Buster Keaton was a comedic genius of his time. He performed in a way nobody had ever seen before. You could very well say he was the creator of slapstick comedy. Maybe even the creator of the modern day stand-up comedian. The distance between him and his audience was unknown at the time. Keaton always had a plot of action in mind, he definitely put on a show. He redefined the field in a very eccentric manner. Adding a hint of a romantic aspect with glimpse of the ideas of the future, seeing as this time was very much about hope of the future, people were always very excited to grab a seat at his shows.
Although Keaton's shows weren't based around his characters, they always had their spots in his shows. His characters displayed a lot of what I just mentioned, a mix of romantic heroism and a new outlook of the industrial age. As you may think, the two themes contradicted each other quite a lot. A lot of Keaton's shows were very strongly based on slapstick comedy. Falling on a loose floor board, tripping over once hidden piece of furniture. You could say that if not for Buster Keaton bringing this sort of comedy to the public in his time we would not have had movies like, Home Alone, Home Alone 2, (and 3, 4, and 5. Yes there was 5.), Dumb and dumber, etc etc. Some of those movies are a few of my favorite, while others are not. But nonetheless I think that Buster Keaton played a very important role in the evolution of comedy.
Sarah Amend
Photo found on: http://acertaincinema.com/media-tags/buster-keaton/page/2/
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