Reading For Humor
I’ve spent a lot of time
sitting in seminars, conferences and keynotes listening for gems of wisdom from the speaker that I can turn into humor. Some of these speeches were great (I got to hear Robert Ballard talk about discovering the Titanic!), and some of them were not so great (health care reform comes to mind!), and all this listening allowed me to create quick humor targeted to the group I’m speaking to. But I’ve now found a faster way, that doesn’t require me to shower and look nice. I read the handouts that the attendees are given. Brilliant, I wish I’d started doing it sooner. Many times, the handouts have a great outline of what the speaker is going to say, AND I can read them over and over again to come up with the funny – as opposed to hearing it once and hoping I got it right.
I just did this on Tuesday
for a group I was performing for that evening, and it went great. The company was into everything from phones to automobiles, and the attendees were trying to get their employees to un-stress and relax. One of the keynote speakers had sent out an article on ways to encourage employees to unwind, and this included taking a walk and not answering their phone. I read the article and then had some fun with pointing out that “you’re in the business of cell phones and cars, yet you want your people to turn off their phones and walk???” It hit big . . .and I didn’t have to sit through this speaker’s session to develop this home run humor.
We often overlook
the obvious things, like articles, powerpoints and handouts because they aren’t given to us ahead of time. This one was sent via text through their conference app the day of the program. Instead we’ll look at the websites, talk with the client, and read brochures, which are all great, but they’re not up to the minute . . .and you still don’t get a good sense of what the speakers are talking about unless you sit in the session.
So ask for the
actual materials that the speaker is using. This will give you lots of material for making the group laugh . . . and you’ll free up extra time to un-stress!
Jan
Health Care Humor Homework – learning the language
The people in our health care industry are WONDERFUL! Last week I presented yet another humor keynote for a health care group, and they were fantastic! Not just because they laughed at my jokes, but because they do a job that I would NEVER have the patience to do; and so many of them do it with humor. A lot of attendees came up to me later to tell me how they use humor in their jobs and in their personal lives. I’m glad these are the people in charge of our future health needs (yes, some of these people were home health people), because I don’t know if I would be so bright and chipper if I had to deal with the mountains of paperwork and constantly changing rules and deadlines.
And it also goes to show that just about any topic can be ripe for humor. If people who work in nursing homes and assisted living and home health can find the funny, then you can find humor on whatever subject you’re trying to find humor on.
I connected with these people by learning something about them. Many of them came up after me and said how they were thrilled because I took some time to know their industry. Two woman said that they recently heard a speaker who kept calling them “nurses” and these people are not nurses!
So how did I use humor to connect with these health care people even though I’m not in their industry? No, I didn’t joke about the people they are taking care of. The obvious things that are funny, when we talk about the elderly (dementia, bodily functions, etc), can be kind of cruel, so I stayed away. Instead I did my homework. Here’s 3 ways you can research a group quickly to find things to connect on:
1. I asked them what were their headaches and challenges. Those of us on the outside may think that changing bedpans in a nursing home is the worst headache, but after speaking with these people, it turns out rules and regulations trump bedpans! So ask them what frustrates them the most and you may find something quite different.
2. I spoke their language – ICD-10, and RAC resonated with this group, and so I was able to have fun with those topics. They have their own health care language that you can find out and then plug in and have some fun with. Learn the hot buzzwords and what they mean.
3. I made the funny examples pertinent to them. It takes a little extra effort, but it hits big when I changed the examples out to things that they related to. Sure I had to spend some time coming up with funny things, but I can now use those examples the next time I speak to a similar health care group.
Aside from hitting a home run with the group I’m speaking to because I tailored my material to them, I also got the added bonus of making my keynote more interesting to ME! Jumping onstage saying the same thing over and over and over gets old if you don’t add in some new material. . .and customizing the keynote is a great way to keep it fresh to myself.
Jan
www.BabyBoomerComedyShow.com
www.TheWorkLady.com
Make it Memorable, Make it Funny
We don’t cost an arm and a leg, we just want your tows . . .
is the ad I heard on the radio this week in Nebraska for, you guessed it, a towing company! I laughed out loud – sorta makes the whole towing process more palatable with a laugh. Okay, probably not, but wouldn’t you rather use that company as opposed to another one? And that’s what marketing using humor is all about – grabbing people’s attention and making yourself different from the other guys or gals. Towing is a boring topic . . .and one that probably gets no attention unless you need it.
This company made it memorable
(at least for me) by making it funny. You can do what they did too, to make a catchy, funny marketing campaign. If I was coming up with this joke, it would be a 3 step process. First of all, I’d make a list of the words in my industry . . .tow, hitch, drive, ticket, miles, AAA, etc. . and then see if there are other things that these words could mean. . tow=toe, hitch=married/ride, miles = inch/foot/yard, AAA = baseball, ticket=??. They also found phrases that we associate with these words . . .toe, the body part. . .like “arm and leg” “give me a hand” “stubbed your toe” “I’d give my right arm”. . and then they connected the two – the similar word and the phrase to come up with the funny. Using this process, they could have also come up witWe don’t cost an arm and a leg, we just want your tows . . . is the ad I heard on the radio this week in Nebraska for, you guessed it, a towing company! I laughed out loud – sorta makes the whole towing process more palatable with a laugh.
Okay, probably not,
but wouldn’t you rather use that company as opposed to another one? And that’s what marketing using humor is all about – grabbing people’s attention and making yourself different from the other guys or gals. Towing is a boring topic . . .and one that probably gets no attention unless you need it. This company made it memorable (at least for me) by making it funny. You can do what they did too, to make a catchy, funny marketing campaign. If I was coming up with this joke, it would be a 3 step process.
First of all,
I’d make a list of the words in my industry . . .tow, hitch, drive, ticket, miles, AAA, etc. . and then see if there are other things that these words could mean. . tow=toe, hitch=married/ride, miles = inch/foot/yard, AAA = baseball, ticket=??. They also found phrases that we associate with these words . . .toe, the body part. . .like “arm and leg” “give me a hand” “stubbed your toe” “I’d give my right arm”. . and then they connected the two – the similar word and the phrase to come up with the funny. Using this process, they could have also come up with some other slogans. . . “we’ll give you a hand AND a tow”. . .or even used other to come up with “even if you’re single we’ll still get you hitched” or “Triple A is the minor leagues, use OUR tow service.” Okay, that last one is maybe not so funny but I’m on an airplane and I’m coming up with this stuff quick, but you get the idea. . . if I gave it some time I could probably find all sorts of funny words and slogans associated with this industry. And you can too.
Whether your industry is
boring or brilliant, you take a look at the popular words in the industry and play off of those – your marketing will get a jolt of funny and memorable.
Jan
www.TheWorkLady.com
www.ComedyEmcee.com
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