The people who make us laugh

often seem to be some of the unhappiest people there are.

Now I admit that I had not even heard of Matthew Perry or watched an episode of something called "Friends" but it seems a lot of people did. I am simply aware, from yesterday's news, that a man is dead. He is a man who apparently made a lot of people laugh.

It is not easy to make people laugh. It may look easy but it is not easy. I know this from first hand observation. 

The Senior Cat loved to make people laugh. It was one of the reasons one of his hobbies was "magic" or "conjuring". He liked to entertain people. It was not about "showing off". It was about making them laugh or going "how did you do that!"  

This was why he liked to encourage young people to do "tricks" and tell funny stories. Even in his last days in the nursing home he was teaching the ten year old son of one of the staff to do simple conjuring tricks. He taught hundreds of children over the years. His grandchildren and  great-grandchildren can all do conjuring tricks to entertain others, to divert people from anxiety and to bring about some smiles. Along with the trick goes the "patter" - the story, the words that help to divert your attention from the sleight of hand. Those stories require practice, a lot of practice. 

The Senior Cat wrote his own patter of course. He would give me the outline of what he intended to use. I would criticise, help him take things out and put other things in. He would work with his fellow magicians on ideas. As he was not trying to make a living from it he was more than willing to help those who were. There were some "big" names in the entertainment industry who sought his help to make their apparatus and they would involve him in their patter because there would be design features they wanted to emphasise as part of it. 

I thought of these people when I heard yesterday's story. They were not generally people who made me laugh. Life for them was a very serious business, is a very serious business. Several of them are as well known as Tony Hancock was to his generation or Robin Williams is to mine. They are under constant pressure to introduce something new, something which will make the rest of us laugh. They need to get not just the words right but the delivery right - that all important "timing", the thing which marks out so many actors.

The Senior Cat was not the best of magicians. He knew that. He liked to do it but it was not the only thing he wanted to do. It was much more important for him to help others do it. He had a great admiration for those who were willing to put the many lonely hours of practice in to make others laugh. 

When we watch the best performing we tend to forget all this. It isn't easy for them to make it easy for us to laugh.