Why comedy? Why I ask? Or rather they ask. Such a nice girl like you…..
Here is my not so quick answer. It all started when I was around four. I discovered that if you did something funny, most people would laugh. Like on TV. I also soon discovered that the same thing that made some people laugh would not make others laugh and potentially end up with a spanking or a motherly scowl. This didn’t put me off; it just increased the risk factor and potential for countless sentences ‘dans la chambre.’
I was a troubled, emotional anxious child who had a gift for puns. A gift which allowed the need to try and be funny overriding the sensible choice kids are supposed to learn. Being goofy was my thing; it relaxed me and made me feel better for crying in maths or arguing with one of my French Canadian Teachers about how we ‘do things in English’. (The long division sign is upside down in French – very annoying to a sassy eight year old).
As the years went by, two years of year one and a transfer to an English school from a bilingual one in year five, then* eventually* university, I still felt jokes were my ticket…but to where I knew not. I tried very hard to be academic…. but there was one major problem. My inner voice is somewhat sarcastic (oh really? Really sarcastic?! YES, really,) which impeded learning greatly as I used academic material as joke fodder. This meant I didn’t really absorb any lectures but thought up some great puns.
For example, in third year German, I still giggled every time we had to conjugate the verb ‘To Drive’. It is Fahren but the third person singular is ‘er fahrt’. By this time, my tutor knew me well and said ’Courtney, it doesn’t mean the same thing in German! ’He didn’t dare show me the exit because that would mean using the word for exit which is ’Ausfahrt’.
My major was linguistics which fascinates me still to this day. I loved reconstructing old languages to see how sounds have changed and why words are what they are today. This, however, involved somewhat amusing terminology to described said process. For example, in French when you have l’hiver, the ‘ is called ……clitic. The formation of an article merging into a noun is …cliticisation.I mean, how am I supposed to keep a straight face when the ever so shy professor is saying clitics.it could have gone so wrong with one slip of the tongue (sorry). B and P are known phonetically has ‘bilabial stops’ .The historical phonological development of sounds like ‘aye’ was from ‘the great vowel shift’. Um sounds like too much fibre. You get the point. I digress.
I did earn an MA in Linguistics focusing on dialects for coaching. Then I thought about Forensic Linguistics. Studied this for half a year but had an epiphany around the time I was writing my first term paper. It was analysing legal questioning during the Lindy Chamberlain trial, (the dingo trial). They talked about being arrested and the Miranda (reading of ones rights) so of course I conjured up images of Miranda Hart reading people their rights in her trademark voice, then talking to the audience. I was worried I wouldn’t finish my paper and despite the horrific circumstances of the case itself, all could think of was’ The dingo ate my paper’.
At this point, I handed in my work, passed then withdrew from the course to focus on comedy, improv, acting. It was and always has been my calling. Or rather in comedy I think we have a heckling rather than a calling. I tried office work, wrote corporate newsletters for a natural remedy company but got told off for writing’ Homeo, homeo, wherefore art though, homeo?’ for Homeopathy week.
So……. here I am standing up with a mic, doing improv with some great gals. I have an agent and of course being a mummy, I can’t say where the comedy will take me, but I love it and I feel at home and surrounded by peace amongst the laughter.
Courtney Cornfield
