Gervais Humor at Golden Globes
When a comedian hosts an awards show, you can expect some roast-style humor. That’s why they hire the comic. A roast structure creates a vehicle to ensure the success of the jokes which follow. Before you start firing jokes at people in the audience, you need permission. This is usually received by making fun of yourself, which gives you permission to make fun of the boss or authority figures, which gives you permission to make fun of the honored guests.

Last night Ricky Gervais hosted the Golden Globe Awards for the third year. Some people were surprised he was chosen as this year’s emcee because many thought he was over-the-top offensive last year. But in his pre-show appearances, he made it clear that he was going to do some sharply-pointed humor this year, too. The anticipation of what he was going to say helped build the tension, which is an important trigger for humor.

Here are some bits from his monologue (not the whole monologue) and some observations:

So where was I?
(A transition from last year’s performance to this year’s. Sets the stage for “more of the same.”)

Nervous? Don’t be. This isn’t about you.
(He will start primarily with jokes about the sponsor of the event and himself.)

Hello, I’m Ricky Gervais and welcome to the 69th annual Golden Globe Awards live from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. Voted for by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.
(His formal opening lines establish the fact that the Hollywood Foreign Press Association was an authority figure, a fact which may not have been well-known to the television viewing audience.)

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You have to like selling to succeed at it. Success, after all, is doing what we like and making a living at it. Work isn’t work if you like it. And, success is a journey not a destination.

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Interact with the waves of change to create the outcome you desire.
The triple whammy hit me in 2008. For one thing, speaking engagements—my primary source of income—had dropped by about 20 percent. For another, my financial investments tanked. And last but certainly not least in the Sanborn Triad of Trials, doctors diagnosed me with prostate cancer.

Strike one. Strike two. Strike three. Right

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Section I: See
It sounds simple, doesn’t it? From infancy we are able to see the world around us. But seeing isn’t just about looking at the world around you; it’s about attaching meaning to what you see. One person might see a daunting wave; a surfer sees an opportunity. One person might see an obstacle; a successful person sees a starting block. Are you willing to open your eyes?
“The value of experience is not in seeing much, but in seeing wisely.”
—William Osler, Canadian scientist

http://www.marksanborn.com/blog/

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As a public speaker you may think English is a hard languate. However here is a list of words that are difficult to translate into English:

Toska
Russian – Vladmir Nabokov describes it best: “No single word in English renders all the shades of toska. At its deepest and most painful, it is a sensation of great spiritual anguish, often without any specific cause. At less morbid levels it is a dull ache of the soul, a longing with nothing to long for, a sick pining, a vague restlessness, mental throes, yearning. In particular cases it may be the desire for somebody of something specific, nostalgia, love-sickness. At the lowest level it grades into ennui, boredom.”

Mamihlapinatapei
Yagan (indigenous language of Tierra del Fuego) – “the wordless, yet meaningful look shared by two people who both desire to initiate something but are both reluctant to start”
Jayus
Indonesian – “A joke so poorly told and so unfunny that one cannot help but laugh”
Iktsuarpok
Inuit – “To go outside to check if anyone is coming.”
Litost
Czech – Milan Kundera, author of The Unbearable Lightness of Being, remarked that “As for the meaning of this word, I have looked in vain in other languages for an equivalent, though I find it difficult to imagine how anyone can understand the human soul without it.” The closest definition is a state of agony and torment created by the sudden sight of one’s own misery.
Kyoikumama
Japanese – “A mother who relentlessly pushes her children toward academic achievement”
Tartle
Scottish – The act of hestitating while introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.
Ilunga
Tshiluba (Southwest Congo) – A word famous for its untranslatability, most professional translators pinpoint it as the stature of a person “who is ready to forgive and forget any first abuse, tolerate it the second time, but never forgive nor tolerate on the third offense.”
Prozvonit
Czech – This word means to call a mobile phone and let it ring once so that the other person will call back, saving the first caller money. In Spanish, the phrase for this is “Dar un toque,” or, “To give a touch.”
Cafuné
Brazilian Portuguese – “The act of tenderly running one’s fingers through someone’s hair.”
Schadenfreude
German – Quite famous for its meaning that somehow other languages neglected to recognize, this refers to the feeling of pleasure derived by seeing another’s misfortune. I guess “America’s Funniest Moments of Schadenfreude” just didn’t have the same ring to it.
Torschlusspanik
German – Translated literally, this word means “gate-closing panic,” but its contextual meaning refers to “the fear of diminishing opportunities as one ages.” (Altalang.com)
Wabi-Sabi
Japanese – Much has been written on this Japanese concept, but in a sentence, one might be able to understand it as “a way of living that focuses on finding beauty within the imperfections of life and accepting peacefully the natural cycle of growth and decay.” (Altalang.com)
Dépaysement
French – The feeling that comes from not being in one’s home country.
Tingo
Pascuense (Easter Island) – Hopefully this isn’t a word you’d need often: “the act of taking objects one desires from the house of a friend by gradually borrowing all of them.”
Hyggelig
Danish – Its “literal” translation into English gives connotations of a warm, friendly, cozy demeanor, but it’s unlikely that these words truly capture the essence of a hyggelig; it’s likely something that must be experienced to be known. I think of good friends, cold beer, and a warm fire.
L’appel du vide
French – “The call of the void” is this French expression’s literal translation, but more significantly it’s used to describe the instinctive urge to jump from high places.
Ya’aburnee
Arabic – Both morbid and beautiful at once, this incantatory word means “You bury me,” a declaration of one’s hope that they’ll die before another person because of how difficult it would be to live without them.
Duende
Spanish – While originally used to describe a mythical, spritelike entity that possesses humans and creates the feeling of awe of one’s surroundings in nature, its meaning has transitioned into referring to “the mysterious power that a work of art has to deeply move a person.” There’s actually a nightclub in the town of La Linea de la Concepcion, where I teach, named after this word.
Saudade
Portuguese – One of the most beautiful of all words, translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of longing for something or someone that you love and which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing, relates to saudade.

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Then in the middle of it all there is a boy around the age of 8 on the back of a donkey. Riding behind is a small girl whose age I would guess to be six or seven. Instead of holding onto the back of the young boy rider she is holding onto a book. Raising it up to the light in order to read. The desire she has to read in the midst of this craziness is amazing. Her strength and determination gave me hope. Hope for all the children of the world who live in poverty and aren’t afraid to reach out for the things we all take for granted. “

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Patricia Fripp is THE Executive Speech Coach and sister to guitar legend Robert Fripp. At the moment they are on vacation together in England. Patricia is staying with friends in Wimborne, Dorset. In 10 days she will be back in San Francisco Frippnotizing her audiences and executive speech coaching clients with her Frippicisms and telling them that FRIPP stands for “Frequently Reinforce Ideas that are Productive and Profitable.”

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Since my 20s I have been a loyal member of Kaiser Permanente and always happy with the attention of the doctors. As I was admitted I told the young lady “No, this was not a work related accident, it is a being an idiot related accident.”

Lucky for me I was the third person waiting. Within ten minutes of walking in the front door a doctor who was handsome enough to be McDreamy on Grey’s Anatomy and should be used in sales campaigns for Kaiser introduced himself and asked “I don’t suppose you are related to Robert Fripp?”

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The three young men became the California Guitar Trio. Tonight I am introducing them and telling this story at Freight and Salvage in Berkeley.
CGT’s first public performance was on Feb 7th, 1991 in Los Angeles.
This is their 20th Anniversary Tour!

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The Seven Essential Strategies for Performing Optimally at Work What book is on your bedside table? One of my newest to help keep me on track for 2011 is written by one of my professional colleagues at the National Speakers Association of Northern California. The Productivity Expert Dr. Neil Fiore gave me permission to give you a taste […]

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