If you’re in this business, you’ve surely had a show (or 2…) where the audience did not laugh. You told the same joke you’ve told 100 times before, the same way, and no response. And you’ve probably experienced a performance where nothing seems to click. The audience sits there, stone faced, some smattering of polite applause, but no raucous laughter where you are used to hearing it.
Is that a bad audience?
I recently performed at an event where I was one of several performers on the stage. I used two characters from my regular show. These two characters (Eugene and Curtis) have been getting great responses. At this particular event, with nearly 300 people in the audience, the laughter was only so-so. A week prior, a room with 30 people was laughing so hard they fell out of their chairs and the noise was heard in the hallways from behind closed doors. Same material.
Whose fault is that?
Several friends of mine were in the audience of 300. They assured me I did a great job. “But, the laughs were not what I would normally expect.”, I told them. “Don’t worry about it.”, they said in response, ” Most of those people wouldn’t laugh at anything.”
Still, it bothered me. My job is to entertain. Specifically, to make people laugh. (Or, more correctly, to free the laughter that is bottled up inside. I don’t think you can really make someone laugh. Aside from physically tickling the person, I suppose. But, I digress…)
If my job is to make people laugh and they’re not laughing, have I failed to do my job? I’ve heard that Jay Johnson has said his approach to ventriloquism is to attempt to make people laugh, but that even if they aren’t laughing, to be so good that at least they are entertained by your skill as a ventriloquist. I guess I subscribe to the Jeff Dunham school of ventriloquism. Jeff sees himself as a comedian who happens to use ventriloquism as his vehicle. Yes, you have to be good technically, but if they’re not laughing, what’s the point?
I’d love to hear from more of you out there on this topic.
