Last week I wrote about the importance of radio personalities’ honoring the verbal reality.
A close relative of “honoring the verbal reality” is “committing to your character or premise.”
Too many jocks “wink” at the audience, breaking character to comment on the performance or the comedy bit.
Some try to justify it by saying they’re “breaking the fourth wall,” which is a misuse of a term from the theatre.
For most, it’s an acknowledgement of their lack of faith either in the strength of the comedy feature or the quality of their performance.
They try to hide that insecurity by saying to the audience, “Hey, we know this is dumb, too. We’re just screwing around here.”
If the radio comedy is worth doing, commit to it. If the premise involves a ludicrous situation, play that situation as real as you can.
Commit to your characters, as well. Even if you’re ad-libbing, speak and react only as your character would, not as you would.
Here are two parts of a brilliant example of actors staying with their characters even when the situation is ridiculous*.
If you’re not a Downton Abbey fan, I doubt you’ll find this 2-part “special” funny, because you’re not familiar with the characters.
If you’re a fan, however, I suspect you might enjoy this…
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Hmm I always thought it was better not to insult your audience by pretending what you were doing was real. I’ll yield to Dan on this one as I really dont know