W.C. FIELDS

by Imogen Smith, Brooklyn Indie Movie Examiner

Mark Twain declared, “The secret source of humor is not joy but sorrow. There is no humor in heaven.” No one illustrated this better than W.C. Fields, who drew from the bottomless wells of humor to be found in aggravation, pessimism and acrimony. Fields recognized that his own success as a performer depended on the less generous aspects of human nature. He remarked: “I like, in an audience, the fellow who roars continuously at the troubles of the character I am portraying on the stage. But he probably has a mean streak in him, and if I needed ten dollars, he’d be the last person I’d call upon. I’d go first to the old lady and old gentleman back in row S who keep wondering what there is to laugh at.” Read more at examiner.com...