Challenges of interviewing a comedian
By Pablo Yagayo
I was watching a journalist interview a comedian and he asked him, “So, why did you become a comedian?” The fella laughed and replied, “To entertain people like you.”
The journalist didn’t seem content with the answer and rephrased it to, “Does it make sense to become a comedian?” The comedian replied, “It makes sense because we get to be interviewed by people like you.” The journalist requested to go for a commercial break before continuing with the interview.
It was during this break that I tried to figure out what exactly the journalist wanted to know. Why does someone decide to become a comedian? Does it make sense to become a comedian? What is a comedian? What is comedy in the first place?
Pablo is a Ugandan comedian
I have come to understand that comedy is a funny way of being serious because witty comedians will talk about serious issues in a lighter way. We are informed of the strange medieval figure of the court jester during the biblical Old Testament days.
His role was to keep the king entertained by dispensing buffoonery, but also provided a bit of occasional non-comedy relief. Since the king was accustomed to hearing him say outrageous things, the jester could occasionally get away with saying offensive truths that the king would brook from no one else.
The jester had a special privilege because he could speak as he liked, since his role was that of a madman whose ravings might simply be laughed off. [adrotate banner=”3″]
There are different kinds of comedians; those who make people laugh, those who are laughed at and those who are chased away. It also has different categories such as stand-up, sketch, mimics, puppetry, clowns, and others. These comedians can chose to either be solution-driven or absolutists.
The absolutist doesn’t care whether the joke is offensive, vulgar, abusive or creates harm in one way or another. The solution-driven comedian will sacrifice a joke, no matter how hilarious it is, as long as they feel that it might create fear, contempt, or hate amongst their fans. That explains why there is a thin line between fame and shame in comedy compared to other forms of entertainment.
The comic risks dying on stage if the audience is rubbed the wrong way, unlike music were the most stupid words that folks fear to say just need to be sung, and all is well.
The interviewer welcomed us back from the break and asked the comedian, “So when did you know that you would become a comedian?” The young man replied, “The day my high school headmaster wrote on my end-of-year report, ‘you are advised to try your talents elsewhere’.” The interviewer then asked, “Did you try your talents elsewhere?” and the comedian replied, “I refused.
I reported to school the following term. The headmaster asked me, ‘why are you back, young man, yet we advised you to try your talents elsewhere?’ and I told him that I was grateful for his advice but I didn’t take it.
It was just an advice.” The interviewer asked if he was serious or if it was a joke, and the comedian responded, “If your question was a joke, then the answer is a joke.” The journalist then asked the comedian, “Finally, if you were the interviewer, what is that one question you would ask me?”
The comedian pondered for a moment and said, “Well, I would ask ‘since comedians are considered to be unserious people what about those who interview them? Who is more unserious; the comedian or the interviewer?”
The journalist immediately signed out until next time.
