Award-winning actor Dalton Reeves has reportedly added a seventh member to his personal entourage: a full-time Laughter Assistant whose sole professional responsibility is to audibly chuckle at Reeves’ jokes whenever photographers are nearby. The new hire, 24-year-old Marcus Finch, was reportedly selected from a pool of 40 applicants after an extensive audition process that included a written test on comedic timing and a practical demonstration of his ‘surprised delight’ laugh.
‘It’s not just about laughing,’ Finch explained during a rare break between laughing fits outside a West Hollywood juice bar. ‘It’s about laughing at the right volume, for the right duration, while subtly gesturing toward Dalton so photographers know who said the funny thing. I trained for this. I have a laugh warm-up routine. I do vocal exercises.’ Sources close to Reeves say the actor became interested in hiring a dedicated laugher after noticing his real friends had started to ‘laugh less enthusiastically’ over the past several award seasons.
Talent agent Priscilla Hoyt, who represents several A-list laughers, confirmed that the Laughter Assistant industry has quietly exploded in recent years. ‘Clients want consistency,’ Hoyt said. ‘You can’t rely on actual friends to laugh on cue every single time. Real friends get tired. Real friends sometimes think the joke isn’t that funny. A professional never has that problem, because a professional is being paid $4,000 a week to think everything is hilarious.’
Reeves, for his part, insists the arrangement is purely about ‘efficiency,’ noting that Finch has already helped boost his public perception as ‘effortlessly funny’ by an estimated 38%, according to an internal study conducted by Reeves’ PR team. When asked whether he worried the laughter might seem inauthentic to fans, Reeves simply smiled, delivered a mild pun about his new Netflix project, and waited exactly 1.5 seconds before Finch erupted into a rich, photogenic cackle.
