Chapter 3 laughing man

Whenever someone asked me what I did, I would feel terribly embarrassed, and my notoriously self-confident person would blush and stutter.I envy those people, they can say: I am a bricklayer.I envy barbers, accountants, and writers when they talk about themselves directly, because all of these professions are self-explanatory and need no further explanation.But I have to answer such a question: I am joking.Such a confession calls for clarification, because to the second question, "Do you do it for a living?" I also had to answer truthfully, "Yes." — in business parlance — a hot commodity.I am a good laugher, a skilled one, and no one can laugh like me, no one has mastered the finer points of my art.In order to avoid troublesome explanations, I used to call myself an actor for a long time, but my acting skills and speaking skills are too poor, which makes me feel that this title is not true; I love the truth, but the truth is: I am just kidding.I'm neither a clown nor a burlesque, I don't make people laugh, I laugh like a performer: I laugh like a Roman general or a sensitive high school graduate, I'm as good at seventeenth-century as it is nineteenth-century, and If necessary, I can imitate the laughter of every century, every social class, every age.I learned this, just like someone learns to wear shoes.American smiles, African smiles, Caucasian smiles, red smiles, and yellow smiles are all stored in my heart - as long as I am paid accordingly, I can make all kinds of smiles according to the director's requirements Voice.

I have become an indispensable person. My laughter has been recorded and recorded, and the directors of radio dramas have taken great care of me.I smile wryly, lightly, wildly—laughing like a tram conductor or a food apprentice, laughing in the morning, at dusk, at night, at dawn, in short, wherever and however I need to laugh can do. People will believe that my profession is hard work, not to mention that I - which is my specialty - have also mastered infectious laughter, so third- and fourth-rate comedians can't do without me, and they have reason to be afraid of themselves. The gimmicks didn’t work, and I sat around in those sideshow rings almost every night, acting as a more subtle kind of sidekick to deliver infectious laughs where the show was weak.There is a strict measure in doing this kind of work: I can laugh wildly, not too early, not too late, it must be on fire—once at this time, I will laugh out according to the plan, and the whole audience will laugh too , which saves the show's gimmicks.

But I, exhausted, snuck into the dressing room afterwards, put on my coat, glad I was finally off duty.When I got home, there was usually a telegram waiting for me: "I need you to laugh urgently, recording on Tuesday." So, a few hours later, I was sitting on an overheated direct express train, complaining about my life. I don't feel much like laughing after get off work or on vacation, and everyone knows that. The milkman is happy if he can forget the cows, the bricklayer is happy if he can forget the mortar, the carpenter's house often has doors that cannot be closed or drawers that are difficult to open, the pastry chef loves pickles; the butcher loves them. Marzipan; bakers prefer sausages to bread, matadors love pigeons, boxers shudder at the sight of their children's nosebleeds - I can understand all this because I never smile after get off work.I am a very serious person, and I am considered - perhaps with reason - a pessimist.

In the first few years after marriage, my wife often said to me: "Smile!" But later she understood that I could not meet this request.I am happy when I can relax the tensed facial muscles and relieve my tired mind with a very serious expression.Yes, other people's laughter also upsets me, because it reminds me too much of my profession.In this way, our married life was peaceful and peaceful, because my wife also neglected to laugh.Occasionally I caught her smiling a little, so I smiled too.We talk very quietly because I hate the noise of a sideshow, the noise that can fill a recording studio.People who don't know me think I'm a quiet person.Maybe I do, because I always have to open my mouth to laugh, too many times.

I walked my life path calmly, only allowed myself to smile lightly occasionally, and I often thought, have I ever smiled?I thought: no.My siblings would say that I was raised as a serious kid. In this way, I laughed in various ways without knowing my own laughter. Translated by senior students Xiao Maosao's proofreading from "Ms. and All Beings", Lijiang Publishing House, first edition in 1991