Today's Sermon--Jack Benny

I'd like to discuss another of my heroes for this Sunday's sermon--Jack Benny. Although our lives barely overlap, Jack has been an enormous influence on me. In fact, his portrait was the first I bought for the "Hall of Fame" that I'm still putting together for my office. The title of today's sermon: "On Making Everyone Else Funny--Jack Benny."

I discovered Jack Benny when I was still in grade school. I have always loved old radio programs. I owned (and still own) recordings of radio shows like "The Shadow," "The Green Hornet," "Jack Armstrong--All-American Boy," "Quiet, Please," "Buck Rogers in the 25th Century," "Dimension X," "X Minus 1," and many others. I would ride my bike to the Oak Lawn library, which had a better selection than my own, and check out tapes of old shows. It was in this way that I discovered Jack Benny.

It can be very hard for comedy to preserve its laughs over the years. Comedy is usually very topical, very dependant on references and events. Benny's show still made me laugh (still makes me laugh) forty to sixty years later.

Jack had a gift for the slow burn, for the reaction"shot", and an impeccable timing that made him a consummate performer. What really puts him on my Wall of Fame is his willingness to share the spotlight, to make others around him funny. Benny often plays the straight man to his cast of characters, or makes himself the but of the joke. His skinflint, fussy, cowardly, miserly, petty persona--so lovingly cultivated on the show--was completely the opposite from the real Jack. Benny understood that the real key to comedy, particularly in an ensemble, is giving gifts to others, setting up the people around you. I learned first hand how important this was when I was training in improv, and it is the first and most important lesson that I try to impart to my students today.

Moral: The great performer, like the great person, is a generous performer.

Further deponent sayeth not. Go forth and sin no more.