Laughing At Your Own Jokes
Every summer when I go to Camp Good News to be the camp pastor, I start out the week with lots of energy, and it just gets sapped away more and more as the week goes along. One of the ways I notice this sapping of energy happens when I pull out the ventriloquist dummies. Every year, usually late in the week, when I get tired enough, I find myself having a moment in which I - like the campers - get completely caught up in my own illusion, and forget that the character I'm talking to is nothing more than a puppet.
It's embarrassing. I get to chuckling over something the puppet has said (how tired do I have to be to "forget" that I'm actually the one who was doing the talking??) and then I find it hard to stop laughing and carry on with my skit.
Well, this week I'm speaking three times per day, and I guess my energy is "sapping" at a faster rate, because that's exactly what happened to me last night...and it was only Tuesday!.
I had written a new skit for Uncle Jim, but I had never done it in front of an audience (in fact, I've been so busy that I hadn't even done it outloud in the privacy of my own home! The humor of the skit relied on Uncle Jim's withp (lisp). He is unable to pronounce several letters properly, which often produces opportunities for humor. In this case, Uncle Jim was telling the story of the widow who gave her two coins at the temple, and Jesus said she'd given more than everyone else. The skit culminated with Uncle Jim saying that the "widow wady with the widow coins gave more than the which peopwe." (the widow lady with the little coins gave more than the rich people.)
I thought it would be mildly amusing, but it wasn't until I actually heard myself doing it outloud, and heard the kids laughing, that I realized "Wow...this is a whole lot funnier than I thought it was going to be..."
And then I started laughing "at Uncle Jim".
I've heard it said many times that you should "never laugh at your own jokes", and I generally follow that rule strictly. But the odd thing is, in those odd, rare moments when I get lost in the illusion and start laughing along with the audience, it seems to actually make it funnier, rather than detracting from the humor.
I think the reason is that the audience realizes that I'm not really laughing at my own jokes...I'm so caught up in the illusion that I actually see Uncle Jim as a separate character...and I'm laughing at him, not myself. And somehow, that just seems to make everything even funnier.
Of course, afterwards, I never hear the end of it..."I can't believe you were laughing at Uncle Jim just like the rest of us!"
In related news, the sessions with both the children and the teens have been going well, and I can tell that some of the teens are listening and taking it to heart; I even hear some of them at odd times making reference to things that were taught in chapel. Others are having a much harder time - one boy seems to be having attitude problems, and his counselor is getting frustrated trying to figure out how to deal with him. We spent some time tonight talking and praying about that. I have to keep reminding myself, as tired as I am, I'm sure the counselors must be even more so!
We were scheduled to go to the beach today (Webb Lake, in Mount Blue State Park). Last night the National Weather Service was saying that there was 100% chance of precipitation and new rainfall amounts one half to 3 quarters of an inch.
We went to the beach anyway, and after a few showers during the morning, the afternoon was much drier (still very cloudy and overcast, but no rain, just a few sprinkles.)
Alright...I need to head for bed now...goodnight!
Posted On Jul 6, 2005 at 6:52 PM
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