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Comedy is anything taken to its most exaggerated limit."
- Etienne Decroux
A variety of performing artists from stage and film attend our “Physical Comedy through Mime” class.
Most of these people first tell us “they are not funny” and they cannot do comedy. However, I assure you that Physical Comedy can be learned because it’s an art in itself. It isn't part of mime, or dance or theater; it has its own set of laws and conventions that are simplistic and learnable.
The principals in today’s article will enable you to begin to add infinite possibilities of visual humor to your scene, in any kind of performing arts.
Physical Comedy & The Mystery of Talent
Today I write for people who are new to physical comedy. I personally had a hard time learning it especially for the first few years of my training. It was always frightening for me to perform comedy in front of people, not having a clue of why sometimes it was easy and not always. The more I felt timid and afraid of making mistakes, the more tragic my comedy became. I started to think that comedy required some kind of talent you’re born with and I believed that I did not have any of it.
It seemed true that some people who grew up making others laugh often acquire sense of physical comedy faster than others do, but I now see that the key is a relaxation while executing the comedy phrase. Because if you are nervous or disbelieving your ability to be comedic, you cannot hear the most important element of comedy, "the comical rhythm".
Anyone can learn Physical Comedy step by step, because comedy “Is About Steps.” It is a “sequential” delivery of thoughts, and actions not a simultaneous one. It is about the quality and rhythm of your "projected thoughts". You play a musical instrument silently with your eyes, face, and body in square rhythm to convey your thoughts to the audience.
Comedy is Painful:
Making a scene comedic requires a strong focus on your acting within the scene. Most great comedians create a persona that we “feel sorry for,” an empathetic character. One key way to create this is to put your character in situations that make them the victim of the situation. The audience always laughs at “pain” so put yourself in danger of pain, either physically or psychologically.
Even in a scene of "being in love", you become a victim of love, and that is why your character becomes universally laughable, thus, worth loving on stage.
It’s your “Thought Process” that makes you funny, not your story.
It’s not the Action, it’s the Reaction.
In improvisations in our class, we often see students' too much effort to convey a comic story (ideas of events) in order to make the scene comedic. However, a comic story becomes "visually comical" only after the character’s sincere thoughts reach the audience whether it is a theater audience or a film camera. The process of becoming comic is very different from writing a comic story in words searching for unexpected events in the story.
Comedic thoughts?
The word "comedic thoughts" may sound unclear for some people.
How can we make comedic thoughts? Here are some basic aspects to see if you can make your thoughts comic.
"Comedy is square. Drama is round."
1. Is your non-verbal monologue visually square or soft and round? If soft and round, choose fewer moments of thoughts, hold a little longer on each thought and paint a dot with your eyes in the air for each thought. Keep breathing and hold your thought vibrant while you paint the dot. Then connect dots (thoughts) with straight lines and make those dots (edges of thoughts) sharp, not round.
2. Are your eyes and cheeks seen by your audience? If not, look for a range of directions where your cheeks are seen from your audience while you share your thoughts (Wish, Doubt, Believe). Comedic thoughts must be visible to the audience first.
"The Spielberg" - Always feel where your audience is and adjust your face angle to have your eyes and face seen as much as possible, instead of expecting your audience to approach you with flying cameras like Spielberg movies. We, the performers, become the flying cameras for the audience.
3. If you sing your phrase, does the rhythm sound comic? If you count each thought as beat, you should be able to sing your thoughts like an instrument.
If the beats in the musical phrase you sang were evenly spaced or sound somehow boring, it is called "The Flat-lining". You just entered a dangerous zone where your audience may consider leaving you soon. How can you break the rhythm to get out of the dangerous zone? Make every beat different in length and the emotional pitch (physical tension), and surprise yourself with spontaneity.
4. Can you put yourself as a sympathetic victim of the situation in your scene (in pain physically or psychologically)? If not, try to lose the sense of "In Control" of your situation and make it "Out of Control". Then, scream with your eyes, "It is not funny to me!"
5. While your character is in trouble, can you still remain light?
In other words, are you keeping your eyes open and readable and a little stupid that you cannot completely understand the danger? Even if the story can lead to a life or death situation, your audience does not like to imagine blood or an ambulance in a comedic scene.
Comedy is not a "911 – Emergency!" It’s an escapable “Terror.” The character is a victim with an exit to the situation. Like he is about to get run over by a car, He screams! Then he falls into an open manhole in the street that saves his life.
Do not close your eyes or you will make the scene go dramatic. The comedy is always in your eyes.
You just finished the basic principles of Physical Comedy. Did everything make sense to you? Then, you are now ready to study the next level of Physical Comedy such as "The 1-2-3 Setup", "Bait & Switch", "A Drop Off" and "A Shake Off" and many, many more.
We recommend watching great comedy films, old and new, and you will learn great rhythms by watching them over and over. Gregg recommends: Planes, Trains and Automobiles. The Philadelphia Story. Groundhog Day. The General. City Lights. The Pink Panther movies. Monster’s Inc.
If you would like more step by step guidance, please come study with us in New York City! I am sure that all will make sense to you.
Great News about The GMI Workshops:
We will have weekend workshops in New York City starting next year. Please send us your specific requests on topics covered in those workshops. We will go deep, taking enough time for each technique.
Written by Haruka Moriyama,
with additional writings by Gregg Goldston
For more information about The Goldston Moriyama Institute for Mime, our Personal Mime Training Programs in New York City, or our Summer Mime Intensives, please contact us at the links listed below.
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