Laughter

How valuable to my psyche was comedy? From WC Fields, Monty Python, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton, etc. An extension to Hugo and my Darkened Theatres. Maybe rename that ‘My Darkened Theatres’.

When we laugh, we are open to new ideas.¹

I learned to cope with my father’s drinking, the arguing, and the constant tension through comedy, so too have I learned to cope with the pain of adoption through comedy. In fact, I dealt with many, many painful things this way, thus avoiding dealing with the pain of real feelings. Just like the bottle of booze, they all proved to be fleeting solutions. I inevitably found myself right back square one, facing yet another scenario that severely tested my ability to adapt and change, face it head on and make change happen.

W.C. Fields – Born: January 29, 1880. Died: December 25, 1946.

Taken out of school at an early age to help his father peddle fruit, he more than made up for this lack of formal education by reading. He always had books, studied the dictionary, listened to the verbal oddities all around him as he took his silent juggling act around the world. Then, at the age of 35, battling back from the Great Stock Market Crash and Depression, he launched his verbal wit and trademark voice upon the world in his second kick at the movies.

“Once, during Prohibition, I was forced to live for days on nothing but food and water.”
“When we have lost everything, including hope, life becomes a disgrace, and death a duty.”
“There comes a time in the affairs of man that he must take the bull by the tail and face the situation.”²

¹ The Daali Llama as quoted by John Cleese.@ 1:12 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnpY46lOTX4
² W.C. Fields