There is nothing more joyful to me than hearing a live audience laugh. Especially when I planned it that way!
Sentiment: POSITIVE
I'm really only happy when I'm on stage. I just feed off the energy of the audience. That's what I'm all about - people and laughter.
And the goal really is to make the audience laugh, to bring them some joy.
For anyone who works in front of an audience there is no thrill quite like that of feeling and hearing the evidence of the audience members' enjoyment. Laughter and applause really are powerful.
Once you have heard a strange audience burst into laughter at a film you directed, you realize what the word joy is all about.
On stage, it is a tremendous thing to be able to make people laugh. But one of the things that I have always loved is when I am in shows where you can turn the audience upside down and make them cry or move them. That is when things are the most rewarding.
I love when people laugh. I love when they cry, I like a story to say something, and I hope the audience feels happier leaving the theatre than when it came in.
I learned very early that an audience would relax and look at things differently if they felt they could laugh with you from time to time. There's an energy that comes through the release of tension that is laughter.
I'm happy that I have brought laughter because I have been shown by many the value of it in so many lives, in so many ways.
You can't instruct an audience to laugh, but what you can do is read well and understand the spirit and subtleties, if there are any, in the dialogue.
For me, the great joy is to watch an audience watching what I've made. To hear not a peep from the audience at the right moment, and then to hear the laughs and the cheers.