Is Being Genuine Really Good in Comedy?

2min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

I think it's hard to not be earnest when you're talking about like love and loss. Some comedians find anything that happens on stage where while you're supposed to be doing quote unquote comedy, that is not like outright LOL, 100% of the time to be like pandering almost to be like cheap. But I think actually like candor and sincerity and earnestness can make comedy so much richer when you'retalking about anything, something that matters to you. If you can impress upon the audience how important it is and then hit them with the joke, it lands 10 times heavier in my own experience.

There’s one thing that connects all living beings – an experience so profound yet so common. Today’s guest, Michael Cruz Kayne says it best: “It's gonna happen to you, to the people you love – even to the people you hate. Whether we like it or not, we are going to die. For sure.” Yet despite its inevitability, it can be so hard for us to speak about death and loss. So how can we begin to open up about grief, and show up for others who are experiencing it? Michael is a writer, comedian, and the host of the podcast “A Good Cry”. Michael’s son Fisher died when he was just days old. In this episode, Michael talks about his experience and how talking about his emotions helped him heal, and shares times when humor was -- and wasn’t -- able to capture the ineffable seemingly-endless experience of loss. For the full text transcript, visit go.ted.com/BHTranscripts