WHAT'S SO FUNNY?
Top row from left, Thomas Bradshaw, Jen Childs, Trip Cullman and Qui Nguyen. Bottom row from left: Charlie Flynn-McIver and Scott Treadway, Danny Scheie and Holly Twyford (photos by David Paul-Morris/CUNY, Mark Garvin, Ande Whyland, Nathan Lemoine, Treadshots Photography, Henry DiRocco/SCR, Scott Suchman)
You'll more than likely stumble upon riffs and antic stuff in this annual oversized Season Preview issue that will crack a smile—or elicit a titter or guffaw or shriek. That's because we're anticipating 2010-11 through the lens of comedy, celebrating the delights of funny plays and funny people in the theatre from coast to coast. It's hard to predict, though, because few things are less funny than talking about why something makes you laugh—and because, to enjoy the fruits of laughter more fully, comedy needs company.
Think of the pleasure we take, on hearing a joke, at the thought of retelling it to someone else. Think of the betrayal we feel when somebody doesn't get the joke we've just told. Comedy promotes sociability—its greatest allure may be in the expectation of a sympathetic audience when the pleasure is shared.
For sheer lunacy, James Magruder's over-the-top-ical monologue—in which the novelist/dramaturg imagines Bay Area actor Danny Scheie as a preening prima donna phoning his Los Angeles agent after pocketing a nondescript acting accolade—is hard to beat. Hell, we liked it so much, we footnoted it. The other portraits in this issue amuse, inspire or inform, as well. The physical mismatch between Scott Treadway and Charlie Flynn-McIver helps explain their magic as North Carolina's answer to Abbott and Costello. Quirky intensities detonate the ensemble vibe of New York-based Trip Cullman, a bona-fide actors' director sought after around the country. Critic Nelson Pressley lasers in on the "touch of trumpet" in the voice of D.C. favorite Holly Twyford. The spunky sincerity of Philadelphia's reigning comic queen Jennifer Childs...the smart irreverence of chop-socky hipster Qui Nguyen...the deadpan overload of the drastically realist Thomas Bradshaw...the snarky jabs of new-comedy writers assayed by Seattle critic Misha Berson...even the city-specific Second City shows covered in Strategies and the insouciant replies of David Ives on the back page—all fly the funny flags, even as they maintain a measure of seriousness.
Few experiences are as sociable as laughter. This special section on comedy, we hope, will cement that spirit of sociability by spotlighting some of the strongest comic voices in our community. Journalism tends to flatten life down to the merely political. Laughter has a fuller tendency. It takes sides. It establishes a bond between the wit and the listener at somebody's expense. Comedy restores our wholeness. —Randy Gener
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