Yes laughing is a gift. .
and sometimes you can use a gift to get a laugh. I don’t mean laughing at gifts people have given you. . .I learned my lesson about that 35 years ago when video cameras first came out. My brother and I stood around the tree on Christmas morning – he filmed while we both cracked jokes about some of the gifts (my mom got a Salad Shooter from my dad – how romantic). Then of course we realized that we couldn’t take it OFF the tape. . it wasn’t digital. . . so nobody could see our work of art! Luckily my dad didn’t know how to run a video camera, so I’m sure our humor is buried in a box in their attic somewhere.
But there are some gifts you CAN have fun with.
I went through an exhibit hall recently in which some exhibitors were giving out pins that had a flashing, strobe-ish light on them. I brought one back to my room that night and then realized a few hours later that there is no place to hide it – it was flashing all night in my room. I finally covered it in a towel, put it in the bathroom trashcan and closed the door. . . unbelievable. BUT the good news was, I had fun with it that night when I emceed the event. I told the exhibitors that it was going to cause us all to have a seizure, and then I described how I hid the light in the towel. . .the audience cracked up. I had hit a nerve because apparently many of them had brought these flashing lights back too . . . and then realized at 3 a.m. that it wasn’t going to stop flashing.. and had then wrapped it in a towel and put it in the bathroom.
And speaking of pins,
I did a show for a group who received pins, and their boss mentioned the surplus in the budget. I had some fun saying how, since they have a surplus, they should have gotten gold bullion in their packets, not pins.
So pay attention to gifts that are being given out to mass groups of people. Chances are, others in the group are having the same experience with the “gift” that you are, and you can have some fun with it.
Jan