The Power of Laughter: Life Is Funny, Don’t Forget to Laugh, and Why Comedy Is Seriously Important

I literally read it so many times. I'm reading it backwards now. I think this is a good note for everybody out there. Thank you. All righty, good morning, everybody. Welcome to Mornings with Matt on the Dearing Acting Studio Podcast. It's a perfect day for this, Joey, to have a little mistake there in the beginning when we're talking about the power of laughter. And by the way, everybody, if your sound machine isn't working, if you're not getting sound, here's a little pro tip for you.

Turn it off real quick, turn it back on. It almost always works with most machines. But today we're going to be talking about the power of laughter, and it is powerful. And I can't wait to dive into it. But we're going to start off with our daily devotional. Joey, you want to read these or you want me to read them real quick? I got it. I got it.

You got this thing? I will take Brian's spot. All right, let's do this thing. Okay, this is Luke 6, 21. Blessed are ye that hunger now, for ye shall be filled. Blessed are ye that weep now, for ye shall laugh. And I will repeat that. Blessed are ye, Joey. Blessed are ye. Blessed are ye. And ye shall laugh. Yo, ye better laugh. Ye better laugh or ye is not good spirit.

That's not a quote. I just said that. Like, ye, I think ye is funny. Ye, ye, skirt, ye, ye, skirt, skirt. Hold up, drop that. Imagine you're getting in a fight with somebody back in the day and you're like, ye better back off. Ye want a piece of this? I also just think it's it's Y-E yeah it's like yeah yeah like ye I don't know but for whatever reason I think of it as like Y-E-E because it would like hold you know but it's like yeah yeah yeah oh man So, I mean, obviously the idea here is that from the good times, there's bad.

From the bad times, there's good, right? And you have to know that life is this rollercoaster ride. So you've got to understand that when you're going through bad times, there's good times around the corner. And we're going to be talking about this today. There's a lot of ways to find joy, find laughter in almost anything. Full of joy, buddy. Full of joy, buddy. I wish we had that sound effect still.

All right, our next Bible verse, Joe, man. Next Bible verse is Psalm 126, verse 2, section 3. It's actually Psalm 126, 2 to 3. Oh. Like from 2 to 3. All the way from 2 until you get to 3. The Bible is an unpredictable place because that could mean that it's literally a line, and it could also mean it's full page. Right, I just didn't want one of our loyal viewers here to be like, where's section three?

Sure, yeah, don't let me teach you how to read the Bible. Verse two, section three. Section three of verse two is with. All right, try this again. This is Psalm 126, verse 2 through 3. Then our mouths were filled with laughter and our tongues with joyful songs. Then the nation said, The Lord has done spectacular things for them. The Lord has done spectacular things for us. We are overjoyed.

I like your voice you use for the nations. I mean, it's just, here's the thing. There was quotes. And so I kind of, you kind of got to do it. But the nations said, the Lord has done spectacular things for them. Yeah. Yeah, that's what nations sound like. When nations talk, that's what they sound like. Yeah, I mean, you could add, if we had the effect, you could add a little bit of reverb, you know, make it sound like there were more people.

But it's pretty close. It's pretty close. So when things are good, what happens, right? Our mouths are filled with joyful songs and laughter. laughter is just important it's a part of celebrating the life that we've been gifted here on this earth and that's what today is going to be all about here we're going to be talking about the power of laughter and I think it's important to remember to laugh it's important to understand that laughter is going to help lead you to a well-balanced life.

Because you need to find the joy in everything that you're doing. Full of joy, buddy. Full of joy, buddy. And as a matter of fact, Joey, I'm going to talk to you about something on one of the commercial breaks here. Ooh, cool. About something that we might be able to dive into, you and me, but you've got to give me permission first. That's really what we do during the commercial breaks, is we just talk and plan out.

Well, we advertise to you. We talk about the things that we're going to talk about, and then we talk about those things. Yeah, we pre-talk about the talk. So here's our show outline today. Number one, we're going to talk about life is funny, because it is. We're going to dive down that, which is really improv principles, and that's going to be super fun. Then number two is the importance to do not forget to laugh, because you can forget.

It can be hard in the moment, and that's the part that I'm going to talk to you about, Joe. And then number three is comedy is seriously important. That's going to be your big takeaway. So that's going to be something that we're going to dive into, especially all those that are into improv, love improv. That last segment, I'm going to give you a little takeaway there. So let's do one of our little tiny quick commercials, Joey.

And then we will dive into section one, life is funny, which is going to involve some improvisational skills. and how we approach improvisation, specifically here at Dearing Acting Studio. Life is Funny, coming up right after this commercial break. Well, I mean, normally I call my uncle, he's a plumber. And he comes over and I buy him lunch. then he unclogs my pipes. How does he unclog your pipes? What does he do? Honestly I haven't paid much attention usually I go get the lunch and he unclogs the pipes.

It's like a trade-off situation. All right uh let me try something else here um all righty welcome back everybody life is funny it really is um you've been watching the last couple days a a repeat clip of a scene of ours from the beginning of our our show last month matter of fact we do have a show tomorrow night we're very excited about we'd love to invite our audience out here to come to the show um i like what charlie chaplin said here uh a day without laughter is a day wasted a day without laughter is a day wasted this is big facts and the truth is in in almost anything there's there's funny there's funny in almost anything and i and i say almost because it's probably everything but i just don't want to offend people and some people are gonna be like well what about this circumstance and i'm gonna go yeah i can find funny there but i don't i don't want to be offensive so i won't i'm gonna say almost anything can there's funny that can be had there and so so what do we teach people here at the deering acting studio is uh we teach improv from our perspective and it's an observation style improvisation understanding that um what is funny is usually what's right in front of you already when you when you try really hard to be funny usually you're not matter of fact i was uh i was emailing a student of ours just yesterday young man named um i i think i can bring up his name uh because it's a compliment his name is daniel he's he's a really nice kid he's super fun energetic he's a he's an awesome awesome uh addition to the family here and he asked via email he's like what do i got to do to be getting up into chaos comedy i want to be getting up in there and uh and i told him i was like dude i already got my eye on you you're already on my watch list matt was like i got my eye on you i got my eye on you daniel yeah i sing to daniel at night sometimes it's a part of how i go to bed uh but i but i do i had i had already put him on the sort of my watch list because of his energy and his you know his outlook on life and whatnot but he's like what do i got to do and i said you got to work on this thing this is the one thing you got to work on which is unselfishness on the stage and trying to help others be funny rather than being funny yourself because he's this kid daniel he's a funny kid like oh yeah funny yeah and there's just something about him that's funny and honestly honestly joey if i put him on the improv troupe and i put him a show he would get laughs mm-hmm audiences would like him yeah but he would be a difficult player right now to play with sure and so i just i want to help him with that sort of mindset skill not that he's going to be perfect before he would get the bump up but just that he understands that that's that's what you're going for basically that's the uh that's the goal yeah so um so understanding that that what we want to do is we want to become observers in life and as you as you step back and you look at tiny little things there's funny everywhere i mean it's just just it's just everywhere right like the littlest things are funny for whatever reason and and and that's what that's what's so hard about uh writing and why you can be so sort of like mind blown um impressed by the great writers of this world who can write shows like the office or you know just just shows that's that's look on the surface to be about nothing these there's these little moments that we all laugh at throughout the day like little things our co-workers say or do or you know the little mannerisms or a little look and it just makes you giggle on the inside or outside and and you're like that was funny like why was that funny and as we start to observe life and we understand that there's just comedy everywhere we can find it all over the place um that that's when things i think become a little more fun and that's what charlie chaplin was saying was the day without laughter is a day wasted i like this uh this dr Seuss quote, too, I found, which was, uh, from there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere.

What? Oh, man. From there to here, from here to there, funny things are everywhere. Is that one fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish? I don't know if that's the… I'm pretty sure that's where it's from. It could be. Because that was my favorite book. It could be. He rhymed in a lot of books. Yes, but that specific one, I remember. It's a good book. It really is.

I like the foot book. Do you ever read the foot book yes right foot left foot big foot small foot up foot down foot it's good it's good good stuff but uh but yeah so dr seuss made a living on this right there's just of like observing and kind of making things weird and then um you know putting it together and and i and i like what he's saying he's like like there's funny everywhere from here to there from there to here funny things are everywhere it just is like it's just all over the place and so uh so so if we look at this and we're and we're like okay how can we find the funny in a moment and and that's oftentimes where um where you have to be willing to go into the funny you got to be willing to allow yourself to acknowledge some things are funny sometimes yeah and and and not get yourself stuck all right uh Ladies and gentlemen, it is now time for Joey Sweeney's Terrible Illustrations.

All right, what you got for us, Joey? What we can't see? All right, guys. They can see it, I promise. No, they can't. Not really. They can see it. We can see the hair. Yeah, so anyway, we've been talking about it a lot. So this is actually Daniel. Okay. And he's holding a lollipop. No, that is a magnifying glass. It's a megaphone. No, it's a magnifying glass.

He's swatting at flies. And in this magnifying glass… Oh, it gets worse when I bring it closer. In this magnifying glass… We should do a thing first, Joey. From now on, I have this really great game. All right, you're going to do an illustration, and I will try to figure out what you're trying to say. And then you'll describe it. So I'll be like, okay, there's a man swatting flies.

And you're like, no, this is Daniel with a magnifying glass. Obviously. Obviously. Hilarious. And under that magnifying glass's ray, you see that there is laughter, right? But only because he's looking at the magnifying glass. Mmm. So you can't see the laughter without the magnifying glass. Yeah, because if you're blocking yourself out, you've got to focus in. If you choose not to look through the funny lens, you ain't going to see it.

Yeah, you've got to change your lens sometimes. That was a wonderful, terrible illustration, Joey. Thank you, Daniel. Very, very good. Yeah, and I believe this is one of the secrets to appreciating this life that we do have, is taking those moments to go ahead and appreciate the funny that is the now. And this is something that we will all understand as well. There are also things that are funny, that we think are funny, that aren't funny.

And, you know, I've been caught in this sometimes where, you know, I've been sarcastic and didn't, you know, maybe someone else didn't think it was funny or whatever. So then it goes both ways. So at the one time, it's like, okay, you've got to learn how to, like, tailor that back a little bit. And then the other person needs to learn how to, like, don't take life so seriously, right?

So, like, that goes both ways. And then there's the idea, too, of when it comes to observing comedy of life is listening for the underneath of what's happening and making sure that this is one of those funny times to jump in versus this may be a setup for something else and the funny could come later type thing. All right, so we're going to come back here, and we're going to jump into our second segment here.

We're going to be doing a quick show today, so stick with us. Our commercial breaks are going to be really quick because we've got our big chaos comedy show tomorrow. We've got a lot going on here at the studio today. So when we get back from this next very quick commercial break, we are going to be talking about the idea, do not forget to laugh. And I did get Joey's permission.

We're going to dive into something a little bit personal from our day yesterday, but also just like this idea of don't forget to laugh because the power of that is going to help you get through a lot of tough stuff. Tough stuff. Tough stuff. Don't forget to laugh. We'll be right back. All righty. And Joey Sweeney. Are we back? Yep. Are we back already? Right now, yep.

You said it was a super quick commercial. Nah, it really was supposed to pop on at the beginning of the Chaos Intro. thing joey i was gonna laugh but i forgot dang and turns out i'm not supposed to forget to laugh that is the segment that we're on do not forget to laugh um how important is this all right so i've got a couple quotes here first one is Tom Nansbury i feel like that would have been a great last name for our characters this in the last week's show yeah uh he says an optimist laughs to forget a pessimist forgets to laugh an optimist forgets or an optimist laughs to forget a pessimist forgets to laugh so um here at the studio just me personally but but when when we find out that someone's going through a hard time we find out that somebody's struggling find know someone's sick something's happening um we stopped talking to first thing first thing i do honestly is and i invite him to a chaos comedy improv show i give him free tickets and and i really do i mean it's just what i do hey let me invite you because i know the power of laughter um laughter is like medicine it can it can literally it can literally heal you I think it's very important.

So what I was talking to Joey about yesterday was we were in one of those moments where we were trying to get to the bottom of something. Um, if you don't mind me saying this, Joey, you were hanging on to negativity, hanging on to, let's call it, it wasn't even anger, but just, just hanging on to like, just letting something linger. And as we talked about it, it, it, like it got, it tended to just get more serious.

Like there, almost like there was no way out. Yeah. And I think that part of the reason was when you got yourself in a state. where you you know honestly whether it be true or not okay so so because because i don't want to i don't want to be right or wrong here that's that's irrelevant so so either way either way whatever whatever you know my side of it was either way if you can find look for and choose the fun the funny the joy in a moment it will flip your mindset and then if and when you decide to come back and approach the situation and go hey just so you know this is thing that's what i mean by you can approach it from love but when it when it ends up being something that festers and you didn't allow something to be what it could have been then then it's hard to come from that place so i like i always say like we're going to flip the switch on this thing right and it doesn't mean just do it It doesn't mean you're just going to follow orders and like do the thing, but it means like you're going to do it joyfully.

You're going to do it with a smile on your face. You're going to do it and try to find the fun, try to find the excitement, try to build on the other person's ideas and whatever's happening. So then if you, when you look at something, let's just say we're stuck in this moment and let me put it on me for a second. Let me pretend like I'm all upset about whatever it is, something.

And it boils back down to if I can take two seconds to look at me and go, what are you really mad about? That's so silly. Like it's so funny that Matt, that you're allowing yourself to get so mad about this tiny little thing. Right? And yes, it matters. Yes, it's serious. Yes, it's this or that. But that's why, and I talked about this in the last segment, that's why Parks and Recreation and The Office, that's why they're so funny.

Because the characters get so upset over the stupidest things. Yeah. And that's what we do in real life. But we don't realize they're funny until, like, later. And think about how many times has there been, like, a moment, something really serious, really big, really hard to get through. But then you look back on it and you laugh at it. You laugh at your own outlook on that thing at the time because you can look back and go, wow, I thought that was such a big deal.

And it turns out it wasn't. Or, wow, I thought that was so serious. And like, look at the joy or whatever from it. Even death, which has got to be like, that's got to be the pinnacle, right, of all of our fears. And if you take death, what happens when somebody dies? 99% of the time at the funeral, people are laughing. Why? Because they're remembering the good times.

They're remembering their loved one talking about stories. And it brings joy and laughter when you do that, when you focus on those things. There's crying too, but that's what, I mean, that's what the Bible verse was all about. Was, you know, from the woe is going to be like the big laughter. So anyway, circling back to this, Joey, and I'm talking to me, but I'm also talking to you.

If we took yesterday's scenario and you were able to take a second, ideally, and go, what am I so mad about? Let me see if I can – let me see if literally I can laugh at me and then move forward from there. it'll change it changes your biochemistry to a place where now you're open like you're open to have fun you're open to you're open to joyfully navigate through a situation and um you know and on both sides it's it's much easier to be wrong or much easier to move forward or whatever if you're not it like when you're in a state of laughter joy fun camaraderie etc um because then then then you're not like holding a grudge you're not like you know secretly sort of holding back a little bit on your on your love scale but you're you're giving everything you have you're still joyful loving having fun you're willing to go into the funny of this is ridiculous it's ridiculous how like how this thing could cost us an hour and a half and a bunch of our energy yeah whereas whereas we could use the same thing find something funny in it because there's got to be something funny there has to be a funny moment there has to be something special there has to be something joyful that we can focus on and if we do that then that same thing could be actually energy giving instead of energy taking and it's so hard that's the thing i just want to say that that's why that's why the title of this section was don't forget to laugh because in those moments it's the last thing you want to do yeah but if you remember to do it it will it will make it'll make things so much more fun so much easier to navigate etc but you got it but you got to allow it you know because sometimes even like you know brian god love him if you remember yesterday he was trying he tried to tell a few jokes you know and i and i laughed kind of you know i could have laugh more you didn't laugh at all and like we could have like we could have just let him do what he was trying to do he was he was trying to just get in the middle and go guys let me just be funny brian and we go that's right you're funny brian and honestly you're here and you're alive what else freaking matters let's just shake hands and like hug it out and be done you know what i mean like like there's something to that where you just you have to not forget to allow yourself to laugh in in the most serious moments yeah for sure love that um that was pretty much it that was what i had for that section i mean i wrote this down but it's it's it's the same as what i'm saying which was you can immediately put out the fires burning in your head and your heart by laughing and that's and that's what i look at it like a fire hose like like you're you can put out your own flames yeah you know like like yesterday i felt like i was on fire you felt like you're on fire you know and and and um and and when you're at that place if you can go all right how do i get myself to joy and you find a way there the laughter is like a fire hose it just puts out the fire and then from there man is it so much easier to navigate a situation but when you're on fire then everything feels so intense feels it feels so hard um so that's a little little secret for you And don't forget to laugh during even the hardest, most difficult times.

Even, even, I'm sorry, I have one more thing for you, Joy, and then you can go to commercial. No, you're good. There's another thing we tell parents, too, or at least we think, because we don't want to tell parents how to parent. But, you know, when, when people in general, a lot of times this studio, their classes would be like their happy place, would be their fun place, would be the place that they find joy.

When they get themselves in trouble, the kids are not doing their homework or they're, you know, you feel overstressed or whatever. Sometimes what people do is they take away their class as almost like a punishment to themselves. And I usually tell them, like, that's the last thing you should do because you're taking away the joy. It's going to get worse. Things are going to get worse. So that's not the – that shouldn't be the punishment, ideally.

And they're like, well, that's the only thing they love. And I'm like, yeah, I get it. But, you know, you take this away, and now all of a sudden, what do you got? Like, this is not good, you know. So you can give us the information, help us to help them with you, and maybe put some other parameters around yourself or your kids or whatever. But you don't want to take away the joy.

I think stripping people of the joy and the laughter, especially when it's coming from a positive place, is a mistake. Yeah. So, yeah, I kind of just had to add that in there. Agreed. No, that's a great point. All right, cool. All right, we're going to come back and we're going to talk about how serious comedy is. Comedy is seriously important. We're going to end there with a big takeaway.

We'll see some. and apply it to the real world, to business, to interviews, and just meeting everyday people, learning how to listen better. And it's been an amazing experience so far. nothing sways you that way or that way everything is more mellowed down you're not angry you always like the book said surprised with with new events new things that are happening and whatever happens we are the creators of what's happening right so we still have free will yes we created this yeah whatever is happening it was our our own creation Oh, how's this feel?

ladies and gentlemen comedy is seriously important that's the way i look at it i find it to be very serious and it's interesting when we are when we're in a classroom i am so like dead locked in serious on finding the funny. It's very important to me. I don't want to miss any potential moments to extract more comedy. And one of the reasons I find it to be so serious is I believe that comedy changes the world. I believe laughter changes the world. Like I said, it's life's best medicine. A good belly laugh consistently, someone who has that kind of mindset, who can state of laughter you are so much more likely to get better what's happening inside your body inside your cells on a molecular level is very very important and and that's the way i look at comedy it's why it's why i take it so seriously yeah 100 p i like uh george rr martin he's got double r's there that's interesting double r's george rr martin he says laughter is poison to fear do you know what the r's stand for george rr martin i don't know what they stand for matter of fact i don't even know who george martin is i think it's george robert richard martin i just just came up with that three first names one last Mmm, mmm, I like it. That's nice. That's good.

Robert Richard. Laughter is poison to fear. That's so true. And it's cool. It's cool to think about something negative attacking something negative. Because two negatives make a positive. Mmm. Facts. Is that true? Yeah. Is that a thing? Two negatives make a positive. It's true. Where did I miss that in… Yeah, it's, uh, that's the way it works. I mean, like, it kind of makes sense. Like, a negative's like that, so you could, like, flip it, but, like, I don't know.

Yeah, it's two negative forces turned into a positive. It's kind of like, think about this, a double negative. Mm-hmm. You can't not be funny, which means you are funny. Ah, yeah, sure. Because you can't not be. It's the same. We haven't done this in so long, but we used to do the… We would do yes because, but then we would do no because. Yeah, I love that.

I'm saving no because. I can't wait to do no because in class again. Yeah, it's so hard, but actually, if you're playing it right, you're not saying no to their idea. You're actually agreeing with it, but you're saying no, even though that's technically a denial. Exactly. It's interesting. There's a right way to say no. Yeah. And, yeah, so it goes back to every rule is meant to be broken.

But I like this, right? It's poison. So poison is a negative thing. But poison to fear, well, yeah, I want to poison fear. Yeah. You know, how are we going to do that laughter, baby? And, okay, here's another one here. Mark Twain says, against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand. What do you think the mark stands for? This is a dad joke. I don't like some dad jokes.

M. Twain, they call him. M. Twain. Twain, twain, twain. Alright, cool. So here's your big takeaway, everybody. Today. Find a moment from this week. So like, for Joey, it could be yesterday. You know, for me, it could be last night. It could be whatever. Like any moment that you have where you were like, oh, there's a moment when I was taking things real seriously. See if you can find the funny.

See if you can find little funny things that you did, that the other person was doing, that you could have, if you wanted to, chosen to focus on that little thing and allowed yourself to have a joyful moment right in the middle of that serious thing. Yeah. And then if possible, if something serious comes up today, then use this, because it's a skill set. have to practice it yeah it's not like it comes easy that's right but but try to in the moment find a spot where you can where you can like you can pay attention to something that's that's weird that's funny that's just just happens to be there and then allow that to just sort of like overcome you yeah there's there's this uh there's this marriage trick that that we heard about and we we actually kind of played with it um but then we didn't need it um because that by we you mean you and Leeann yeah because we're always silly like we're always like totally dorky yeah really so and and and we joke that we're trained improvisers all the time we're like well we're trained improv i'm a trained improviser i can't not be funny in this moment honey you know um but there there's this trick and the trick is is something that the both of you for whatever reason think is super silly and funny so like like what would be something for you and me joey like for you and me something we both agree upon is like totally weird funny or like a moment we went through or like something just like ridiculous if you can think of something that we both were jumping on the same kind of joke um brian's obliviousness around the studio sometimes the double b's totally or or even like okay here's one right um like our thing could be rr martin yeah sure okay because george rr martin you were like what do the two r stand for robert richard but right whatever yeah and that could be the thing right and what what the marriage trick is is it like this is a it's a code between you and me we have the code nobody else has it and it means in this moment we're taking i think we're taking things too seriously we need to back it up and laugh for a second and then come back to the conversation so imagine you and me in the very beginning and if and if i was like hey man i think something's up let's talk about it and i thought that was going to be a two-minute conversation and i'm right away i realized oh it's not going to be a two-minute conversation bummer that would be a good time just to be like all right hold up hold up rr martin bud and then we both have you like we have required we have to stop and laugh like you're not allowed to not laugh you have to do it then you come back to the conversation it's a very interesting marriage tool yeah um so we leanne and i had come up with a couple and i it was you know sort of interesting it kind of worked but then at the same time we just didn't need it i felt like because we still we do do it actually we just don't need a code word because you her and I are professional improvisers and so we in the moment can usually find a way to find something weird and funny and then and then make it into that like actually I could tell you one right now um that that I've been using lately is I me and the kids will call Leeann grumpus when she's being grumpy at night yeah okay and so we have a whole joke around that but i'm not going to share the joke because it's a it's a family inside joke but but this idea of grumpus so like if i push leanne's buttons a little bit too far and she happens to be tired i know i did it so instead of saying sorry because actually sorry she could just be like you know and still be kind of mad i'll be like oh no grumpus and the kids laugh and then she can't help but laugh because she knows like i'm being silly i'm saying sorry but in in a fun way that's going like hey we're just playing you know and it just it just it kind of melts whatever's going on the tension yeah um but but you have to talk to the person and they know the code first that's right it's gotta be you just it's gotta be a code she would not tell you well i don't think that's right but if she knows the love behind it that's the whole idea yeah right and so so for instance like there's nothing funny about the word grumpus really i mean maybe it's kind of funny but there's nothing funny about george r martin i guess that's kind of funny too but in and of itself right but between people who really have like a history you can just go there and imagine you and me are like super fighting and then i'm just like george r martin and you're like and inside you're like i don't want to laugh but you're like i have to and then you we just allow ourselves to go to that place then all of a sudden you come back with this sense of peace yeah and it becomes it just becomes easier to just like hold up the white flag and be like cool let's let's move forward yeah um so anyway that's uh that's that's your big takeaway today it's a big one find find a code word um there's like three things here find a code word find a moment from earlier in the week where you could have or maybe you should have you needed to find some comedy in a moment sooner than you did if today something happens that feels serious because it usually does see if you can find the comedy right in the moment focus on that comedy focus on the fun of a moment the funny and then and then dive back in and if you want to if you got a loved one you have somebody care about like i do with joey um find some kind of find some kind of code word something that's going to be between the two of you that is for you it's for your benefit for the the building of your relationship so that you can continue to love and tolerate one another in in all the times of life and and realize that life life is so fragile it's this gift and and that's why sometimes like the thing I get the most mad about is when I've been arguing with somebody for a long time because I'm like what a waste of my life what a waste if we could just get through it faster because I just don't like i i i believe in dealing with it but i don't believe in sitting on it i don't believe in festering it it's it's it's like oh it's such a dream like life is so valuable and it's so fragile and like like you look back and you're like man what if we didn't get through it what if we were we were on edge and something happened to one of us like how much does that suck you know like you don't want to be in that state you want it you want to deal with it you want to be truthful you want to be honest but you want to get right back to the funny right back to the fun right back to the love as soon as you possibly can so take comedy seriously yeah that is the that is the big take and we're funny people that's just facts everybody humans in jail everybody yeah that's what um we we sort of touched on this but really quick as we're wrapping improv specifically the way we teach it is be you heightened versions of yourself because we've all been angry we've all loopy almost so annoying like unfocused so annoying and uh but but you know what's funny though see here's the thing here's the funny of this i can laugh about that with brian and not not laughing like at your expense but laughing at the knowledge of we both know you're in a state, right? You're in a state of like, Oh, Joey went to that place. But here's what's interesting. When I'm laser focused, you're, you're silly, like weirdness annoys me. But when I'm not, I love it. Like, I love it, love it. You know what I mean? Like, I just want to jump in and dive deeper, deeper, deeper. And that's what I was saying before, which is um knowing like really listening to the room and and like feeling like is this the time for this energy right now and how do i bring it when it's time to bring it and you know and and we've talked about this you know in other episodes we don't need to go there now but but like it's not good for me to take you out of focus out of productive focus or vice versa it's not good to do that, you know? And yet we don't want to take things too seriously. So you want to be listening. You want to be like open, want to be willing, even when you're focused to laugh and smile and, and, and allow things to be funny and fun. But then at the same time, if you're the one being funny and fun, you have to understand that also there's a time to pull that back, save it, use it later. You know, it's like going for the joke or letting it build build build build build like you may you may think of something funny say it but then you don't need to say 12 funny things in a in a moment you may not need to you could think it hold it think it hold it think it hold it when everybody comes back and we're all having lunch and it's like and then it's like you saved all that and it becomes this big funny moment that we all get to share in which is a different thing so um yeah it's it's it's complicated and that's why I say comedy is serious it's a serious thing to listen to to study to get good at because when you use this in your life man it laughter is so powerful and and and and as you know like think about this gosh I just got on a whole nother topic here but think about how serious how powerful laughter is in a negative way wait in a negative way yeah I mean think about this right because inappropriate laughter is so negative oh oh yeah yeah right the kid the kid did something embarrassing all the other kids laugh at that kid it's hurtful it's like laughing it's negative but it can be you use that example right even even what you're talking about like when you're not focused if if it drags out and you're not listening to the room and and people are being polite and laughing but then there you know there was somebody at the studio uh this earlier this week same idea happened where like this the person like would was one of those one of those people who would tell a joke and they were getting like the polite laugh but but didn't they didn't have the self-awareness to realize that like we're not really laughing kind of think you're offensive you know yeah yeah so that's that's where that that like the the laughter jokiness there's a time and a place like it can be negative like laughter is i'm not saying it's always good i'm saying it's powerful i'm saying you got to learn how to use it you got to learn how to how to how to put comedy study comedy put it where it belongs use it when you need it the most for sure but i don't mean like like everything's funny i don't mean like like you should just like not pay attention when somebody's trying to be serious or somebody's hurt or somebody's whatever, you know, my kid stubs his toe. I'm not going to laugh. Not right away. I afterward, if they're okay, I'll try to, I'll try to maybe spin their mindset and would turn it into a laugh as quickly as possible. Turn it into a smile. But right away, it's like, you know, sometimes people need you to get in the boat with them so yeah so yeah powerful laughter is powerful speaking of powerful laughter come to the chaos comedy show tomorrow 7 o'clock p.m ticket links are on facebook lighthouse theater.org you can pretty much find them anywhere and everywhere online you could also by them at the door.

I just wanted to add a laugh. No, it added some flavor. All right, everybody. Thanks so much for tuning in. This has been the Mornings with Matt show on the Dearing Acting Studio podcast. We appreciate you listening. God bless. Thanks for listening to Mornings with Matt. Please like, subscribe, and follow us at Dearing Acting Studio to keep up with the latest content. For more information on classes, private lessons, or professional development coaching, visit www.dearingstudio.com.

Have a Dearing Day, everyone. Have a champy day, everyone. Ruff.