"why don't you just ask for a cup of tea"

[rickgage]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 12:12pm

Can anyone help me remember an old theater story? It goes something like this: During the run of a play one of the younger actors gets a laugh on some line that involves a cup of tea. As the play enters a long run the actor laments to a more experienced actor in the show that he is no longer getting a laugh on the line. (An element of the story is that the performance has "grown".) And so the experienced actor says simply "Why don't you just ask for a cup of tea"? Can anyone tell this story with more detail, or who the actors were, or who tells this story? Thanks!

[SueleenGay]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 12:25pm

I don't remember who the actors were, but the young actor got a laugh on the line, "May I have a cup of tea?" (or whatever it was) on the first night. The second night, no laugh. When she/he asked the experienced actor, after the second performance, why she/he did NOT get a laugh, the older actor replied, "It is very simple, you asked for the laugh and not for the tea."


Or so I have always heard it.

[dramamama611]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 7:31pm

So simple: and so true.

[Dancin Thru Life]

Posted: 4/13/08 at 7:36pm

I LOVE IT!

Great lesson...wheteher it's a true story...or not!

Thanks for sharing!

:)