change a phrase here and a word there to build dead points into
life and laughter. Then it is that they both realize that Frank
Fogarty's wise words are true: "There is only one way to tell a
gag. If you can cut one word out from any of my gags I'll give
you five dollars, for it's worth fifty to me. Words are costly."

Some entire points and gags will be found to be dead beyond
resurrection, and even whole series of gags and points must be
cast away and new and better ones substituted to raise the golden
laughs. So the monologue is changed and built performance after
performance, with both the monologist and the author working as
though their very lives depended on making it perfect.

Then, when it is "set" to the satisfaction of both, the monologist
goes out on the road to try it out on different audiences and to
write the author continually for new points and gags. It may be
said with perfect truth that a monologue is never finished. Nat
Wills, the Tramp Monologist, pays James Madison a weekly salary
to supply him with new jokes every seventh day. So, nearly every
monologist retains the author to keep him up to the minute with
material, right in the forefront of the laughter-of-the-hour.

V. OTHER SINGLE TALKING ACT FORMS

The discussion of the monologue form has been exhaustive, for the
pure monologue holds within itself all the elements of the other
allied forms. The only difference between a pure monologue and
any other kind is in the addition of entertainment features that
are not connected gags and points. Therefore, to cover the field
completely it is necessary only to name a few of the many different