#112 The titter, the yowl, the belly laugh & the boffo
Pottering. Laughing. Duetting. Haunting.
Issue #112 The titter, the yowl, the belly laugh & the boffo
1st May 2024
Hello, all.
It’s been a quiet week for me.
Pottering about the house.
Never quite shaking the cold I acquired whilst travelling.
Meeting old friends and talking.
That kind of a week.
Rule of three
[Article] Comedy’s Greatest Era
This is a fascinating article from Life magazine in 1949. In it, critic James Agee looks back nostalgically on the (then still fairly recent) silent era of cinema. For improvisers, there’s a wonderful bit at the beginning about the Vaudevillian notion of laughter. There are four types, each one more beautifully named than the last - the titter, the yowl, the belly laugh and the boffo. This kind of forensic dissection of craft is very much my bag.
[Music] Palindromic Duet
A one-take video where a man duets with a version of himself from 2 minutes in the future who is moving backwards in time and swaps places with him at the exact mid-point of the piece. This breaks my brain. Humans are great.
[Podcast] Ghost Story
I’ll just describe the premise of this podcast and let you decide whether you want to listen to it. Journalist investigates a haunting in his childhood home by a faceless apparition, only to discover that, by a staggering coincidence, his wife’s great-grandmother was murdered in the house next door. Then he uncovers new evidence that it was probably her husband, beloved patriarch of his wife’s family, that did it. Awkward conversations with the in-laws ensue.
Longform thoughts
Speak confidently as if you are right
but listen carefully as if you are wrong.
I just read a book called Excellent Advice for Living: Wisdom I Wish I’d Known Earlier by Kevin Kelly. And I’ve copied the bits that are ALSO good improv advice here. I think there’s some real gold.
Radio contact
Radio static.