Authors Debate The Fine Art Of Funny Business

The Age

Saturday September 2, 2006

By JASON STEGER

IT WAS British writer Angela Carter who said comedy was tragedy that happened to other people. And Mel Brooks said if he cut his finger it was tragedy but if you fell down an open sewer and died it was worth a laugh.

Yesterday a chuckle of comic writers did their best to sort out the difference between the humorous and the tragic; to decide at what point the ghastly could be giggled at.

There was a "geeky Jew", Danny Katz; author Kathy Lette; the man who made bum a buzzword in children's books, Andy Griffiths and Canadian humourist and author Stuart McLean. It was a tragedy they didn't give definitive answers but it was fun.

Katz admitted to digging into dark places to find humour: "I'd like to think it was something profound, something political. But it's usually something my wife's done." He said he'd even written a column for The Age about a medical condition she suffered.

Lette suggested Mrs Katz should read her latest book - How to Kill your Husband; she claimed to write because it was cheaper than therapy. Biologists say it's good to laugh; anthropologists say women laugh more than men, she said. "Men say women can't tell jokes; we say we married them."

Griffiths said the difference between comedy and tragedy was a question of knowledge.

But was anything off limits? Katz said he had written a column that dealt with 9/11 two days after the event.

And McLean reckoned nothing was off limits for a nightclub but plenty was ruled out for family consumption.

So is the image of the crying clown a myth? Three of the four claimed to be cheery at all times. Only Katz stood up for the miserable mirth-makers. "I am the crying clown," he protested.

-- www.mwf.com.au

TODAY AT THE FESTIVAL

10am Geoffrey Robertson and Martin Krygier.

11.45am David Marr, Angela Bennie and Imre Salusinszky.

Noon Valerio Massimo Manfredi.

1.30pm Gail Jones, Alexis Wright, Kathryn Heyman and Arthur Japin.

1.45pm Alan Gould.

3.15pm Tony Coady.

3.30pm Alex Miller, Kate Legge and Venero Armanno.

5.15pm Catherine Camden Pratt, Doris Brett and Tara June Winch.

6pm James Griffin and Lisa Miller.

6.30pm Helen Caldicott, Andrew Wilkie and David Marr.

6.45pm Stuart Macintyre, Marilyn Lake and James Walter.

9.45pm Michael Leunig and singer Gyan.

© 2006 The Age

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