Action Acting Laughter Crying

In our article "Action Acting," we showed you how to have a more resonant and pleasant voice naturally by starting to yawn before you speak. As an actor your tools are your body and your voice. To protect your voice and well being take this test: Using a spoon, and keeping your head down, scrape your tongue three or four times the first thing in the morning, before brushing or drinking. If the matter collected on the spoon after three or four light scrapes, is thick and yellow, this is a warning sign that your system is polluted. If the matter is white or very light and thin, your condition is good. To correct the serious part of this problem read our article at dlvmagazine.com entitled: "Adios Constipation". Since acting jobs are often few and far between your good health is imperative. Acting is also very stressful. Laughter First you must learn to laugh artificially, this will start your laughter.To do this say, Hah! Expel the breath as if you had eaten garlic and were blowing your breath into the face of someone you dislike. Now repeat this Hah! in a chain of five or six repetitions. Now vary the tonal level of your voice making it go up and down, Hah! (High evel)Hah! (lower level) now two Hah! Hah!'s together medium level then three times Hah! at a medium level. Now string them all together and you have an almost believable laugh, however the ears of producers and directors are very sharp and they can detect false laughter. Now we will reinforce this artificial laughter and make it real. Start out with the false laughter then immediately switch to a funny situation in your life that really made you laugh out loud. This will attach itself to your laughter and make it genuine. If you have no funny events to draw upon then get a class A joke and use it, this will also work. You cannot use a class B or C joke, they will not carry you through in the stress of a professional interview. You must also have a series of four or five jokes or sense memories to draw upon because hearing a joke many times stops the laughter. In our comedy article we go into detail concerning jokes but for a quick overview this is a class "A" Joke: 

An elderly couple went to the doctor complaining about short term memory loss. The doctor told them to make notes to themselves and it would solve the problem. 

That evening, watching Television, the husband got up to go to the kitchen. His wife said: "Bring me some ice cream, please. And make a note so you won't forget it.The husband said: "I'm not going to forget it and I don't need a note. 

His wife replied: "While you're there put some whipped cream on it and a few cherries. And you better make a note to yourself" The husband became irritated. "You want ice cream with whipped cream and cherries, I'm not stupid and I don't need a note!" 

Twenty minutes later the husband returned from the kitchen and placed a tray on his wifes lap with a plate of bacon and eggs. 

His wife looked down at the plate and said: "Where's my toast?" 

Notice the space between the two punch lines, that is to give your listener time to digest what has happened and put it in order in their minds. This joke usually brings audible laughter and is considered Class an "A" class joke. 

Class "B" Joke 

An elderly man said to his friend: "I'm full of aches and pains, old age is rough. How are you making out?" His friend answered: "I feel like a new born baby." His friend was shocked: "You do?" The other replied: "Yes, I have no hair, no teeth, and I think I just wet my pants." ( The response to this is a chuckle) 

A class "C" Joke would be: One elderly man to another: "I just bought a hearing aid, and it cost two thousand dollars." His friend was amazed at the expense: "Two thousand dollars! What kind is it?" His friend replied: "10:30". (This joke will only get a smile.) 

Keeping jokes in categories allows the laughter to continue once you have the listeners attention and get a laugh. Now add several funny happenings in your life or several jokes to your artificial laughter and your laughter becomes genuine. 

Often when you walk into a producers office he will say: "Let me hear your laughter." You are in desperate need of a job and under extreme stress without the artificial laughter to get you started your apologizing for not being able to laugh because of personal problems will not work. You have lost a badly needed job. CRYING 

This emotion, or sense memory as they are called in the industry can only be genuine. The secret is that when you think of a tragedy in your life or in the life of a loved one the thought shades your conversation without your realizing it. So to say a line unrelated to your life in any way and still make it sad all you have to do is go in depth to your personal tragedy and you should be in tears within a short period of time. You have to practice this as all other emotions to be prepared for the producer or director who says: "Let me see you cry or at least approach it with your eyes watering or some outward emotion." If you are not prepared forget the job. 

In some instances a kind person will have you merely read a scrip t, but since twenty or thirty people will do the same reading , you had better have a better version than the others. You can easily do this by reading the scrip t with laughter or crying in your mind, not expressing it, just thinking it will bring a unusual shading to what you are reading. You can ask the director or producer, what type of reading do you want? However this may be considered stalling and they will usually say: "Give it your best shot." Or something that will not give you a clue, they are waiting for a good reading with some emotion. 

For practice, read the obituary column out loud while laughing; Read the comics while holding a crying sense memory in your mind. With practice you will be able to do both. Practice in front of a mirror whenever possible to learn your facial response to these emotions. 

We will have more detailed lessons in our January, "Opening the Million Dollar Doors of Show Business" blog found at: dlvmagazine.com