More Merrill Markoe

I remember what you wrote about your mother. She was pretty critical when you showed her your first scripts. What was it she said? “It’s not my taste, but maybe someone will like it”?

“I don’t happen to care for it, but I pray I’m wrong.” That’s one of the most reliable pieces of comedy. When she said it to me, it was searingly painful. What I later learned on the stage was that it was an instant laugh-getter. It kind of reorganized my entire childhood. Strangers agreed it was the wrong thing to say to a hopeful artist.

That’s what I love about comedy, the way you navigate yourself through a horrible situation. You paint an exit tunnel and walk out of it. You reconceive the facts you find unpleasant and untenable in a way that is tenable and makes you laugh. I think it is the greatest invention of mankind.

-Merrill Markoe

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