Humor Power

Toastmasters

Humor Specialty Clubs

Here’s a list of clubs which specialize in humor.  To find up-to-date club contact and location information I’ve provided a link to the club-finder page at Toastmasters International at the end of the list. 

Each club is a good source of information for adding humor to your next club meeting.

Comedy Club, Minneapolis, MN
Comedy Club Eh!  Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Funny Bones Toastmasters, Culver City, CA
Humor and Drama Toastmasters, Cambridge, MA
HumorMasters, Anaheim, CA
Humor Mill Toastmasters, Minneapolis, MN
Humorous Toastmasters, New York, NY
Humor-Us Club, Rochester, MN
Laughing Matters, Austin, TX
LaughLovers Comedy Club, Oakland, CA
Love of Laughter Club, Brookfield, WI
Seriously Funny Toastmasters, Bellevue, WA
The Comedy Shack, Plantation, FL
Wit Pleasure Advanced Toastmasters Club, Calgary, Alberta, Canada

Find current club meeting and contact information at:
http://reports.toastmasters.org/findaclub

It’s time for the results of our September Cartoon Caption Contest featuring the artwork of professional cartoonist Dan Rosandich.

New Cartoon Caption Contests are announced at the start of the month  (alternating months).

New Joke Contests are announced at the start of the month (alternating months).  The next Joke Contest is October 1, 2011.

Here are the top captions for this month’s contest:

** FIRST PLACE **

It’s food art.
     Nancy Lininger, Camarillo, California, USA

** SECOND PLACE **

Smorgasbord!
     Andy Dolphin, Mt Barker, Western Australia

** THIRD PLACE **

Boy, if I was 30 feet tall and lived 10 million years ago…
     Tom Nee, Oak Lawn, Illinois, USA

HONORABLE MENTION (in random order)

  – We’re going to need a bigger backyard.
  – See what happens when you are a Vegetarian!
  – I wonder if we can find a “DOGGY BAG” big enough to take that home?
  – What great place to hide my bone.
  – What do you get if you cross a pig with a dinosaur?  Jurassic Pork!
  – Dogs were made to chase cats.  Cats were made to catch birds.  This guy’s mistake was walking instead of flying.
  – Don’t worry, we’ll visit the giant mouse exhibit next.
  – If I had claws like that I could bury bones halfway to China.
  – I wish I had a menu – they ALL look good.
  – That’s a Dino-Mite dinner.
  – I bet his owner never swatted him with a newspaper.
  – I’ll bet he caught the cars he chased.
  – I think he ate at a rexstaurant.
  – I’d hate to be a mailman on his route.
  – I’d like to see my owner yank on his collar!
  – As long as it can rain cats and dogs, we won’t become extinct.

Visit cartoonist Dan Rosandich who has an extensive and in-depth archive of categorized cartoons and cartoon pictures available for licensing at negotiable fees.

The Toastmasters International Speech Contest, August 20, 2011, was a true international event.

The Speech Contest Chair was John Lau, DTM, International President-Elect, from Kuching, Malaysia.

The 2011 World Champion of Public Speaking was awarded to Jock Elliott from Bongaree, Queensland, Australia.  Second-place winner was Kwong Yue Yang of Guangzhou, Guangdong, China.  And third-place was Scott Pritchard of Henderson, Nevada, United States.  We’re proud to have Scott as a member of our PowerHouse Pros Toastmasters club in Las Vegas.  If you’re ever visiting Las Vegas, be sure to visit our club on the first and third Monday.

John Lau opened the contest with a wonderful warm-up of the audience.  He has a charming personality and a gentle humor that connects with the audience.  He employed the vehicle of singing to carry some of his humor.  He used the improv principle, “If you’re not a professional singer–be bold.”  Elvis looked at home on the Las Vegas stage!  By the time the first speaker took the stage, the Contest Chair made sure the audience was ready without up-staging the contestants.  Well done.

All nine contestants used humor effectively in their speeches.  My favorite use of Observational Humor goes to second-place winner, Kwong Yue Yang. He inserted the traditional, “Fellow Toastmasters, guests…and Elvis.”  This reference worked especially well because he was speaking in the first slot, which made the reference very timely.

He continued his speech, and using stage-space, moved from center-stage to stage-right to represent moving from Australia to China, noting that:  “On this stage you can see that it’s a long way to China.”  I paraphrase the words.  It was a great line about the size of the huge stage.  He wasn’t the only contestant to make a reference to the large stage, but he was the first.  And it was effectively blended into the content of his speech.  He was rewarded with second-place, which was a challenge having drawn speaking position number one.

I had fun attending the contest and enjoyed nine great speakers.  The contest is always one of the high-points of the convention.

The magician was about half-way through his competition act at a major Magic Convention.  Without warning the curtain quickly closed.  “Ladies and Gentlemen, please excuse a brief delay in our program.  It will continue shortly.”  In about three minutes:  “Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome our next performer, John Smith.”

The previous performer seemed to have vanished from the contest.  The truth is he had been disqualified for unacceptable humor.  He had included a sexual joke in his act and the contest director, acting as Judge, Jury and Executioner, had pulled the plug on his performance.

It’s rare to see such quick feedback when humor crosses the line of good taste.  Reaction to poor taste humor is not rare, it’s just normally not so clearly expressed.

If you use off-color humor or stories in a talk, it’s likely that nobody will say anything to you.  But they will talk to someone else.  “Don’t hire him/her unless you want a nightclub act.”  The curtain will figuratively drop on your speaking career. 

A distinguishing factor between the corporate speaking engagement paid $10,000 for a one-hour performance and the act confined to a smoky room speaking to drunk people for $300 an hour, is the quality of the humor.

Compare the successful corporate humor speakers with the normal comedy-club performer and the main difference is the clean-quality of the humor.  Even the most successful stand-up comics play cleaner than the average comic.  Bill Cosby is an obvious example. 

But when it comes time to put an act or a speech together, it’s so much easier to drop in some off-color material.  It’s easy.  It usually gets a laugh.  We fall prey to the illusion that “it got laughs so it’s OK.”  Been there…done that.   And then, behind the scenes, people talk, and we fail to get repeat engagements.  It’s zero-tolerance silently in action.

Always take challenge to create humor the hard way.  Make sure it’s funny for the right reasons.  Make it funny because of the characters.  Because of the structure.  Because of the connections.  Because of the timing.  Because of the delivery.  Because of your effort and hard work.  Don’t take the easy way out and let the curtain drop on your career.

If you get the Toastmaster magazine, don’t miss the five humor-skills articles in the August 2011 issue.

  – How To Win an Audience with Bombproof Humor

  – How to Add Humor to Club Meetings

  – Building Bridges Across Cultures

  – Make ‘em Laugh

  – Funny You Should Say That:  I’m Sorry, Were You Being Funny?

Have you ever told a joke and hurt someone’s feelings?  It’s easy to do.  And we usually don’t know until it’s too late.  When this happens, the target of your joke is not likely to be a stranger.  The closer your relationship to the person, the more likely that the humor will mis-fire.

Sometimes, the most dangerous joke will be that which targets your spouse, a brother or sister, a best friend.  Here are some factors that come into play:

1.  What is the history of your relationship with the person who is the target of the joke?  Does the person know you as someone who frequently uses humor as a tool?  Or does your joke-making come as a surprise.  The closer your joke comes as a surprise to the person, the more likely that offense may be taken.

2.  Who is the audience?  Is it an audience of one?  Or an audience of one hundred?  The larger the group, and the louder they laugh, the more likely the subject may take offense.  Coming into play is the principle of praise in public, criticize in private.  A joke is often seen as a negative attack.  How dare you be critical in front of so many people?

3.  What is the hidden message?  A joke often includes an unspoken, implied punchline.  It’s often what you don’t say that will get you in trouble.  This comes back to history again.  What baggage does the punchline carry?

4.  What is the truth?  One of the key humor triggers is THE TRUTH.  If something doesn’t ring true, it’s normally less funny.  There can be a sense of if they laugh a lot, they’re laughing AT me and not WITH me.  A joke based on extreme exaggeration which is not true is often safer than a joke which is totally true.

5.  Ask them.  Are you wondering if you offended someone?  In private, directly ask them.  And, if necessary, apologize.  You won’t always get a straight answer, people will often hesitate to admit they were offended.  But just the fact that you asked shows you care, and that you had good intentions.

Let’s look at a joke that could have an unintended result.  First, the setup:  A previous speaker, talking about creativity, gave the advice:  “Find out what everyone else is doing…and don’t do it.”  Later Ed, your friend, told a joke to the audience.  Here’s a possible Observational Humor joke.

Ed loves the advice:  “Find out what others are doing and don’t do it.”  He noticed that everyone was funny tonight…so he wasn’t.

The joke could sting.  It implies that your friend bombed.  How could you switch the joke to make it safer?  How about:

I loved the advice:  “Find out what others are doing and don’t do it.”  I noticed that everyone else was funny tonight…so I haven’t been.

The joke switched the target to YOU and has self-deprecation working as a trigger.  A joke aimed at the teller is almost always safer than one told at someone else’s expense.

When it comes to avoiding hurting someone with a joke, awareness of the possibility is a good first step to keep you out of the danger zone.  When in doubt, take the safe road.

Steve Bridges is a terrific Presidential  impersonator.  Here’s a link of Bridges as President Obama.

Things to note and look for.

1.  Vocal patterns and signature gestures.
2.  Makeup and hairstyle go a long way in creating an illusion.
3.  Twist of cliches (It’s the economy stupid, etc).
4.  Jokes on a theme (National debt, immigration, the Vice President, etc).

Bridges also impersonates Clinton, Bush and Schwarzenegger.  My favorite performance was one of George W. Bush persented with the help of the former President.  Brilliant.  And it reminds me of the saying:  They can’t laugh at you when they’re laughing with you!

Steve Bridges web site.

Humor often comes from pain.  A bad or uncomfortable situation has the potential to offer you humorous material for your next speech.  Look at your life challenges, your embarrassing moments, your “someday I’ll laugh at this” experiences. 

One of my favorite humorists is Jeanne Robertson.  She has the gift of turning painful situations into funny stories which she shares with her audiences.  Listen to this river-rafting tale.  You’ll enjoy it.

I enjoyed a tele-seminar by Brad Montgomery today.  He shared many excellent, practical tips for using humor from the platform.  Brad is a successful professional speaker, a funny guy, and a great teacher.  Here are a few of his suggestions:

1.  The main goal when using humor is not getting laughs; the goal is making a connection with the audience.

2.  If you wonder if you’re crossing the line of good taste, you’re too close to the line.  If you can even see the line, you’re totally in the wrong neighborhood.

3.  Borderline material which may be OK in the moment, two weeks later will cause you problems because people won’t remember the context.

4.  Brad talked about how it can be difficult using humor during a period of crisis.  He suggests getting permission from the audience to use humor.  “It seems strange that we’ll be laughing.  Would it be OK to take a break and laugh a little, knowing that it means no disrespect to the current situation?”

5.  When delivering some off-color humor used by professions that deal with stress:  “I’ve heard some of your jokes…but that’s how you survive, isn’t it?”  In preparation for the program to a medical audience, ask some key people:  “What are some things you’d say to each other that you wouldn’t say to a patient.”  You’ll tap into some of the humor they use as a coping tool.

Here’s a link for humor resources.

And here’s Brad’s web site.

Learning to Laugh When You Feel Like Crying
by Alen Klein

An excellent book helping you to benefit from the therapeutic use of humor to handle stressful situations.  In addition to helping someone cope with the death of a loved one, it would also be a valuable book for dealing with other forms of loss.   Loss of a job.  Loss of a relationship.  Loss of health.

The book is divided into five sections:  Losing, Learning, Letting Go, Living and Laughing.  The content is delivered in bite-sized pieces which make it easy-to-read and also adaptable to being read in a daily-devotional format, allowing you to reflect and implement a tip-a-day.  It’s also sprinkled with dozens of uplifting quotes from well-known people in the field of self-help.

Allen is an award-winning author and speaker.  I loved the book.  It was inspiring, fun, and motivating.  Highly recommended.

 And Here’s the Kicker
by Mike Sacks

The book features 21 interviews with top humor writers.  Although you’ll probably recognize some of the writers (Dave Barry, Dick Cavett, Al Jaffee), it’s likely that you won’t immediately recognize many of the writers’ names , unless you’re a person who is glued to the credits at the end of a TV show or movie. 

Each writer’s interview is introduced with a one-page biography which will impress you and put the writer’s experience into perspective.  Although some of the names will be new to you, they are the magic behind-the-scenes, responsible for dozens shows you will recognize and love.  Lots of great insights into the craft of writing humor from experts in the trade.

The book includes a six part segment on, Quick and Painless Advice for the Aspiring Humor Writer (finding an agent, getting published, getting a writing job, etc.).

A lengthy book filled with insights for the serious student of humor.  Highly recommended.