"I have sometimes imagined my own death and brought myself to tears"
About this Quote
It is hard to overstate how taboo self-pity is for a professional clown. Martin Short admitting he has "sometimes imagined my own death and brought myself to tears" lands with a jolt because it drags the private machinery of comedy into the light: the person paid to keep the room buoyant confessing to practicing the emotional opposite.
As an actor and comic, Short’s line reads less like morbidity than rehearsal. Performers don’t just access feelings; they build reliable on-ramps to them. Imagining your death is the nuclear option, the quickest route to a genuine physiological response when the job demands realness on cue. The tears aren’t proof of despair so much as proof the technique works. That’s the subtext: even the most exuberant public persona may be constructed atop disciplined, sometimes grim, inner labor.
The phrasing "sometimes imagined" softens the confession, suggesting a recurring but controlled ritual, not a crisis. And "brought myself to tears" is tellingly active. He’s not overtaken; he’s driving. That little verb choice frames vulnerability as craft, not collapse, which is a very Short way to keep dignity intact while still letting you glimpse the ache.
Culturally, the quote pushes against the lazy myth that funny people are either carefree or secretly broken. It offers a third option: funny people are workers. They cultivate emotional range the way athletes train muscle, and that training can include staring down the most final image available, just to remember what a real stake feels like.
As an actor and comic, Short’s line reads less like morbidity than rehearsal. Performers don’t just access feelings; they build reliable on-ramps to them. Imagining your death is the nuclear option, the quickest route to a genuine physiological response when the job demands realness on cue. The tears aren’t proof of despair so much as proof the technique works. That’s the subtext: even the most exuberant public persona may be constructed atop disciplined, sometimes grim, inner labor.
The phrasing "sometimes imagined" softens the confession, suggesting a recurring but controlled ritual, not a crisis. And "brought myself to tears" is tellingly active. He’s not overtaken; he’s driving. That little verb choice frames vulnerability as craft, not collapse, which is a very Short way to keep dignity intact while still letting you glimpse the ache.
Culturally, the quote pushes against the lazy myth that funny people are either carefree or secretly broken. It offers a third option: funny people are workers. They cultivate emotional range the way athletes train muscle, and that training can include staring down the most final image available, just to remember what a real stake feels like.
Quote Details
| Topic | Mortality |
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