It is by willingly granting this necessary license that the audience is permitted to enjoy many single musical numbers and delightful ensembles within the time-limits vaudeville can afford for anyone act.  So we see why it is—­to return to the bald expository statement with which this division begins—­that the writer must consider his story and his comedy scenes only as time-fillers to make the waits between musical numbers pleasantly interesting and laughter-worthwhile.

5.  The Comedy Element

Plainly recognizing the quickness with which one character must be brought on the stage and taken off again, and thoroughly appreciating that whatever is done between the musical numbers must be speedily dismissed, let us now see what forms of comedy are possible.

Obviously the comedy cannot depend upon delicate shades.  It must be the sort of comedy that is physical rather than mental.  Slap-stick comedy would seem to be the surest to succeed.

But while this is true, there is no need to depend entirely on the slap-stick brand of humor.  For instance, while we find in “A Persian Garden” one whole comedy scene built on the killing of mosquitoes on Phil’s face—­certainly the slap-stick brand, even though a hand delivers the slap—­we also have the comedy of character in Mrs. Schuyler’s speeches.

Comedy rising directly out of and dependent upon plot, however, is not the sort of comedy that usually gives the best results, because plot is nearly always subservient to the musical and picture making elements.  But the comedy element of plot may be made to run throughout and can be used with good effect, if it is the kind that is easily dismissed and brought back.  This is why so many musical comedies have made use of plots hinged on mistaken identity, Kings and Princesses in masquerade, and wives and husbands anxiously avoiding each other and forever meeting unexpectedly.

Still, plot-comedy may be depended upon for at least one big scene, if the idea is big enough.  For instance, the internationally successful “The Naked Truth” possessed a plot that was big enough to carry the musical comedy on plot-interest alone, if that were necessary.  Indeed, it might have been used as a good farce without music.  The whole act hung on a magic statue in whose presence nothing but the truth could be told, on pain of parting from one’s clothes.  And the comedy scenes that developed out of it carried a series of twists and turns of real plot-interest that made the musical numbers all the more delightful and the whole act a notable success.  The musical element of this delightful vaudeville form makes certain other humorous acts fit into the musical comedy structure.  For instance, if the comedy character is left alone on the stage, he can with perfect propriety deliver a short monologue.  Or he may do anything else that will win laughter and applause.