Let’s Make Each Other Laugh

I was on the Long Island Railroad headed home after seeing revival of “The Piano Lesson” on Broadway, when I heard the eight or nine year old girl sitting across the aisle say to her younger sister… “let’s try to make each other laugh. You go first.”

They decided to make a song out of the upcoming stops (“Woooooodside. Foooooorrrrrrrrest Hills! Loooooocust Manor. Locust Manor!”), replete with their version of beatboxing and on it went, every new town throwing them into fits of giggles.

A simple declaration and easy execution. Let’s try to make each other laugh. And they did. How much better could life be if we tried to make each other laugh?

Pre-pandemic, the vanpool would pass an elementary school on the way home with knock-knock/“Dad” jokes on the exterior marquee. What a potentially fun job responsibility! Finding a weekly joke to bring a little joy to thousands of passersby. We need more of that in the world — I heard Trevor Noah might be looking for something to do, maybe he could be a Global Happiness Ambassador.

Let’s try to make each other laugh. I’ll go first.

*Click here for more jokes at Readers Digest.*

About “The Piano Lesson”. It’s at the Barrymore Theater for a 17-week engagement. Sam Jackson. John David Washington. Danielle Brooks. Ray Fisher. Trai Byers. All-star cast. Highly recommend.

I love August Wilson and was sitting in the second row orchestra in an aisle seat.

Combination warm theater + exhausting week + the drink I had with lunch before I walked to the theater, and I was sleepy as soon as I sat down. Imagine a toddler fighting sleep, and they do that thing where their head nods down and then snaps up again… that was me, several times in the first act. I swear Sam Jackson was looking at me with disdain. Great, Nick Fury thinks I don’t know how to adult.