Laughter

Here's a Hollywood secret for you. Laughter.

Do you watch a favorite sitcom and notice the laughing? Yes, those are real people. And they are really laughing. It's not a laugh track or canned laughter. It's real.

I've sat in many studio audiences. Years ago, I got the very popular (and practically impossible to get) tickets to see a taping of Will&Grace. The writers on that show closely monitor the audience. When a funny line is delivered by the actors, the writers watch the audience. Did we laugh? Did we laugh enough? If not, they quickly rewrite the lines, hand them to the actors and they are delivered once again. If we still didn't laugh enough, they rewrite them again and whole process is repeated. Once I watched a scene rewritten and re-acted 6 times! So, needless to say, watching the filming of Will&Grace used to take hours and that's probably why that show won numerous awards.

When Daughter #2 worked on 6 episodes of a funny, but short-lived, sitcom, I sat in the audience laughing. It was lots of fun. Plus, seeing the whole process of a television production is quite amazing. You should try it sometime. Here's a website to get tickets to be in the audience of sitcoms and gameshows: AudiencesUnlimited.

Now here's the Hollywood secret! Did you know there are professional laughers? That's right. They are cast through an agency and placed in the studio audiences to laugh. In order to be cast, you have to have a good, distinctive laugh. Years ago, Daughter #2 got a phone call in the middle of the night. It was an emergency job. They didn't laughers first thing the next morning. The casting agent said, "Let me hear your laugh." So she tried. Have you ever been awakened from the a deep sleep and tried to laugh, on cue? Probably not. It's not easy. Her tired, half-asleep laugh didn't make it. She didn't get the job. Oh well, that's showbiz!

Laughers sit in the audience with the regular folk and laugh and laugh...even when the scene isn't that funny. That's what they're paid to do! Lately I've beening think that I need to pay a laugher to work for me. When things go wrong, wouldn't it be great to have someone laugh for you. On cue!

You see, I don't mention this very much in my blog, but I have Lyme disease. Sat morning it flared up again so I'm working a little slower and trying to take it easy this week. I'm in a support group and have learned a lot from it. I know I don't have it as bad as some. But I'm trying to keep a good attitude about it. I just deal with pain from one joint to another. It feels like someone is holding a hot flame against my joints. I contracted it from a tick bite in New Mexico, July 2007. I'm back on the antibiotics! Well, enough of that!

Anyone know a laugher I could hire?

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Here are some pictures that made me laugh today. These are last years 'Christmas card pictures that never were!"

I told my hubby I wanted to flip my hair around and look sexy for our pictures. What do you think?

We just kept laughing.Finally I behaved myself, and took a decent picture, but we were too busy to get them sent out.This one below was my favorite. It's called "Behind Every Good Man, There's a Good Woman." That's the one we should have printed on our Christmas Cards, don't you think?

So in conclusion...I want to share two darling wall hangings I machine quilted. To me, they are saying, "Hang in there, Vivian!"

"Good cheer is a state of mind or mood that promotes happiness or joy... With God’s help, good cheer permits us to rise above the depressing present or difficult circumstances. It is a process of positive reassurance and reinforcement. It is sunshine when clouds block the light." --Marvin J. Ashton.

A Slow Poke Day...A Slow Poke Quilt

A Slow Poke Day

Sun. morning I was rushing around getting ready for church...as usual. I was in the shower, dropped a bar of soap and went to pick it up, and as I did, my back went out. Ouch! I barely survived church because I was in lots of pain. Then on Mon. morning I went to the doctor.

I had already made the appt. to see my doctor weeks ago for some bad headaches I've been experiencing. Now it was headaches and a backache. I was a mess!

(Side Story: The headaches have been going on for a couple of weeks. I even went to see the dentist about them, thinking they were caused from my teeth. But no. I was even prepared to make another "Root Canal Quilt", which I did for my dentist in trade for a root canal he did a few years ago.) Ok, back to the original story...

My doctor gave me an NSAID for arthritis to take care of what he believes is TMJ. And he gave me a muscle relaxer for the back. (I wonder if all this is from the Lyme Disease I got from a tick bite last year....mmm....I wonder.)

Well that muscle relaxer put me out! Big time! I took it and then decided to go take a little nap. You know, just a cat nap. Well, 3 hours later...

I have no recollection of the rest of the day. Hey, wait a minute! I think I saw something on the SCI-FI channel about people who could not account for a period of time. I think they said they were abducted by aliens! Do you think that's what happened to me? Just kidding. That muscle relaxer was way to potent for me. I'm not taking it anymore and I will just suffer through this. After all, I have tons of quilts to do. I don't think my customers would appreciate a drugged-up quilter working on their fine work.

A Slow Poke Quilt

Here is a quilt I have been working on for weeks...on and off. Luckily I have zipper leaders and can take the quilt on and off to work on other quilts in between. It's finally done and is going to it's owner tomorrow. Why did it take so long? Well, I did some "McTavishing" on it. Or rather, my own version of "McTavishing." I never really got the hang of that technique, so I do my own thing. It's the kind of technique where there's no turning back. Once you start, you have to keep going with it. You can't really change your mind because it would be an absolute bear to rip it out. It's lovely, but very time consuming. But I am happy with the end result. I hope the customer likes it too. Here are some views of the Kokopelli quilt. I call it the 'slow poke' quilt.