Lazzi

Associated with the improvised Commedia dell 'Arte, lazzi are stage tricks designed to evoke laughter which, often as not, are altogether extraneous to the plot, i.e. slapstick, or the even less dignified "schtick."

A few examples from the Commedia dell 'Arte:

• Arlequin pretends to catch flies in their flight, to tear off their wings and eat them with apparent relish.
• Scapino blows up his cheek with air to intensify the effect of the slap he receives.
  Arlequin, armed with blacksmith's tools, pulls out four of Pantalone's soundest teeth.
  Arlequin waits on Don Juan, seated at table. Before placing the plates before his master, he wipe them on the seat of his breeches, or produces a cap full of cherries form the same place. He cracks stones with his teeth and pretends to spit them to the ground.
• Burrattino sits on the ground with a basket of provisions. Two robbers come up and install themselves one on each side on him. The first tells him that he comes from Cocaigne and warns him that it is a nest of thieves. Meanwhile, the other is vigorously attacking the basket. Both thieves go off, not without a spirited exchange of blows, and Burattino, upon finding his basket empty, bursts into heart-breaking sobs.
• During a fête, Pantalone's young wife, Isabella, whispers in his ear. He escorts her with attention the gardener's lodge. He waits at the door, keeps watch and drives away passers-by. Isabella returns out of breath. Pantalone congratulates her and wipes her forehead. A few scenes later, he discovers that a young man had been concealed in the lodge and that the gardener had found the bed in disorder.
• In the scenario Gli avvenimenti comici (Scala), we find two zanni tied together back to back. A plate of macaroni is places before each of them. As each bends forward in turn to reach the plate, he lifts his companion off the ground.
  
  [Schwartz, I.A., PhD., The Commedia Dell' Arte and its influence on French Comedy in the Seventeenth Century, Librarie H Samuel, Paris, 1933, pp. 10-12]

Many actors were also acrobats and could do somersaults and l'homme fourche, or le grand ecart. There was a famous 83 year old Scaramouche who "could administer a slap with his foot."