A COMEDIAN’S LIFE.

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16625, 22 October 1925, Page 7

A COMEDIAN’S LIFE.

TALK WITH GEORGE GEE. “LAUGHTER IS WORTH WHILE.” Mr. George Gee has become so well known as the “.funny man” of “Kid Boots” that it is needless to occupy space with the formality of an intro duciou. “Is a comedian’s life as tragic as the story books would have us believe?” he was asked. Mr. Gee pondered over his postprandial cigar. Wrinkles came between the discs of those familiar hornrimmed glasses, and then he made this reply:— “Well, I guess it is • sometimes. When one isn’t feeling up to the mark it is an effort to go before an audience and work like the dickens to make them laugh. One of the ‘Kid Boots’ company died suddenly in Sydney. One night lie was sitting talking •in my dressing-room and the next night—• well, he wasn’t. It was tragic sort of comedy that night for all of us.” “But after all there is something of the ‘sunshine-sprinkling’ idea about a comedian’s work. It is pleasant to feel that one is making a few people happy and merry for a few hours. Laughter, you know, is worth while.” “Then,” Mr. Gee was asked, “you are a disciple of Mr. Belloc’s philosophy?”:— “There’s nothing worth the wear .ot winning, “Save laughter and the love of friends.”

That led to Mr. Gee’s confession of his secret longing for domesticity. “We stage folk are only human,” he said. “We tire of always living in somebody else’s house. We work every night on draughty stages, we are always missing from the happy fireside group.” Well, what will you do when you retire?—That’s looking into the future rather.

Still, grey hairs will come? —“And so will a bottle of dye.” His eyes were not twinkling when he said, “Seriously, though, when I retire I want a little freehold property about 20 miles from London. Some little red-gabled house at the end ot an autumn lane, overrun with flowers and chickens and things like that. And children, I must have six or seven of them. This has all got to be out in the country, at least three mile's from the nearest railway station.” “And there you will meditate on the problem of whether life is a larce or a tragedy?” “No, that will not worry me, for it all depends on who you have for a life-partner. Mine knows how to avoid the corners of tragedy, and so everything is merry as a musical comedy.” Talk of musical comedy led to “Kid Boots,”’ and what might happen if the man who has to win the golf match did not hole out before his oppo-

nent. It will be remembered that the winner has to make a fairly long putt: Mr. Gee explained that in spite of some mechanical precautions, the long putt occasionally did not come off, and so the loser had to lose yet another stake to put him behind again. "One night in Sydney,” he continued, “the worst happened and the loser's ball actually rolled into the hole before the winners’. This made the match a draw, but the rest of the show could not be altered at such short notice, and acordingly we just carried on and hoped the public had not noticed.”

How many times do you repeat a joke before it makes you weep? Mr. Gee said he was so wrapped up in his part that he rarely found it tiresome. The humour of “Sally,” however, began to pall after he played a part in that production for 18 months. Still “The Lilac Domino,” “Firefly,” “Kid Boots,” and “Good Morning, Dearie,” were such good shows that he enjoyed “punching’’ the comedy. Mr. Gee has had a keen liking for Dunedin ever since he wriggled liis clever feet and dclared, “I hate you,. I hate you” in “The Lilac Domino.” He was back in “Sally,” and after a successful “Kid Boots’ season he will appear in “Good Morning, Dearie.” Mr. Gee confesses to two vices and a sport—golf, bridge, and swimming. He is very very fond of Balmacewen, and has spent the best part of tin's week on the links.