Guidepost 4: Humor - Major Notes

Guidepost 4: Humor - Major Notes

Overview Michael Shurtleff explains, "There is humor in every scene, just as there is in every situation in life." He continues to say that humor is important in both drama and comedy. This post looks at the major notes on this guidepost to help the actor create honest, humorous moments in any scene or monologue...



 Major Notes

• Humor is not jokes. Humor is not being funny. It is the coin of exchange between human beings that makes it possible for us to get through the day.
• Humor exists even in the humorless.
• There is humor in every scene, just as there is in every situation in life. We try in life to put humor everywhere; if we didn’t, we couldn’t bear to live. Because certain situations are deadly serious and human beings cannot bear all that heavy weight, they alleviate the burden by humor.
• The heavier the situation, the more we are needful of humor to endure it.
• The actor must become conscious of humor and look for it; if it’s not there, then he must learn to put it there.
• Humor is more important in drama than in comedy.
• Humor is what makes actors likeable.

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