An incredibly dense 1 minute comedic performance by John C. Rilley

by phil on Thursday Jan 17, 2008 10:37 PM

John C. Rilley, an Oscar-nominated actor from the films Chicago, Magnolia and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story, somehow wound up on a small show on the Cartoon Network. And he's just hilarious.

I haven't done much acting, so I'm not the best judge, but when the acting's really really good, I notice it.

This YouTube clip is perfectly funny. It immediately clicked with me. It has so many little brilliant comedic ticks, working together in harmony, with perfect timing.

Here's my list of all the little personal touches that I'm assuming John C. Rilley's introduced himself.

I love.....
- the way he says, "Hi I'm Dr. Steve Brule" then does an eyebrow crunch, and jumps right to the next line, "with a special report on.."
- the way he says "lonesome" in the phrase "living on your lonesome" with a pitying/comforting sadness
- the way he jumbles and rushes his speech in the phrase "yougonnaliveonyourownlikeIdo"
- the way he emphasizes the "DO" in "there's stuff you can DO" such that his head makes a micro-jerk forward
- the way he looks like he's about to sneeze saying "so awful"
- the way he repeats himself with "number 1 tip number 1"
- the way he just throws in "you turkey" along with a smile
- the way he throws in "you doofus," which is the second time he says something of the form "you X." In other comedians' performances where short repeating motifs are used, they're spaced out, and used three, four, five times. But here it's just one, two, and then done.
- the way he says "there's no lonely times, it's just dreams"; it sound so pleasant and wonderful
- the way he dribbles on "there's nnnananana, there's naaanaaa anything more complicated than that"
- and the way he leans and pauses slowly toward the side of the shot after saying that
- and finally, the way he rattles off the last bit "it's a home made puzzle of yours" with head bob that reminds me of Ze Frank