Special Gifts, Devices, and Techniques

THE best all-around recipe for becoming a good conversationalist is simply learning much, experiencing much, thinking deeply and wisely. But just as all these need voice and rhetoric to express them acceptably, so a really superior conversationalist has certain other resources and talents at his disposal. These are needed to lift a conversationalist from good to superior, to promote him from a "B" to an "A."

Of all, the one I most fear and envy is the gift of mimicry. I envy it because I possess none of it. I cannot even imitate Amos or Andy. I keenly regret that no one at home ever encouraged me to try it. And the reason why we were not encouraged is probably the very same reason that causes me to fear it. Mimicry is the easiest and surest way to be funny; but it is also the quickest way to hurt and belittle. Mimicking a Yiddish accent or a Pennsylvania Dutch accent is irresistibly funny, but it may not be so funny to the person or peoples mimicked. Mimicking, like cartooning, feeds upon peculiarities and magnifies them. Peculiarities are seldom things their possessors are proud of. A bald head is funny to the other fellow, but not to the owner. The play Cyrano de Bergerac is constructed around the fun the funmakers had with Cyrano's long nose and his sensitivenes on that point.