Silent laughter of comic master

Silent Comedy. Paul Merton/ Arrow Books. £9.99

IN a way it’s odd that a comic quipmaster like Merton is so captivated by the magic of the silver screen. It captured his imagination as a youngster and has never let go to such an extent he is now a leading expert on the subject.

Tomorrow, he brings his Silent Clowns show to the LBT and the tour follows a TV documentary on the subject. This is an authorative and anecdotal read – Merton delves into the genre with genuine affection and his enthusiasm is infectious. He’s a natural-born storyteller, but he doesn’t just tell it, he interprets it too.

He traces the evolution of silent comedy through the early days of the 1900s looking at its greatest exponents – Buster Keaton, Charlie Chaplin, Laurel And Hardy and Harold Lloyd – showing not only how each developed, but also the extent to which their creative rivalry influenced each other and so kept raising the comic bar.

He also explores just how the great comic ideas, routines and gags worked and evolved, revealing that they were deep thinkers behind the clown facades. In Charlie Chaplin’s last silent film, City Lights which was made at the end of the 1920s, he worked himself “into a neurotic state of wanting perfection.’’

ANDREW HIRST