ALL Comedy is Rooted in FEAR --

It has often been said that 

ALL Comedy is rooted in FEAR -- 

The Things That Make Us Laugh 

are VERY Closely Related to 

The Things That FRIGHTEN Us.

The Physical Comedian ["Clown"] 

seems fated to be 

The Victim of His Own Comedy - 

and not only does he suffer from Violence.... 

He is also constantly at the mercy --

of MAGIC.

Many of The Tricks that 

The Comedian uses to AMUSE us 

are similar to those 

The Magician uses to ASTONISH us.

For instance, a lot of visual jokes are based on 

people suddenly appearing or disappearing.

The Sudden Appearance or Sudden Disappearance 

are important elements in Slapstick - 

if someone falls over, it is funnier 

if they DISAPPEAR at the same time.

And The Farce of People 

Running In and Out of Doors is comic, 

because it provides a RAPID SEQUENCE of Appearances and Disappearances - 

The faster a character shoots in and out of vision, the more effective it is likely to be.

Apart from Appearances or Disappearances, the main business of The Magician 

is to achieve TRANSFORMATIONS, turning ONE thing into Something Else - 

A Magical Transformation becomes comic when it is ABSURD, as well as astonishing.

The first person to make 

surreal jokes using FILM Magic 

was Georges Melies, 

working at the turn of the century. 

His films are full of Sudden Appearances, Disappearances and Transformations, 

achieved through simple camera tricks - of course, when The Comedy depends on tricks like these, 

it has more to do with The Mind BEHIND The Camera than The Performer in FRONT of it.

He has to resign himself to becoming 

A Victim of The EFFECTS. 

The most commonly-used effect 

is to speed up The Action - 

This makes any movement 

look mechanical, and therefore comic. 

It was a device much used by Melies, and it has NEVER gone out of fashion.

It has often been said that 

ALL Comedy is rooted in FEAR -- 

The Things That Make Us Laugh 

are VERY Closely Related to 

The Things That FRIGHTEN Us."