An actor I have massive respect for is comedian Gene Wilder. He mastered his pauses to perfection. How did he master them? He did it by making strong choices for his characters. This made him one of the greatest comedic actors of all times. I think he could make comedy out of a phone book. In the movie Blazing Saddles, Gene played Jim the Waco Kid. When he is asked, ‘What is his name?' the scripted answer that Jim the Waco Kid says is: "Well, my name is Jim and most people call me Jim." Gene decided to put a very long dramatic pause between the second Jim, during which we as an audience expect that he will say anything else, but Jim. He gets us off guard by saying Jim, and therefore it makes us laugh. You can see this amazing moment at https://youtu.be/xqF49Zwmzs0.