BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — Actors Brooke Adams and Tony Shalhoub took the stage at Chautauqua Institution Friday to help cap off a week of comedy curated by Lewis Black and co-hosted by the National Comedy Center.
The session was moderated by Kelly Carlin and followed talks on late night comedy, animation, satire, and stand-up from the likes of the Daily Show staff, the team from Pixar’s “Inside Out,” and Lewis Black himself. The session was a discussion on scripted comedy to showcase the art for stage performances and on screen.
The conversation ranged from the pair’s origin stories, both as a couple and as actors, to balancing humor with seriousness in characters, to the complexities of delivering comedy as a screen actor as opposed to onstage, to whether comedy belongs in politics, and more.
Origins
Adams and Shalhoub met while working on a performance of “The Heidi Chronicles,” though at the time Shalhoub was dating someone else. Adams regaling that detail led to a humorous moment in which Shalhoub slowly got up from his chair and pretended to walk away. She continued, noting that the pair got together a year later, and have now been married for 33 years…