April 9, 2006

"If you confess what your little dirty little sins are, you're going to get a whole audience laughing..."

"... because they all have the same dirty little sin." Said by Shelley Berman, explaining the secret of comedy.

From the same little article, Fred Willard:
The perfect comic is the comic who will say something and you say: "Oh my God, I thought I was the only one who felt that way. I was, had this secret all my life. I thought I was a pervert, or I thought I was a racist, or I thought I was an idiot."
(That also sounds like the secret of the Internet.)

3 comments:

Telecomedian said...

Fred Willard is absolutely perfect when paired with Christopher Guest, Michael McKeon, Eugene Levy and Harry Shearer in their mostly-improv films, like "Best in Show" and "A Mighty Wind."

He does lose many style points when he appears in such dreck as "Christmas Vacation 2" and "A Minute With Stan Hooper." He's such a talented guy, and often the best thing about these lower-quality projects, but why he choses some of these roles makes me scratch my head and wonder if he's ever turned down a part in his life.

Ann Althouse said...

I doubt if Willard has all that many parts to choose from.

I'll always think of him as the guy from "Fernwood Tonight."

SippicanCottage said...
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