<p>For acting auditions, is it important for a comedic monologue to be laugh-out-loud funny? Should I try to be as funny as possible? I feel that if I have this goal in mind I won’t really be playing the character.</p>
<p>Not necessary at all.</p>
<p>Well, that sums it up! Thank you!</p>
<p>Play the character.</p>
<p>If the situation is funny, and the lines are funny, then the audience will laugh just from you playing the character.</p>
<p>If the situation and/or lines are not funny, then it may not actually be a comedy monologue (remember that just because a speech comes from a comedy play, it doesn’t automatically mean that the speech itself is comedic, you can have dramatic monologues in comedies and comedic monologues in dramas)</p>
<p>As a director, I have seen at auditions way too many actors who think they have to “be funny” to deliver a comedy monologue, and they too often overdo it and neglect playing the character.</p>
<p>Sometimes the humor in fact comes from the fact that the CHARACTER isn’t actually aware of the humor, but the audience is.</p>
<p>Also do not be at all surprised if your auditors do not laugh during your comedic monologue. Most likely they will be thinking about too many things to be susceptible to the humor, and also they are likely to have heard it before anyway. The only auditor who laughed when my D auditioned was an extra prof someone invited in who wasn’t really focused on analyzing her performance. She was glad she at least made a “normal” person laugh!</p>