Читать книгу They Let Me Write a Book!: Jamie’s World - Jamie Curry - Страница 9
ОглавлениеFinally, a Comedy Star is Born (Jokes)
‘MY STAGE DEBUT WAS AS A CREEPY LITTLE CAN-CAN GIRL, DESPITE HAVING NEVER DANCED IN MY LIFE.’
I HAD ZERO DESIRE TO PERFORM OR ACT when I was younger. I was far too busy excavating my huge hole. At intermediate we were forced to do performing arts — they really tried to push it out of you back then. I absolutely hated the idea of it, but the second I got on stage I realised that it was actually really fun. That was my first big realisation that I could be a performer. Before that, I had only been in the big primary school performances where literally everyone is on stage. My stage debut was as a creepy little can-can girl, despite having never danced in my life. I hated it; it was very weird to be a five-year-old saloon-style can-can girl, coated in so much heavy make-up.
I never wanted to be a performer. I wanted to be a garbage man. I remember seeing the garbage men holding on to the truck with one arm and jumping off, and I thought that was so cool. Amongst all the kids that wanted to be astronauts and presidents, I went home from school and told my mum that I was going to be a garbage man. They were always fit and happy. I liked that. Still dreaming big to this day, I guess.
‘I WENT HOME FROM SCHOOL AND TOLD MY MUM THAT I WAS GOING TO BE A GARBAGE MAN.’
I remember when I first made a big group of people laugh at me. On purpose, I mean, not because I was wearing a rotten cowboy hat and sitting in a muddy hole. On feast days at church we would celebrate our saints, and each class would put on a performance for the school. The theme was TV shows, so I decided to be a hilarious presenter on New Zealand’s Got Talent. It went really well, I absolutely slayed. That’s when things sort of clicked for me, and people started telling me that I was funny.
During this time, I also started learning little magic tricks with coins. I think those tricks helped me to learn how to perform, and gain a bit of confidence in front of a crowd. I would always whip them out at random times. People would get all excited about it and crowd around me. Universal truth: everyone loves magic. It’s a great way to get attention; just yell ‘Does anyone have a coin?’ If you can’t follow it up with anything, just run away. Free money.* (*This was a joke. Please don’t steal from anyone, or at least don’t blame it on me!)
‘I REMEMBER WHEN I FIRST MADE A BIG GROUP OF PEOPLE LAUGH AT ME. ON PURPOSE, I MEAN, NOT BECAUSE I WAS WEARING A ROTTEN COWBOY HAT.’
DAD’S TAKE
Jamie’s bewildering magic
‘On the badminton trips, Jamie would keep everyone entertained with magic and card tricks. She would do these simple tricks that would amaze me to this day — I still have no idea how she did them.’
The next year that we did our school production, I got my own bit in the play where I dressed in my nerd character costume. The same nerd that would later be in the ‘White and Nerdy’ video for all you old-school Jamie-philes out there. That nerd character, funnily enough, came from another production where the theme was YouTube. My chosen YouTube clip was Kathy Beth Terry in Last Friday Night. When I saw the behind-the-scenes video for that, I couldn’t believe how funny Katy Perry was. I wanted to be exactly like her.
The character was so dumb to me, but everyone thought it was hilarious. I saw them all in fits of laughter, and that’s where people started to know me as ‘Jamie the Funny Chick’. I found it easier to make more friends after I found the sense of humour that I liked. Everyone started to cotton on that I was weird as hell, but they liked me for it this time. I’m sure I’ve seen something on Instagram or Pinterest about how you have to like yourself before other people can like you, but I actually reckon it’s true here.
‘I FOUND IT EASIER TO MAKE MORE FRIENDS AFTER I FOUND THE SENSE OF HUMOUR THAT I LIKED. EVERYONE STARTED TO COTTON ON THAT I WAS WEIRD AS HELL, BUT THEY LIKED ME FOR IT THIS TIME.’
What do I think is funny?
On YouTube I started out doing a nerdy character, but I’ve now spiralled into over-sharing my thoughts, rambling and doing weird stuff in normal situations that makes me laugh. I tried hard to think about what makes me laugh the most, to try to figure out how I got this way. These are the things I came up with:
• I still find physical humour very funny, I just try not to do it as much because pain. But watching Miranda Hart in Miranda fall over again and again is my favourite thing ever.
• At the same time I like intelligent humour. I like a joke that gives you something to think about that is more clever than slapstick. I’m really trying to sound smart here but don’t actually have any examples.
• I actually hate Dad jokes. I hate all stupid jokes, which is funny because that’s what my whole persona is built upon. I’m more complicated than you think. I confuse myself daily.
• I like character comedy; I’ve recently become a huge fan of Kimmy Schmidt in Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. That’s such a good show. I love seeing the characters on Saturday Night Live as well. They are funny, but it’s even funnier when they break character. I love watching people trying not to laugh at their own jokes, it’s my favourite thing. I’m a huge fan of doing it myself.
• I don’t love puns — get away from me with your puns on my last name. Puns don’t curry favour with me in the slightest. I’ll have naan of that. See? Isn’t it awful? You laughed, didn’t you?
• I don’t like stand-up comedy very much, especially when it’s mostly just insulting other people and groups. I don’t like nasty stuff like that, I don’t think anyone should suffer for the purposes of your comedy. My rule is to only ever make fun of myself.
