22
I once made a speech over the radio and, when I entered the studio, I was surprised
to see about fifteen people of assorted ages and dresses sitting very grimly over against
the wall. I thought at first that they constituted some choir or team of bell ringers who
were going to follow me on the program, but the announcer told me that they were my
audience and that, whenever he gave the signal, they would burst into laughter and
applause so that my larger audience in radioland would think that they were listening
in on a wow. All that this did was to make me nervous. Furthermore, I could feel that my
professional laughters had taken an immediate and instinctive dislike to me.