Taking Off Jack
Posted: Mon Apr 20, 2015 4:31 pm
We met backstage and he asked me how
I’d enjoyed the show. Sitting down, I quipped,
suited me best. He deadpanned and I told him that
I was quite impressed, each sketch was a kernel
containing the next like a Russian doll and he’d pulled
them off so masterfully, with that expression
of weary indifference I’d no need to study further.
And yet, after all, it was hollow, the laughter.
He did the lip curled up one side of his mouth
and imperceptibly raised an eyebrow;
did that shrug he does using only his hands,
that look of affronted innocence
and with the boyish voice of one who possessed
more pause than effect, he protested that
this was just one bad night, he’d got funnier stuff, I’d see.
What I saw was a suit that would perfectly fit
and a cue card drawn on the palm of his fist,
which would have to be taken off with the rest.
I’d studied too hard to have second thoughts now
and a comic retired with a gag in his mouth.
I’d enjoyed the show. Sitting down, I quipped,
suited me best. He deadpanned and I told him that
I was quite impressed, each sketch was a kernel
containing the next like a Russian doll and he’d pulled
them off so masterfully, with that expression
of weary indifference I’d no need to study further.
And yet, after all, it was hollow, the laughter.
He did the lip curled up one side of his mouth
and imperceptibly raised an eyebrow;
did that shrug he does using only his hands,
that look of affronted innocence
and with the boyish voice of one who possessed
more pause than effect, he protested that
this was just one bad night, he’d got funnier stuff, I’d see.
What I saw was a suit that would perfectly fit
and a cue card drawn on the palm of his fist,
which would have to be taken off with the rest.
I’d studied too hard to have second thoughts now
and a comic retired with a gag in his mouth.