One of Monty Python’s more physical comic sketches. Thanks to Justin Bowen for the link.
The only chance you or I will have to see Bill Irwin play the fool in King Lear (see previous post, below) would be a visit to the NY Public Library for the Performing arts, whose Theatre on Film & Tape Archive offers a second chance to see most of the major shows mounted in New York, as well as a few regional offerings. (Not guaranteeing they’ll have it, though.) Meanwhile you can have a lot of LOL fun by diving into the wacky antics of Christopher Moore’s 2009 novel, Fool, a loose and raunchy retelling of King Lear from the fool’s point of view.
In The Art of Laughter, which I reviewed three posts ago, Jos Houben tells you what’s funny, performs something to illustrate his theme, and then we do indeed laugh. All pretty straightforward. But there’s another kind of physical comedy lecture-demo featuring a less trustworthy narrator, where there’s a disconnect between lecture and demo, between our host’s pretentious words and silly actions.

My book Clowns has long been out of print, but you can borrow it for two weeks at a time from the Internet Archive. More information is available here.
Visual and verbal humor for the cognitively and artistically curious! Available here.
“A book to treasure!”
—Bill Irwin