If you want to make an audience laugh, you dress a man up as an old lady, then kick him down the stairs. If you want to make a comedian laugh, it has to be an actual old lady.
A variant on this was attributed to Fields by John Cleese in a 2014 interview with Adam Savage. Another attribution appeared in the NY Times 24 Jan 2012
Formatted Quote
"If you want to make an audience laugh, you dress a man up as an old lady, then kick him down the stairs. If you want to make a comedian laugh, it has to be an actual old lady.
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