By Philip Earl Johnson (aka MooNiE)
If I were to write down all that I have learned from my mother, I’m not sure where to begin. I am certain I would leave out more things than I could list. Since that topic is too vast, I will bring it to a finer point. I will ask this question: What one thing have I learned from my mother that has served me more than any other?
The answer would have to be my understanding of laughter. As a professional comedian and actor for 27 years, never having a different job, laughter is not only my specialty, but my bread and butter. It is like a food, as it literally sustains my family and I. And just like some foods, some laughs are better than others. The most favorite of all the laughs I get are from my mother.
I recently was thinking about her laughter during family gatherings when we sit around the table talking and reminiscing. We will talk throughout dinner, dessert and beyond about what is going on in our lives, catching up and revisiting memories of times past.
The laughter during those visits is likely more treasured than the food that has been so carefully prepared, and no one laughs bigger or harder than my mom.
She cannot help herself and probably wouldn’t if she could. Her laughter is the big prize we are all after, like a teddy bear at a carnival game, and the best way to get that laughter is by teasing her or making her watching standup comedy videos at newstandupcomedy.com. Pretty much anything works; impressions of her most idiosyncratic and deliciously loony behaviors, observational or situational comedy, anything that describes her or lampoons the things she says. We all do it and it is a blast.
When she gets going, she cannot keep her food on her fork or off her shirt. Her face will turn red and the peals of laughter tell us to give her a minute to catch her breath before going for the next round. She tells my daughter she wears “lucky jeans” in hopes that she will not lose control of herself. There is no better laugh to get because it ignites our own like a fuse to a powder keg. I asked my self why, and the answer I came up with is that because it is the sound of my own laughter.
From the very beginning, when I was inside her, growing, adding a leg here and an elbow there, she was laughing and it has never stopped. If laughter releases endorphins in our bodies that make us feel good, then I was hearing my mother’s laughter before I had ears through the chemicals in our bodies. Thank goodness they didn’t have ultrasound back then or they might have been worried about the big dopey grin on my tiny little head! Her laughter helped to create me. I exist, my job exists, my children exist as we do through her laughter and it has been the theme song in the soundtrack of my life.
Since her laughter is such a part of our family’s life, as well as our very make up, it is no surprise that the greatest laugh I ever get is from her. And even when her “lucky jeans” don’t work and we have to take a break so she can change, we know there will be more laughs to come when she comes back to the table. As long as I am here, as long as my siblings and my children are here, her laughter will always be heard in us just as we hear ours in her.
Philip Earl Johnson, MooNiE the Magnif’Cent, has appeared as MooNiE over 6500 times in the last 26 years in theaters, nightclubs, renaissance festivals and private appearances. See more at www.TheMoonieShow.com