as human beings. Our humor nature is the deepest, highest and
widest part of us, encompassing everything we esteem about the
human character—resilience, perspective, creativity, passion,
tenacity, integrity, optimism, hope, and much more.
So integral to us is our humor nature that I believe we could
as easily be called humor beings as human beings. For a humor
being, fun is the fullest expression of humor nature. That is why I say
fun is fundamental to excellence in all our endeavors. Without it
we are settling for less than our best.
This brings us to a critical distinction. Notice I said fun is
fundamental to excellence. I did not claim funny as fundamental.
Nor did I mention laughter in this respect. That is because fun is a
very different concept from both funny and laughter. Although they
may at times overlap, having fun is quite a different experience
from being funny.
I had been perform ing for almost a week with Jim, a seasoned
veteran of the comedy club circuit. One night during dinner Jim
asked, “Cliff, do you m ind if I ask you a personal question?”
“Of course not,” I responded. “What’s on your mind?”
“I was just wondering,” he said. “Have you ever tried telling
the truth up on stage?”
“I don’t understand,” I countered.
“I notice you tell an awful lot of lies in your act,” he
continued. “You say things about yourself that I can see aren’t true,
now that I’ve gotten to know you.”
“But Jim, they’re jokes,” I replied. “You know, set ups for
punch lines. The idea is to make them laugh. Right?”
“I guess I assumed you would have by now noticed the
difference between making them laugh and sharing a laugh with
them,” he answered.
It was an interesting distinction. I wanted to hear more.
He lit a cigarette and continued.
“To me, performing comedy is a lot like a sexual relationship.
7
