I am a real ham. I love an audience. I work better with an audience. I am dead, in fact, without one.

Ball’s remark is a candid, self-deprecating admission of her fundamentally performative temperament. Calling herself “a real ham” frames showmanship not as vanity but as a craft fueled by immediate feedback—laughter, attention, and the shared rhythm between performer and crowd. The line “I work better with an audience” points to comedy’s dependence on timing and response; the audience is not merely a recipient but an active partner shaping delivery and energy. “Dead…without one” intensifies this dependence into a statement of identity: performance is not an occasional activity for her but the condition in which her talent fully comes alive.