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| School for standups: let’s teach chidren the art of playing the fool School for standups: let’s teach chidren the art of playing the fool | |
| (4 days later) | |
| The puddle was bad enough. The tiny puddle that started with a trickle was really quite bad enough. One minute I was sitting cross-legged on the floor, trying to look as if I was singing along to Now Thank We All Our God. The next, I was being marched out of the assembly hall by a teacher. I was sent home in someone else’s (clean) pants. But at least no one had told me that I’d have to stand at the front of the class and perform standup comedy. | The puddle was bad enough. The tiny puddle that started with a trickle was really quite bad enough. One minute I was sitting cross-legged on the floor, trying to look as if I was singing along to Now Thank We All Our God. The next, I was being marched out of the assembly hall by a teacher. I was sent home in someone else’s (clean) pants. But at least no one had told me that I’d have to stand at the front of the class and perform standup comedy. |
| If we all studied standup, we would certainly learn how to deal with humiliation, and how to have another go | If we all studied standup, we would certainly learn how to deal with humiliation, and how to have another go |
| Pupils soon will, if their schools decide to take part in a new competition to find the best classroom jokers. It won’t be enough to learn how to spell “apple” and “Google” and “entrepreneur”. You may also have to learn how to stand in front of a room of sneering children and wrest their scowls into smiles. “I discovered,” says David Walliams, one of a handful of comedians who are supporting the nationwide contest, “there’s no better feeling in the world than making people laugh.” | Pupils soon will, if their schools decide to take part in a new competition to find the best classroom jokers. It won’t be enough to learn how to spell “apple” and “Google” and “entrepreneur”. You may also have to learn how to stand in front of a room of sneering children and wrest their scowls into smiles. “I discovered,” says David Walliams, one of a handful of comedians who are supporting the nationwide contest, “there’s no better feeling in the world than making people laugh.” |
| Well, maybe there isn’t. I’m not sure I’d know. I certainly know that there isn’t a much worse feeling than standing on a stage, giving a speech that seemed reasonably witty when you wrote it, and watching a sea of faces that look as if they’re only just managing to stay awake through the health and safety committee’s appendix to the annual report. It’s bad enough to have to plough on when wit is only meant to be a tiny bonus of whatever it is you’re saying (a bonus that clearly isn’t there); God only knows what it’s like when you’re actually being paid to make people laugh. | Well, maybe there isn’t. I’m not sure I’d know. I certainly know that there isn’t a much worse feeling than standing on a stage, giving a speech that seemed reasonably witty when you wrote it, and watching a sea of faces that look as if they’re only just managing to stay awake through the health and safety committee’s appendix to the annual report. It’s bad enough to have to plough on when wit is only meant to be a tiny bonus of whatever it is you’re saying (a bonus that clearly isn’t there); God only knows what it’s like when you’re actually being paid to make people laugh. |
| But I do know this. There isn’t all that much in life that beats the sheer, pure, belly-jiggling, jowl-quivering, gasping, giggling, and sometimes shrieking joy of laughing. Ronnie Corbett’s death brought me back to the Saturday nights of my childhood, Saturday nights with a bowl of peanuts and a bottle of R White’s lemonade. Sometimes it was two plump men called Ronnie. Sometimes it was Eric and Ernie. Sometimes it was Mike, or Dave, or Dick. These men – and yes, it was nearly all men – would lift us out of our squabbles, and our troubles. For some of my childhood, my sister was in and out of psychiatric hospital, so there were real troubles. But these men, with their silly jokes and their silly smiles, would bring us sunshine, and there is no life that couldn’t do with more sun. | But I do know this. There isn’t all that much in life that beats the sheer, pure, belly-jiggling, jowl-quivering, gasping, giggling, and sometimes shrieking joy of laughing. Ronnie Corbett’s death brought me back to the Saturday nights of my childhood, Saturday nights with a bowl of peanuts and a bottle of R White’s lemonade. Sometimes it was two plump men called Ronnie. Sometimes it was Eric and Ernie. Sometimes it was Mike, or Dave, or Dick. These men – and yes, it was nearly all men – would lift us out of our squabbles, and our troubles. For some of my childhood, my sister was in and out of psychiatric hospital, so there were real troubles. But these men, with their silly jokes and their silly smiles, would bring us sunshine, and there is no life that couldn’t do with more sun. |
| Laughter is good for you. Studies with combat veterans, cancer survivors and surgical patients have shown that laughter really does help people deal with illness and stress. | Laughter is good for you. Studies with combat veterans, cancer survivors and surgical patients have shown that laughter really does help people deal with illness and stress. |
| Those studies are not, I presume, talking about the kind of laughter I once found on a “holistic” course in a Thai spa. A German woman in tie-dye pantaloons told us all to “locate our inner smile” and then pat our tummies and laugh. The noise that emerged was like something out of a drill parade in North Korea. | Those studies are not, I presume, talking about the kind of laughter I once found on a “holistic” course in a Thai spa. A German woman in tie-dye pantaloons told us all to “locate our inner smile” and then pat our tummies and laugh. The noise that emerged was like something out of a drill parade in North Korea. |
| What that woman didn’t seem to know is that laughter is not like Ryvita. It’s about letting your brain roam until it alights on something unlikely. It’s about the sudden shock of recognition. It’s about the word that sounds like another word, the thing that went wrong, the thing that suddenly reminded you of something else. Laughter is about the sudden relief from the moment, the flash of light in the dark. | What that woman didn’t seem to know is that laughter is not like Ryvita. It’s about letting your brain roam until it alights on something unlikely. It’s about the sudden shock of recognition. It’s about the word that sounds like another word, the thing that went wrong, the thing that suddenly reminded you of something else. Laughter is about the sudden relief from the moment, the flash of light in the dark. |
| It would be lovely if we could all learn to make people laugh, as the Ronnies and Ernies and Erics once did, and as the Eddies and Jimmys still do. If we all studied standup, as teenage entrants to the BBC’s comedy competition are about to, we might or might not learn how to make people laugh, but we would certainly learn how to deal with humiliation, and how to have another go. Comedy is an art. Like all art, it’s a difficult art to master, and it’s only made to look easy by the people who do it well. | It would be lovely if we could all learn to make people laugh, as the Ronnies and Ernies and Erics once did, and as the Eddies and Jimmys still do. If we all studied standup, as teenage entrants to the BBC’s comedy competition are about to, we might or might not learn how to make people laugh, but we would certainly learn how to deal with humiliation, and how to have another go. Comedy is an art. Like all art, it’s a difficult art to master, and it’s only made to look easy by the people who do it well. |
| What we can do is get children to read and to listen. If they read Jane Austen, they will learn that life is leavened by wit. If they read Jonathan Swift, they will discover the power of satire. If they watch Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, they will learn that comedy can sometimes even help make sure that stupid people don’t get elected to public office. | What we can do is get children to read and to listen. If they read Jane Austen, they will learn that life is leavened by wit. If they read Jonathan Swift, they will discover the power of satire. If they watch Tina Fey as Sarah Palin, they will learn that comedy can sometimes even help make sure that stupid people don’t get elected to public office. |
| The British have always been known for a sense of humour. At the moment, too many people seem to have lost it. They seem to have discovered the importance of being earnest, but they don’t seem to have seen or read the play. If they had, they would know that “the truth is rarely pure and never simple”. And they would know that it’s vital to learn how to laugh at yourself, because peeing in your pants is just the start. | The British have always been known for a sense of humour. At the moment, too many people seem to have lost it. They seem to have discovered the importance of being earnest, but they don’t seem to have seen or read the play. If they had, they would know that “the truth is rarely pure and never simple”. And they would know that it’s vital to learn how to laugh at yourself, because peeing in your pants is just the start. |