holiday networking humor tips
- I sold this over the phone!
3 funny subjects to kick off an awkward conversation
So we’re coming up on the holiday season, and you know what that means – lots of business and family holiday parties where you’re stuck in awkward conversations with people you barely know wondering what the heck do I SAY to this person????
Well as usual, there’s humor to the rescue! Kick off a conversation with a joke or a funny observation, and you’ll put everyone at ease. Here’s 3 subjects you can come prepared with so that you can connect with those unfamiliar people.
Horrible past jobs.
Yes, we’ve all had past jobs that are BAD. My worst job was wayyy back when telemarketing was in its infancy and I had NO IDEA what it was – hey, it had the word “marketing” in it. . .so I applied, and shocker, I was hired. So for a little while, I actually sold SIDES OF BEEF OVER THE TELEPHONE. And as my joke goes, “I lasted 6 hours, which gave me seniority!” So dig through your memory roladex (is that even a word) and find a past job that’s pretty awful. . . then make a crack about it at your spouse’s holiday party. You’ll get lots of people chiming in, I guarantee, and soon you’ll have lots of friends.
Unusual Vacations.
This is a good all around topic because you can always ask someone where they’re going for vacation, and then launch into a quip about an usual vacation you’ve had. My family vacation bit about our family of 6 driving cross-country on vacation (Click here to see the 2 min. clip) gets a lot of “aha” moments from the audience because many of us baby boomers did one of those vacations too!
Holidays gone bad.
Most holidays go great, but sometimes there’s the unexpected – the fire department shows up to put out the turkey or grandpa’s luggage was stolen at the airport (that happened!). Dredge up some interesting holiday stores and you’ll entertain AND connect with others in the group. This is an easy subject to get into because, hey, you’re at a holiday party! And if you don’t have a bad party story of your own, just turn on the news. . .right about now, they’re starting to report on goofy things people do to hurt themselves in preparation for the celebration.
Horrible jobs, unusual vacations and holidays gone bad are great subjects for humor AND the cool thing is, they build on each other and create a quick connection to make you memorable. So give some thought to those subjects before heading out into the unknown holiday party!
Jan
P.S. don’t forget, i have a GREAT stocking stuffer gift for stressed out family, friends & coworkers. . Cubicle Comedy Playing Cards! Actual playing cards with my work jokes and work advice for surviving the office. Do you know how to eat for free in the office? Click here to order!
- GREAT Holiday Stocking Stuffers!!!
Using Callbacks for business writing and public speaking – part 2
Okay, so I got busy last week and didn’t wrap up the Callbacks section. . . sorry, I had a blast going to the best haunted house, actually FOREST (www.MarkoffsHauntedForest.com), on the planet. . .and didn’t get as much done as I wanted. So, here’s the wrap up. . if you want to create a great theme to your speech or written document, then callbacks are great! But how do you find them? Here’s some quick steps:
- www.MarkoffsHauntedForest.com
Do a word search.
The simplest way to find callbacks in a speech or document that you’ve already written is to do a word search in and see if you can find a word that keeps cropping up. If you talk about cats in one place, you may talk about cats in other places but you just don’t realize it. Once you do find the similar word, see if you can tie the two together by using a similar punch line or referring back to the original cat joke (see below).
Use the same solution.
A lot of comedy is about finding solutions to problems. . .so see if you can use the same solution (i.e. punch line) in several different jokes. For me I talk about staring at my cat and wondering “how long do they live” and then later I joke about my mom staring at my dad wondering “how long do they live” and then still later I joke about my crazy boss and wonder “how long do they live.” This is a great way to develop jokes too. . . if you’ve got a punch line that hits particularly well, or some sentence you keep repeating, just start looking for places that you could use it and you’ll develop new jokes. I could apply the “how long do they live” to any frustrating situation and come up with new material that ties in this theme.
- I’m sooo scared of the forest!
Pay attention to the industry.
Whatever industry I’m speaking too, I try to mark a connection to the jokes in my act pertain to that industry. So just as above, I do a word search for that industry in my act. . .if it’s nursing, then I look for all the medical jokes in my act and see if there’s a way to connect the two. Maybe it’s a simple as perhaps I do some opening line that makes fun of their rival hospital, and then during my joke about the emergency room taking a long time, I toss in the name of their rival hospital again for the second laugh.
And Finally. . . .
Make sure you structure the callback the exact same way you structured the original line – I always use the same wording “how long do they live” on the cat example because that’s what people remember.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaB_-T7qKJY
Callbacks are an “aha” moment for the audience. . . sometimes just mentioning the prior joke, without making it much of a punch line, is enough to make people laugh because they’re remembering the earlier joke. So don’t miss these easy, easy ways to add humor.
Jan
Calling Back the Funny!
- Soup Bowls can be funny!
Sometimes comedy can come from the most mundane of things. I just had a lot of fun with. . .(drum roll please). . SOUP BOWLS! Yeah, I know, not a hilarious topic. But I dragged the funny out of it pretty easily by making it a running theme, during my Finding the Funny in Communications program last week, by doing a lot of callbacks to it. Callbacks are, you guessed it, when we “callback” to something that happened earlier in the program/day/presentation. I’ve got a lot of them in my act – I start out my humor by doing jokes on kids, and then throughout my act – whether I’m talking about work or dieting – I refer to things I mentioned during the kids jokes. It’s a great way to tie your act together with a theme of sorts, and get a second, third or fourth laugh out of an original joke without too much effort.
Why did I choose soup bowls?
But back to the soup bowls. . . At the conference last week, all of the attendees were given soup bowls (among other things), and the client made mention of it before I went on. Sooo, this gave me a perfect opportunity to have some fun by saying that “wow, the company has gone all out for you by giving you SOUP BOWLS.” This got a great laugh, and by paying attention to my jokes, I was able to slip in a soup bowl reference several times throughout the morning . . . like during my joke about rewarding employees (“sometimes all you need to give ‘em is a soup bowl”) or my dieting jokes (“one low-cal food is soup in a soup bowl”). I also had some fun in the beginning by saying that the company wasn’t sure if they should give a soup bowl or a plate. . .or maybe a saucer – but then you have to add a cup, etc. . .
Now, I wasn’t mean about it, and I did concede that it was a nice gift, etc. . .but I was able to drag out lots of humor because we all think of a soup bowl as kinda plain – when in fact this wasn’t just a bowl, it’s a traveling bowl with a lid, etc. . (see the picture –it’s mobile, so you can have soup in your car).
5 ways to find a good callback:
- listen to the speaker ahead of you and see if he/she uses a theme throughout that you can incorporate too?
- see what the give-aways are. . .soup bowls anyone?
- is there a theme to the conference you can wind thru your presentation?
- does your group have a slogan they use?
- do you mention something more than once in two separate places in your speech?
I’ll give some more in-depth details in my blog later this week on steps to find callbacks, but these will get you started. So next time you want to include humor, you don’t have to start from scratch. . . see if there’s something already that you can play off of.
Jan
- Lots of humor at the Jimmy Buffet concert last week! Here I am on a funny car!
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