Say What? About Joke Writing

by | Jun 8, 2012 | A. Humor Writing

Last weekend I took a break from comedy writing to do laundry, and so I ran over to the store to get some bleach. I asked the cashier what aisle the bleach was in, and she sent me TO THE COSMETIC AISLE. It took me a minute to think of what kind of bleach you get in...

Editing Your Comedy

by | Jun 1, 2012 | A. Humor Writing

Okay, it’s been 6 weeks since my last comedy writing blog – that’s what happens when you have a BUSY April and May for keynotes. It’s a good year for comedy! I just finished my quarterly newsletter titled “Jans article – Comedy Wisdom”, so I’m focusing this blog...

The WHERE of jokes

by | Apr 18, 2012 | A. Humor Writing

Sure it’s important to know WHO you’re talking to, so you can inject appropriate jokes and humor, but don’t forget to look at your surroundings and bring the WHERE into the equation. I just had an event for a health care group this week and it was held in a hotel...

Comedy Joke Buddy

by | Apr 6, 2012 | A. Humor Writing

Wooly mammoth and me! When I got into comedy almost 20 years ago, my friends thought it was cool. I vividly remember a party in which people egged me on to “tell a couple of my jokes.” So I did. And guess what? I got no laughs. The jokes I told were getting laughs in...

Remembering Your Funny Jokes

by | Mar 23, 2012 | C. Humor Delivery

So you’ve worked and worked on some killer material. Great! But you’ve got to REMEMBER the joke in order to, well, get people to laugh. I have a couple of memory techniques that I use. Say it out loud FAST. Run through your jokes fast, so that you can get them down to...

Improv Comedy

by | Feb 27, 2012 | C. Humor Delivery

Okay, I’m not too keen on Improv comedy. Maybe because I spend too much time writing jokes, or maybe it was my experience with an Improv comedy troupe years ago. I was doing a show at a comedy club, and the Improv troupe who was going on ahead of me took up the entire...

What’s So Funny About Uranus??

by | Jan 10, 2012 | A. Humor Writing

This past New Years eve was great fun, not only because of the friends I shared it with, but also because we laughed . . .A LOT. I’d like to say that it was high-brow humor, but what made us laugh the most was when my friend Susan tried to show us the constellations...

Feeling The Humor

by | Dec 20, 2011 | B. Research Techniques, Humor Stuff

What is the most common thing people do when they need to come up with some humor? They LOOK for the humor. That kind of observational humor made Jerry Seinfield rich and famous, and it’s what we generally think comedians do to find funny jokes. But don’t forget to...

Memories For Joking

by | Nov 28, 2011 | B. Research Techniques

One way to find some hilarious humor is to dig into your past. . .your wayyyyy, wayyyy back past. I’ve been re-connecting with friends on Linkedin and Facebook, and instead of just sending the standard invitation, many times I’ve written out a personal note. This has...