“I lease it.”
“You have a steady trade?”
“Steady business, not steady trade. You want to buy the dump?”
“No, I was just interested in the way it runs.”
“We see a lot of the same faces,” Elgin admitted, “but with a place like that, you try to build it up so it has a reputation. I put on an act of fast talking, slip in some double-meanings so fast it takes them a while to get it, and go right on without waiting for the laughs, until I get my first titter. Then I stop and look surprised, and that usually brings down the house.”
“Women go for that stuff?” I asked.
“They eat it up.”
“The first laugh usually comes from a woman?”
“The fast talking, double-meanings get the women,” he said. “Usually some dowager who knows all the answers titters hysterically. Then I stop talking and look at her in surprise. By that time the joke in the situation has caught up with the rest of the audience and they start laughing.”
“On the jokes that are a little more raw, there’s usually some loud-voiced guy gives a belly laugh first. I don’t pay any attention to him, simply go on talking, and then stop when the general laughter develops… It’s a job of timing. The main thing is never to stop long enough for the audience to catch up. Some of them might get shocked if you did. Just keep on going.”