Over my Christmas holiday I was watching a lot of children's programming, as someone does when in the company of a 3-year old. One of the shows that came on between viewings of "Nightmare Before Christmas" and episodes of "Word World" was an animated Garfield movie entitled "Garfield's Fun Fest".
Although at first I wasn't interested, this computer-generated Garfield movie quickly caught my attention when they introduced a magic lake where creatures go to learn to be funny. By dousing themselves in this mystical water their sense of humor heightened to an exemplary degree and they could laugh and joke and entertain anyone.
Of course, being that I am trying to learn the art of stand-up comedy, I quickly started paying attention. Although I'm pretty sure no such lake exists for humans, maybe there would be some small nugget of information that I could take from Garfield's quest and apply to my own journey to comic greatness.
I was surprised to find that hidden in the movie was every basic instruction I learned in comedy school. From knowing your audience, to stretching your imagination, to making fun of yourself, to having confidence. It was all there. I didn't need to go to comedy school at all. Where was this movie months ago?
And so, for your entertainment, here is the greatest comedic tutorial I know of - so far. And years from now, when I win the Grammy for "Funniest Person in the Universe" and thank Garfield, you'll know why.
