Laughter is Art

By Jacob James Grigware

an art that, once mastered, can serve the artist in the most valuable of ways. It’s an art that can get you what you want. It’s an art that can create formidable bonds, not only between yourself and others, but between others and others. It can spark love, reveal honesty, and even demand respect. 

When trying to make a crowd laugh, big or small, one must contemplate a few things:. 

There are some in your crowd who will laugh at the easy jokes. The relatable ones. The ones that didn’t take a whole lot of cleverness to conceive and deliver, only creativity and experience. 

There are some in your crowd that will laugh only because those around them are laughing. Make the first ones laugh, and these will soon follow. 

Then there are some in your crowd who will reserve their laughter. These people will wait until you do something truly funny. These people are usually the smartest in the crowd, and it takes no more than a bit of cleverness to win these people over. They, like almost everyone, want an excuse to laugh. Once you have the reserved ones laughing, you will have their respect. Once you have their respect, they may even begin laughing at the easy jokes. 

Finally, there are some in your crowd looking to tear you down. Whether it’s personal or the nature of your jokes, forget they exist. If they work hard enough to demand your acknowledgement, do so with a smile on your face, and if you can, say something really clever to shut them up. When they persist, let those who you previously made laugh shut them up for you. 

Of course, one can imagine this advice in a stand-up comedy show, but I’d like you to imagine it in an intimate environment, like a small house party. You’re sitting around a room with a few friends, maybe drinking or smoking, and everyone is talking, exchanging stories, jokes, and words. You won’t have the spotlight the entire time, but odds are it’ll swing by every once in a while for you to snatch. The more you do, the more the spotlight will land on you. 

The same type of audience members exist: the easy ones, the followers, the reserved ones, and the haters. The difference from a stand-up comedy crowd is that you know these people (to an extent), and these people know each other to varying degrees. What happens when a follower is dating a hater? The follower hates. The same goes for the other roles. The follower laughs, or the follower waits, then laughs, even if he or she doesn’t understand the joke. What happens when a hater is dating a smart one? The hater will hate, and the smart one has to face a moral dilemma: defend the hater you’re dating, or defend the joker you respect. What if you, the Joker, are dating an audience member? What if there’s another Joker in the group who also happens to be a hater, and also happens to be dating an easy one? 

Do take these words, if you choose to take them at all, with an additional notice:

Obviously, not everyone can be sorted like we’re in Hogwarts into one of these categories. People and their relationships are incredibly unique and original, despite any measly attempts to be a copy of some fad or fashion model. The point is, there are an infinite number of scenarios and conversations and characters a Joker, or anyone for that matter, must navigate. That’s the beauty of improv. But why is a Joker a Joker in the first place? What aid comes from being one of these smirky calculators? 

Imagine each laugh as a droplet of loyalty. If you make your partner or a friend laugh every day for a year, odds are that bucket of loyalty will come in handy when a fire comes. If you, upon meeting an interviewer, make him laugh like no other interviewee, those few tablespoons of loyalty might secure you a career. Make a crowd laugh? No hater will touch you. Make the world laugh? You will be King.

Here’s the easy part. Laughing is contagious. Want those around you to laugh? Want to put them at ease? Laugh yourself. And do so as authentically as possible, even if you are reducing yourself to laugh secretly at those around you. Just laugh. Remember, you are the King. 

Want to know who your real friends are? Laugh at something you hate. Share a personal, lividing story and laugh at it. See who laughs with you. Then laugh some more and be at ease knowing that you mustn’t care about that “friend’s” opinion anymore. 

Laughter can be a plastic, deceptive tool used to elevate yourself in an otherwise competitive, social world. But you mustn’t let it be just that. Laughing is perhaps the greatest way to connect. Laugh with excitement, laugh with joy. Laugh to remember, laugh to forget. Laugh to express love, laugh to express hate. Laughter is also the best way to say “fuck you”. A hater spits in your face? Laugh at them. Laugh at their backwards priorities. Laugh at the fact that we are all inconceivably lucky to be alive, and yet nearly nobody appreciates it. Laugh because you can. Laugh because you are alive. Laugh because it is art. 

By Jacob James Grigware