Saturday, April 21, 2007

CLASSIC GAGS: The Chair Gag



For those out there who are unfamiliar with the Chair Gag (and I can't believe there are many of you) here it is, done pretty well, save for the whistle. I'm not sure of the clown or the show.

I was always afraid to do this one because I was worried one of the volunteers would drop to the floor. Jeff "Gordoon" Gordon was kind enough to teach me the gag in all of about 5 minutes and I've used it (without incident) when needed ever since.

Once, when we needed to cover some time, I stretched this gag to the breaking point and got 12 minutes out of it by using virtually every audience volunteer bit I'd ever seen or thought of. It worked out well but I wouldn't want to do it that way every night.

2 comments:

Mike Naughton said...

The ubiquitous clown gags, the gags du jour that I remember are: the washerwomen, the "tide" gag and now "The Chairs", in that order from the 70's to present.

With one trip to Wal-Mart any gazoonie (any you know who you are) can buy the props and work in a professional as soon as you get back to the lot.

Sam Walton's Stores...right up there with the noteworthy clown prop suppliers: Paul Jung, Kenny Dodd, Jimmy Douglass and George Shellenberger.

24-HOUR-MAN said...

I was quite surprised by the success of audience participation gags in Germany. One thing for sure about German audiences, they are not a bit reluctant about making a fool of them selves,( that is meant as a compliment)!