A B C D E F G H I J L M N O P R S T Z
Tag-gag / Tag-line - An additional punch-line to an earlier joke that does not require another set-upTake - a facial expression or exaggerated comic look at the audience. The double-take is well characterised by John Cleese in the movie Monty Python And The Holy Grail in the scene where as a French soldier on a English castle rampart, he hears a giant, wooden rabbit being built. He twists his head away and then twists it quickly back having realised he has just seen a poorly-built Wooden Horse of Troy built in the shape of a rabbit.
Throw away - to put little emphasis on a point usually considered important.
Timing - An impossible black art. To get your words out in the right order, timed in such a way to maximise the joke you are telling.
If you want to, you can pointlessly use up your life research timing? For some, it's the gaps.....the pauses between words. For others it's the placing of comic words and images in a sentence. Maybe it's a yin yang thang?
Like love, you have to experience it to appreciate it. But, that doesn't mean you have it exactly the same way as anyone else or that words can ever give you the formula for timing.
I believe the word is ineffable - that which cannot be described - and that effing well sums it up.
Allegedly one Royal Shakespeare Company director always took his players to see Ken Dodd when he was in London purely to see a master of timing. What they could do having witnessed it other than realise they haven't got it and he has is difficult to know.
Being told to improve your timing is useful insomuch as you can think about pauses, speaking slower, emphases et al. However, once beyond these basics, timing is probably a blend of constant monitoring and de-briefing oneself in terms of audience response - with a good measure left in the laptop of the comedy gods. Jimmy Carr is a gagster (joke after pointless joke without a moral compass Richard Herring) but, his timing is superb, lengthy pauses often illustrated with his eyebrows or a twist of his mouth.
Timing is like a steamroller - you know it when it rolls over you, but you're in no position to describe it to the police. Be happy if just touches you lightly on the shoulder once in a while. You will never master it.
Tits-up - when a set, or whole show goes wrong i.e. its fallen on its back so its' tits are up. The outcome can still be very funny but the set or show has not gone to design for whatever reason. You may however get a blank stare if you congratulate a performer on being so very tits down.
Topical (material) - Jokes about current events - the present USA president and UK Prime Minister are not topical but their recent behaviour is.
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