my favorite comedy out of the ones we read has to be "Philadelphia" which is partially due to the fact that i am slightly obsessed with David Ives. i think David Ives does a fabulous job of melding absurd circumstances with real characters. he is always able to combine completely unrealistic situations with people who are actually believable with is truly funny. perhaps the funniest thing about his humor is the fact that it involves a lot of "reactions" in the sense that seemingly normal characters react to their environment in funny relatable ways. for example, in "Philadelphia" Mark and Al are both pretty average guys who seem to just be having a normal experience in a run of the mill coffee shop. however, as the play progresses we realize that these two normal guys are in fact a part of this completely insane world. part of what makes this play so funny is that these people seem completely out of place in the context of this play; we as an audience do not expect Mark and Al to be in such an absurd environment. moral of the story...go David Ives!
moving on to a different comedy...when i initially read "A Bear and a Dog" i hated it. i thought the dialogue fell flat and that the whole concept was stupid. however, after i read the play aloud with enthusiasm i grasped the humor of the play more completely. when the play was read aloud the seemingly stupid jokes were instead merely perfectly simple. this taught me that when evaluation a play which i am reading or when partaking in the writing process it is extremely helpful to vocally enact the play for this allows you to really gain a sense of the structure of the piece. it is a lot easier to understand and appreciate humor when you take it off of the page and into the world as living piece of art. the play is not longer just words on a page, instead it is people and situations in the flesh.
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