The thing you least want to talk about is the thing they most want to hear

On The Actor’s Vow by Elia Kazan: "I have no reason to be timid.I will respond as I feel; awkwardly, vulgarly, but respond..."

The Actor’s Vow by Elia Kazan offers a pretty good framework for comedians too:

I will take my rightful place on stage
and I will be myself.
I am not a cosmic orphan.
I have no reason to be timid.
I will respond as I feel;
awkwardly, vulgarly,
but respond.

I will have my throat open,
I will have my heart open,
I will be vulnerable.
I may have anything or everything
the world has to offer, but the thing
I need most and want most,
is to be myself.

I will admit rejection, admit pain,
admit frustration, admit even pettiness,
admit shame, admit outrage,
admit anything and everything
that happens to me.

The best and most human parts of
me are those I have inhabited
and hidden from the world.
I will work on it.
I will raise my voice.
I will be heard.

“The most human parts of you are those you have hidden from the world.” Good stuff. Reminds me of a Howard Stern line (paraphrasing) about how the thing you least want to talk about is the thing they most want to hear.

That vow was said aloud by Meisner students and is discussed in the new doc about Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward directed by Ethan Hawke. Hawke describes Kazan like this: “He was Paul Thomas Anderson, [Steven] Spielberg, and Quentin [Tarantino] rolled into one.”