Who needs another comedy director, anyway.

Of course I’m kidding . But I am making a point. You don’t have to be funny to be a comedy director. But you do have to understand the nature of comic timing. And how it works.

For starters, you can practice by telling jokes.  Work on a couple of jokes and refine them and keep trying. If you are lousy at them, you will eventually get a laugh or two and then all of a sudden some internal light bulb will go off and you will begin to enjoy the process. But it takes time and serious work. Again, another important saying “Comedy is serious business”

I had an early epiphany experience. I was in a stock production of A THOUSAND CLOWNS in Coconut Grove Florida playing the young boy. It was in 1962 and I was twelve at the time, and it was my first professional job. It is one of the great roles for a child. I had a monologue in the second act when I try to explain to the social worker what my Uncle Murray’s view of the world was and I describe the time we were in a crowded elevator, and Murray turned to me and said,  “ Max, you’re 40 years old. It’s about time you got used to being a midget.”

First night in front of full audience of what must have been 600 people, I played it completely straight and didn’t know it was funny, and I brought the house down in laughter. I killed. It stopped the show dead.  I didn’t know it was supposed to be funny and I had no idea what happened and why it was so funny, and I was taken completely by surprise and I was elated. I had become, in my mind, a comic actor. I had no idea what I did. But then, I paid the price of thinking I was funny.  Every night after that performance I anticipated the laugh and I pushed, or I commented on it, and guess what? NO laugh. Not a chuckle. I bombed.

I had no idea what happened.  I couldn’t figure out what I had done to kill the laugh. I was crestfallen and I lived with no laugh for the rest of the one month run.  But as a result, I became very interested in the process of Comedy and I tried to figure out what I had done wrong. I came to the conclusion that I anticipated the laugh somehow, and I lost track of the investment in the story itself. I must have been pushing in a way that indicated to the audience that this will be funny, and that Is the kiss of death for comedy. I removed the element of surprise.  And that, you have to experience it to know it. That’s why telling jokes to friends of anyone is important. You can tell a joke with no stakes and see what happens.

There is another famous saying: Comedy plays best in the Wide shot. Close ups are for reactions. And finally, comedy has to come from clarity.

If there is a comedy that you particularly love, watch it again and again and study it. Watch it without sound. Look at the cuts and the timing. Dissect it. And then sit back and watch it again and see what you have learned.