That Old Joke

When you’ve been around for a while, like us, there are certain things you take for granted, things you start to assume everyone must know.

Ben loves to tell about the day he was hired as Dosty the clown to work the streets of The Rocks with a 2nd clown. They had worked together before and everything was going very well. As a small crowd gathered around them Ben tried adding in some banter between the clowns, the crowd loved it. Then Ben looked over at his partner and said “Hey, my dog has no nose”. The clown looked at Ben, concern written over his face, and asked “What happened?” The crowd all gave a chuckle.

“Nothing” Ben replied, “he just has no nose”. “The poor thing” was the reply, again to a chuckle from the crowd. Ben feeling slightly flustered then tried “My wife went to the West Indies” “Wow that must have been fun for her” came the reply. Everyone was laughing this time except the other clown who couldn’t work out what he was missing.

During their break, Ben asked him why he didn’t finish the jokes. “what jokes?” Those jokes come from a particular time and the clown was young enough to have not heard them yet, but he did enjoy them when he heard them whole.

It can happen all the time, I remember catching an interview with a well-known young actress about 15 years ago. On attending the premier of Romeo and Juliet, she was horrified when the 2 lovers kill themselves at the end, “It was meant to be a romance” she told the press.

Of course, sometimes this works in your favour as well. You don’t have to produce new material if you have a new audience. Although you do have to include yourself in that audience and swap things up if you’re the person getting bored.

So to all of you out there remember you may know yourself and think that old hat, but others find you interesting and want to know more. Lastly, so you may feel complete; my dog smells terrible and she went on her own……..