ON ACTING: "...as a Fool"

The student said to me that her problem in doing comedy is her distaste and fear of the audience laughing at her. I told her the audience doesn't laugh at her. They laugh at themselves. She is a mirror. She is reflecting back the audiences own everyday living predicaments. That's why audiences love comedians...through the mirror-image of themselves, by means of courageous, well-acted foolishness on stage, they can learn to love--and accept--their own foolishness. "It takes one to know one" is a positive dynamic in comic acting.