An article on public speaking and presentations by John Kinde and Patricia Fripp As one of my humorist speaker friends John Kinde, well-known for his Humor Power newsletter says, “Great speaking skills give you the illusion of competence. The flip side: Poor speaking skills give you the illusion of incompetence! If your presentation skills are […]
Read More...Show Me the Funny!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 30 years of studying humor, it’s this. You CAN learn to be funny. Some people think you need to be born funny, the class clown. I’m a laid-back, serious, Norwegian from North Dakota and I’ve won humorous speech contests at the Toastmasters District level four times and three […]
Read More...Less is More
As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Brevity makes strong structure. The punchline is the payoff. Traditional wisdom is that the shortest distance between the setup and the payoff is best. When a story has a long set up before getting to the joke, it’s said that the punchline is carrying […]
Read More...How Long Should An Acceptance Speech Be?
Action star everyman Harrison Ford was honored with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association’s Cecil B. DeMille Award, for “outstanding contribution to the entertainment field”-or more specifically, 35 movies over four decades, including Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Witness, The Fugitive, and Patriot Games. He said,
Read More...Observational Humor from John Kinde: Fripp is Recycled!
My definition of Observational Humor does not exclude recycling previously used Observational Humor lines. Nor does it mean you can’t use old jokes that are adapted to the present moment. What makes Observational Humor special that it is inspired in the moment, not pre-meditated…although some pre-planned humor can certainly create the illusion of spontaneity. Our goal is to become more skilled at in-the-moment humor and not solely relying on prepared lines. Although a good monologue may contain some of both elements.
Read More...Capturing Your Audience: (Part I)
Today’s audiences have very short attention spans. They are stimulation junkies with limited interest levels. Their television habits have coined a new term–channel surfing. With the advent of remote control no one watches anything that stands still enough to bore. Click, switch, fast forward, record and mute give them power over the medium. Sub-standard content, […]
Read More...The Danger of Using the Web as a Resource for Your Humor
The web is a great resource for information. There are vast quantities of information on everything from aardvarks to zoology. You’d also think it would also be an excellent resource for humor. Let me caution you. You must be careful using the web as a source of humor. There are hundreds of thousands of amateurs […]
Read More...If You Want More Humor in Your Presentation(s)
An article on public speaking and humor I want to introduce you to one of Three Musketeers of Speech Writing… John Cantu is a San Francisco comedy legend, owner and producer of the legendary Holy City Zoo, who helps you laugh all the way to the bank. He’s written material for Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller, […]
Read More...The Great Comedians: What they Say about Comedy
“The jester is brother to the sage.” – Arthur Koestler In a conversation with my friend, Larry Wilde (New York Times says he is America’s best selling funny man) he said, “Making people laugh is the most specialized and respected talent in the arts. It does not matter how successful or famous or rich a […]
Read More...Work in the Humor Place
Some Hot Get-Ahead Tips for Speakers, Comedians, Humorists and anyone interested in Comedy History from John Cantu John Cantu is a comedy legend and was producer at the famous Holy City Zoo in San Francisco from 1975 to 1981 and co-owner from 1979-1981. He told me how the comedy club got its name and how […]
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