HUMOUR
Speech Development
True or False
Take turns to talk about, "The Funniest Thing That Ever Happened To Me." Each person's contribution may be based on either a real or a fictitious event. Aim for conviction in story telling. See if listeners are able to guess which stories are true and which have been made up.
What Makes Us Laugh
This time participants give an account of something that really made them laugh.
Discuss what it was that inspired the humour. Perhaps it was an example of slapstick comedy, or witty word play, or a comic situation arising out of an unusual sequence of circumstances. Maybe it was a joke, or an unexpected happening, or the irony of a situation, or the interaction between a motley bunch of characters.
Explain that we are going to use our experiences of what we find funny to develop ideas about how we might make an audience laugh.
Mime
In twos, one person is a statue; the other uses mime in an attempt to make his or her partner laugh.
Study video recordings of funny walks from the silent movie era. Practise walking to music typically found on silent movie sound tracks.
In mime, incorporate other emotions in response to changes in mood of the music.
In groups, plan and then mime a silent movie situation in which there is a misunderstanding, a conflict, a chase, a custard pie throwing battle and a happy ending.
Encourage different means of cultivating humour visually.
Speech and Mime
Groups improvise a story about 'The Princess Who Couldn't Smile.'
She is moody, sulky, spoilt and prone to temper tantrums.
Her father, the King dotes on her and panders to her every whim, but nothing is good enough for her.
It is proclaimed across the kingdom that the man who can make her laugh, will be her future husband.
Potential suitors use different means of trying to make her laugh.
Finally, the most unlikely of them puts on a funny mask. It fails to make her laugh, but when he takes his mask off, she breaks down in hysterical laughter, finding his face so amusing.
© Andrew McCann