“How about a Bloody Mary? No! No!”

On paper, this line cannot convey the absolute show-stopping laughter it elicited in the Old Vic’s revival of How the Other Half Loves. It’s a genius moment of thorny invention from the intricate pen of Alan Ayckbourn (Britain’s Neil Simon…or is Simon America’s Ayckbourn?), but Roger Allam’s delivery turned it into one of the hardest and longest I’ve ever laughed in a theater. 

Characters who put their foot in their mouths are a dime a dozen, but usually with a performative air that reads as inauthentic to this foot-in-mouth-diseased writer. As much as I can come across as an intentionally abrasive shit-stirrer, often my gob moves faster than my brain, with words flying out that I immediately regret. 

How can an actor convey this unintended regret, despite their conscious intent to speak the scripted dialogue?

Allam might come closer than any thespian I can remember. Add in his little one-legged hop-step and double face-slap on the, “No! No!”, and all together it’s comic acting at its finest. 

And yes, you’re supposed to feel uneasy that it’s a joke about domestic violence. The thin line between tragedy and comedy becomes even thinner on the extreme farcical end of the humor spectrum.

Hello, horseshoe theory.