Why does physical comedy give you a belly laugh ? Why is it universal ? Part of that is no language barrier but I feel there is more. Buster Keaton arrived fully realized. Chaplin was the biggest star on the planet. They were complete, full. In the end they were both perfect, complete, final, realized.
Why does clowning figure in every culture ? Why are they healers ? Revered ? Why were Jesters beyond reproach ? Dominique Jando said to me once in a workshop that clowns are the only ones who do not wear a mask. I am just starting to get that statement. They are truth !
I remember watching a Keaton biography years ago done by the BBC and they were showing a commercial he had done for a shampoo in the late 1950′s, I am guessing. He was sitting in a bathtub and then he stood up. He was wearing his famous Stetson “flat-hat” and a roaring 20′s striped one piece bathing suit, He was overweight and his body was probably totally broken from a lifetime of falling. No hip replacements then people. I guess you could see him as a fat , old guy. I only saw Beauty. Perfection. A life and body Complete. Full. Realized. How wonderful !!!!!!!