#on comedy

[thecomedybureau]

Watch This Beautiful Mini Doc “Class Clown” on How Comedians Like Billy Bonnell Take Their Tragic Childhoods and Make It Part of Their Comedy

The notion of a dark past feeding into the material of a comedian is such well-trodden territory that the nuances and specifics of it are now often overlooked. It’s easy to say that comedians are, in some way, broken (that’s not always true by the way), but their singular experiences paint their persona, delivery, perspective in subtle, yet very powerful ways. 

Billy Bonnell, who is now a local LA comedian, had a particularly dark childhood and this touching mini documentary, Class Clown, made by filmmaker Nick Cavalier, shows how Billy specifically dealt with that pain and channeled it through to his comedy, which we happen to enjoy.

Please watch it here.

[dark-miku]

idk, i kinda think the yes-and style of comedy is a little overrated? sometimes the bit is over

[spacesapphist]

The best art doesn’t hit you over the head. It taps your temple with metaphor, allusion and maybe an oblique tease. Standup is so immediate, so direct in its relationship between the comic and the audience, that there's a temptation to just be blunt, to tie up and underline your points with a punchline that calls back to an earlier one.

But while there are only a limited number of subjects to joke about, there are infinite ways to do it. That variety is where art flourishes.

Jason Zinoman, “You Will Cry Until You Laugh,” The New York Times, 21 May 2023

[seasurfacefullofclouds1]

Marc Maron WTF podcast

[avaseofwords]

[Much of comedy is surprise]..."to make yourself laugh, you have to have your brain sneak up on your brain!"

-Dr. Nanian

[stanivision]

And, frankly, it’s OCD. Comedy is OCD. If you’re not OCD about the language that you’re using, comedy may not be your thing.

ON COMEDY: Craig Mazin (@clmazin), Scriptnotes, Ep. 84

[besmirchthis]

[I]t can be, sometimes, a torture for everyone that, in contrast to the soul that moves and changes, our body should be fixed forever in unchanging features.

Luigi Pirandello, 'On Comedy' (1920) [trans. Teresa Novel, pub. in Krasner's Theatre in Theory: 1900-2000]