My Bride - My comedy partner.

Everybody loves to laugh, but sometimes material can get stale. Nowhere is this more evident, than in a marriage.

A comedian is not unlike a traveling minstrel of the past. He/she develops an act and brings it from town to town - club to club - and entertains the area people with his/her set of jokes, observations, bits, etc. With the advent of radio, comedians who had earned reputations and/or a following were able to get in front of larger audiences with their material, and would get their own radio programs, or appear on variety shows that replaced the vaudevillian experiences they were having on the road. This became even more of a phenomenon through television - George and Gracie Burns, Danny Thomas, Red Skelton through modern Bill Cosby, Roseanne Barr/Arnold, Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Romano. . .etc. These comedians had to become situationally funny - thus the advent of the situational comedy (sit-com).

I remember watching the standup of Roseanne back in the 80's the first couple times we heard about her "uterus being a divining rod" was funny. However, she would do the same bit on Johnny Carson, Arsenio Hall, David Letterman, etc. Same material supposedly different sets of audiences. Then she got her own special and used the same material again. We could probably say the same thing about Seinfeld and his emote control bit or Cosby and his going to the dentist bit.

I have always been one who loves a good joke, and revels in being able to make people laugh. Far from ever having the ability of a standup comic, I am usually one who makes people laugh situationally. One of the funnier relationships I have is that with my wife. She is probably one of the funnier people I know; however, unlike me, her humor and delivery are much more subtle than mine. I am quite overt and high energy, while she is drier and more funny behind the scenes.

After 19 years of being with my wife, she unfortunately has heard all of my bits. Once in a while I will come up with something new, but very quickly, after a couple social events, that new material becomes more stale than Roseanne's uterus. I try to tell her, it is old material to you, but new to the current set of listeners. Eye roll. . . head shake. . . and right there she will say something clever. Now that I think of it, maybe I am not the funny one, but I am my wife's straight man. My stale jokes (I will continue to submit. . . to her) are still not as funny as the banter between us that will follow the laughter of my new victims. . . I mean. . . audience. . . =)

So as long as I can find new audiences I don't need new material. Additionally, I don't know that she realizes that she is an INTEGRAL part of my "comedy show."

I wonder if Lucy and Ricky or George and Gracie Burns went through this too.