Acting Comedy ed. by Christopher Olsen (review)

The business of comedic acting has long been accompanied by the idea that actors "either got it, or they don't." Editor and author Christopher Olsen in Acting Comedy provides a resounding challenge to this claim in a book dedicated to providing "actors and performers with a comprehensive 'acting text' for different types of comedy" (2). Drawing on years of experience, Olsen, assisted by established teachers and professional comics, offers an extensive guide that addresses practical ways to practice, refine, and improve one's comedic talent. Drawing on a history of comedy from the Greeks to Louis C.K., the volume provides a wealth of historical and practical information sure to ignite creativity in the aspiring comedian when coming up with "original business" (3).

Ian Wilkie starts the book off with two crucial observations that inform all of the contributors' perspectives. He posits that audience interplay is "a defining feature of comic acting" and that unlike drama, "the audience's laughter provides an instantly measurable phenomenon" (6). Due to the immediate though different-every-night connection between actor and audience, the comedic tools that the book strives to engage rely upon the notion that a comedian's greatest asset is his adaptability. To that end, the contributors to Acting Comedy provide valuable perspectives that aim to improve the comedic actor's sensitivity not only to his fellow actor, but also the audience. While each chapter focuses on a specific type of comedy, from traditional farce to contemporary stand-up, authors use these forms to introduce individual skills unique to the comic performer. Early chapters include actor-based exercises like building character through archetype, accessing language's musicality, playing with punctuation, and utilizing physical gesture, while later chapters address ways to create new material and how to learn from your audience.

The bulk of Acting Comedy also operates under the assumption that Stanislavski Method acting is the jumping off point, if not the reader's outright style of choice. Wilkie echoes the sentiments of Athene Seyler's The Craft of Comedy (1943), which suggests that "Stanislavskian 'subtexual' factors as being crucial to the execution of a comic performance" (10). While Wilkie takes great pains to distinguish the realistic "dramatic truth" from exaggerated "comic truth," there is a general, implicit consensus among the contributors that the comedic product arises from a desire to create a semblance of realism, albeit stretched, through a Stanislavski-based process. Those adverse to Stanislavski will undoubtedly take issue with this bias, but the Stanislavski Method serves as an effective and recognizable baseline for the reader.

Steve Kaplan's contribution on comic focus is arguably the book's strongest and most innovative look at performing comedy. He encourages us to avoid the typical classification of "straight man" and "comic," suggesting that this paradigm unfairly heaps the success of a comedic performance squarely on the shoulders of the man getting the laughs (typically the "star") when "the reality is comedy is teamwork" (25). Taking issue with so many comedies that have failed because too much emphasis was placed on its star, Kaplan proposes that the actor with all the punch lines should not drive comedic narratives. Instead, he asks that comedians consider the characters as either straight lines (emotionally and intellectually immovable characters) or wavy lines (struggling characters), and that the audience should always be focused on the wavy-line character, because the struggle to understand is always more dramatically compelling. Nimbly connecting the old Abbot and Costello "Who's on First" routine to the more contemporary Seinfeld, Kaplan demonstrates how a comedic production (stage, film, or otherwise) might utilize this framework to create effective ensemble humor.

Another notable contribution comes from Shad Willingham, who combines frank conversation about real-world experience in improv with effective tools for improving improvisational skills. Willingham begins by directly addressing the improv comedy industry in order to make a broader point about both the comedian's need for fundamental skills and the importance of choosing a style of comedy that suits him. Through an acute observation that "good...