You’re coming to Sydney to present Funny: The Lecture. Can anyone be taught to be funny?
No, but luckily I’m not doing that. My presentation shows how comedy works, using lots of clips and personal lessons learned. The idea is that understanding comedy will help you do it better and/or appreciate it more. Anyway, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.
For audiences who aren’t familiar with you, can you offer a background of your work?
Wait, there are people in Sydney who don’t know who I am? Incredible! For those 12 people… I’m a screenwriter (Mork & Mindy, The Muppets Take Manhattan, Saturday Night Live), teacher (my own comedy course at the University of Southern California), and author (Funny: The Book). I also wrote for Duckman and Police Squad!, which you don’t know, but are cool.
We’re constantly exposed to comedy on TV – are we in a golden era of television laughs at the moment?
Yes! The amount of terrific sitcoms, satirical shows and comedians right now is amazing. (Movies a bit less so.)
How does the broader comedy scene today differ to when you started out?
It’s a profession. When I started, it was extremely unusual to set out for a career in comedy; now there are college courses in it (like mine).
Much like music and the arts, some people say analysing comedy takes all the fun out of it. How do you analyse comedy whilst maintaining its spirit?
This is one of my pet peeves. How do you kill a joke if you tell it first? Does studying Beethoven kill the Ninth Symphony cause you know what notes are coming? To me, learning how comedy is put together gives you even more appreciation for the precision, ingenuity and skill it takes to create it.
Catch David Misch’s Funny: The Lecture at The Laugh Stand, Harold Park Hotel on Wednesday March 11.
