performing arts centre of penang - The Actors Studio

Two months ago, I was driving on thecoastal side of Penang, slow enough for meto read all the store names on a street I wasunfamiliar with, one stood out, a restaurantnamed “No Eye Deer”. Cute, but more thancute. Memorable. Distinctive. And clever. Itstuck with me, obviously, as no other store'sname did. Had “No Eye Deer” been namedH&T Restaurant, would I have taken note?Love 'em or loathe 'em, puns are here tostay and have been around since ancienttimes. But do they deserve the disdain thathas been piled upon them by their hatersdown through the ages? Bad puns areeverywhere, but I think of them as cheap orconvenient, rather than bad. For example, atasteless newspaper headline about a camerashop that had burned down – “Out of Film”.On the other hand, quality puns at least arenot the lowest form of humor, but amongthe highest, involving imagination, creativityand wit. The inspired punster’s mind cyclesthrough homophones or semantical twinsin search of a jibe like the way rapperslust for in rhymes or babies experimentinglanguage with babbles. Therefore, the leastunbearable puns are those that avoid thepun’s essential immaturity.Knowing I was writing this article, with theintention of encouraging punning and topromote a play about puns – CorporalPUNishtment (which I am directing), a friendasked me, "Doesn't punning have to comenaturally? Can you actually teach people topun?" Yes, I said, by reading puns, analyzinggood and bad ones, having people keep onthe lookout for them, and encouraging themto pun themselves. Puns are a wonderfulaspect of language to promote, on onecondition, if you are learning to pun; you muststrive to pun with class.A brief definition, so that our minds aresynchronized in one track: A pun is thedeliberate confusion of similar words,phrases or sounds for humorous — andsometimes serious — effect.Sometimes a pun is on a different senseof the same word, as when in Romeo andJuliet the dying Mercutio (who can't resist apun even in his last moments) says, "Lookfor me tomorrow and you will find me agrave man."Sometimes the play is on the twist of anexpected word, or part of one, such as “doyou know that the economy is so bad thatsome hospitals had to cut coroners?”In those examples we see some of thecrucial elements in pun-making — a richvocabulary, including a familiarity withproverbs, expressions, clichés and otherlanguage elements that can be distortedto make a pun; and a reading backgroundranging from nursery rhymes, fairy talesand mythology to classic novels, plays andpoetry. The more literate one is, the greaterthe opportunity to pun.Puns maybe the lowest form of wit (andtherefore the foundation of all wit, :D) andonly if you didn’t think of it first.Freddy Tan is Production Manager atklpac and also the director of CorporalPUNishment. He challenges you to catchall 117 puns in his play. Please see listingson page 12 for details.Kimmy Kiew is a Director-in-Residence at klpac. She talks about theinspirations behind her upcoming playFlower & Sword, and its relevanceto the current sociopolitical climate inMalaysia. For more info on Flower &Sword, please see listings on page 13.45