Y: 痛苦，悲傷？你確定他們上的是喜劇課？

J: I was surprised too. But let's here from Jason as he describes his philosophy of comedy.

實(shí)錄1 Jason: Comedy is actually your pain turned into comedy; that is what it is. It's the things that affect you in your life. Unfortunately the things that most people will laugh at are your pain and your sorrow that actually is actually in their life as well in some sort of fashion, maybe a bad mother, a bad father, bad working conditions, something like that, but they can still identify.

Y: Jason講的倒是挺有道理的。幽默就是把自己的痛苦經(jīng)歷當(dāng)笑話講給別人聽。這樣既可以引起他們的共鳴，又可以讓他們哈哈一笑，忘記了生活中的不愉快。這的確是很深奧的道理。

J: I agree. We all laugh at things we can identify with. As a comic Jason is not afraid of sharing the most painful parts of his life. During our interview as we were driving from his stand-up class Jason talked about how he grew up with a heart condition, his open heart surgery and the connection to comedy.

實(shí)錄2 Jason: Comedy has always been dear to my heart. Um, I grew up with a heart condition. I had open-heart surgery. Um, I found that comedy was the unique thing that would bring people together. And it was always something I could do to make them laugh and help them enjoy their life and actually take their pain and sorrow of their life, identify it with me ... and actually get some sort of ... maybe a closure or some sort of ending to their saga or their story.

Y: 其實(shí)我們每個(gè)人在生活中都有這樣的經(jīng)歷。 你越是在困難的時(shí)候就越想看喜劇片或者聽聽笑話。

J: Oh, I think so too.

Y: 說到這里，我很好奇，Jason的學(xué)生都是些什么人呢？

J: Most of the students in the class were older women. There was only one man. Here's Jason again talking about one of his students.

實(shí)錄3 Jason: One of my students had brain surgery and she wanted to use it as some sort of healing. Bring out her pain into the public and actually to resolve that and turn her pain into someone else's happiness. And, um, it's a way of putting closure on events.

Y: Jason剛才講的這個(gè)學(xué)生做過腦部手術(shù)。她想借助喜劇來恢復(fù)健康。對這個(gè)學(xué)生來說，"putting closure on events" 就意味著要忘掉過去的痛苦，開始新的生活。說起來美國的這種 "stand-up comedy" 是一種很特殊的喜劇表演方式，有點(diǎn)類似中國的單口相聲。

J: Stand-up comedy is one of the hardest types of performing. It literally means that you stand up in front of people and make them laugh.

Y: 我有個(gè)很嚴(yán)肅的問題：要是沒有人笑該怎么辦？

J: You know that's a good question. You feel vulnerable. You feel exposed. You feel embarrassed. You feel naked.

Y: 還是廣播好，我們可以用音響效果來掩飾你的尷尬。

J: That's right!

Y: 對，要是沒人笑，你按一下按鈕用音響效果就可以了。

J: Let me tell my joke again and see if it's any better.

Y: 好阿，效果一定很好。

J: We'll finish with my joke. Thanks for joining us on American Cafe.

Y: 好，我們今天的時(shí)間到了。謝謝您到美語咖啡屋。我們下次節(jié)目再見。

J: So a mushroom walks into a bar ...

(laughter)

J: ... and the bartender says, "Hey get out of here! We don't serve your kind.

(laughter)