Sterling Terrell

recovering economist

When Laughing Is More Contagious

When Laughing Is More Contagious

Hmmm, 🤔 I’m curious how this works…

How does being uncomfortable make things more funny?

Maybe laughing is more contagious the closer you are to others? The humor spreads faster because we mimic each other?

Anyway. Could you shoot me a line Steve?

I’d love to hear why you think this might be!

The audience was there by word of mouth only, so everything they saw me do was new. The room seated about two hundred and fifty, and the shows were oversold, riotous and packed tight, which verified a growing belief of mine about comedy: The more physically uncomfortable the audience, the bigger the laughs.

-Steve Martin, Born Standing Up (Amazon)

Oblique Humor Is Better Than Anonymity

Oblique Humor Is Better Than Anonymity

I am sorry, but if Elvis stopped backstage at my comedy show.

Elvis stopped backstage: And spoke to me?!

Even if he said I had an “oblique sense of humor,” I think my response would be something like:

So you’ve heard of me?! I knew it!

(And of course, Martin has oblique humor.)

This is all true for writers too, of course.

“I hate what you write.” is 1,000x better than “I have never heard of you.”

One night, from my dressing room, I saw a vision in white gliding down the hall—a tall, striking woman, moving like an apparition along the backstage corridor. It turned out to be Priscilla Presley, coming to visit Ann-Margret backstage after having seen the show. When she turned the corner, she revealed an even more indelible presence walking behind her. Elvis. Dressed in white. Jet-black hair. A diamond-studded buckle. When Priscilla revealed Elvis to me, I was also revealed to Elvis. I’m sure he noticed that this twenty-five-year-old stick figure was frozen firmly to the ground. About to pass me by, Elvis stopped, looked at me, and said in his beautiful Mississippi drawl: “Son, you have an ob-leek sense of humor.”

-Steve Martin, Born Standing Up (Amazon)

Sterling Terrell