"I always wanted attention, and I realized I could make people laugh"
About this Quote
There is something refreshingly unsentimental about admitting you wanted attention before you wanted art. Lusia Strus frames performance as a practical solution to a human itch: the need to be seen. The second clause, though, is where the quote turns from confession to craft. “I realized I could make people laugh” reads like a pivot from craving validation to earning it, switching from passive desire (attention) to an active skill (comedy). That’s the quiet flex: not “I was funny,” but “I figured out how to be effective.”
The subtext is that laughter is a socially acceptable currency for neediness. Want attention outright and you risk being labeled vain; deliver humor and the room rewards you for the same impulse. Strus is pointing at the invisible bargain performers make: I’ll expose my hunger, but I’ll package it as generosity. The laugh becomes both shield and invitation, letting an actress control the temperature of a space and the way an audience looks back.
Context matters because comedy, especially for women in acting, has often been treated as a “type” rather than a range. Saying you “could make people laugh” is a claim to agency inside an industry that frequently hands out roles as permission slips. It also hints at survival. Humor is a way to take the spotlight without asking politely, to convert vulnerability into timing, and to make attention feel like a shared experience instead of a demand.
The subtext is that laughter is a socially acceptable currency for neediness. Want attention outright and you risk being labeled vain; deliver humor and the room rewards you for the same impulse. Strus is pointing at the invisible bargain performers make: I’ll expose my hunger, but I’ll package it as generosity. The laugh becomes both shield and invitation, letting an actress control the temperature of a space and the way an audience looks back.
Context matters because comedy, especially for women in acting, has often been treated as a “type” rather than a range. Saying you “could make people laugh” is a claim to agency inside an industry that frequently hands out roles as permission slips. It also hints at survival. Humor is a way to take the spotlight without asking politely, to convert vulnerability into timing, and to make attention feel like a shared experience instead of a demand.
Quote Details
| Topic | Funny |
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