Humor
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For Speakers and Entertainers:
Your Best Source of New Material
by John Cantu
© HumorMall.com

One of your best sources of fresh, funny, creative original material is the line that you inadvertently ad-lib while on your way to saying something else. One of the things that drives me nuts when I am coaching executives and professional speakers or when I am presenting to an audience that consists primary of non-comedians is the following exchange:

Some audience member will say "Some of my best stuff comes when I am just talking to the audience ad-libbing and these lines come out." And I always ask the same question "What do you do with those lines?" And invariable all I get is a blank look.

But think about it for a moment. If it got a laugh once, chances are it will get a laugh again. This is why you should tape record your presentations. So when you ad-lib that perfect laugh line; that witty phrase, that trademarkable motto, you have it captured for future use.

Now, let's step back for a moment. If you've been reading the Humor Writing Techniques Series found in InnerSanctum for just three weeks or more, you've probably already begun to have a sense of how to take a joke found in joke books and update it and adapt it to your specific needs.

And whether your goal is simply to make your friends and colleagues laugh or to entertain the audiences you speak to, having a steady source of material is important. And InnerSanctum's Humor Writing Techniques Series has been showing you one way to do that. You simply go thru any of your favorite joke collections and switch the set-up, the punch line, or the joke concept to a topical news situation and soon you're the guy or the gal (man or women for the politically correct anal retentives) in your group who 'just sees things funny.'

Now I still use this technique occasionally - especially when I'm on deadline and nothing seems funny. But it does takes time, energy and effort. So from now on, when you 'write' (ad-lib) a brand-new line without sweat, blood, or tears for goodness sake record them, recall them, and reuse them.

Now, if your are a professional performer this is probably second nature to you. You will often come of the stage and excitedly ask a friend, "What was that new line I ad-libbed that got that great laugh?" More often, you will rush off to listen to your tape to find it. But for speakers this is a great source of material that is used once and tossed away forever. It isn't intuitive to most speakers to recycle a line that was funny the first time out.

So remember, you should respect your ad-libbed lines and spontaneous off-the-cuff lines as possible new material. The principle is: If an audience laughed at the line once, it might laugh again. Here's another aspect to that principle. Be aware that lines you ad-lib off stage in casual conversation might also be grist for your platform humor.

If you look at the process of how most 'ad-libs' in every day conversation are really created, you will realize that they are most often a joke writing collaboration with one of the writers being unconscious of the fact. I.e., the funny person usually has a straight person who is unaware that he/she is being a straight man.

He/she says "(LINE)", you cap on it (cap on it means make a remark meant to be funny). And YOU get the laugh and the CREDIT even though it was a collaboration. And since most people look at events in their life as a series of disparate events, they see the capping line as a singular one-time funny spontaneous punch line. But if you realize you can often recreate the off-stage situation on the platform by describing what lead up to the ad-lib, you have increased your opportunities for new material.

You do this by saying something along these lines. "I was talking to (INSERT WHO YOU WERE TALKING WITH WHETHER IT WAS AN INDIVIDUAL OR A GROUP OF SOME SORT). He/she/one of them said (INSERT WHAT WAS SAID) and I replied (YOUR TAG LINE)" and now you've got a brand new 'joke.'

I noticed long ago that people who consider themselves spontaneously funny, still need a line (or situation) in order to create a funny line. Thus, all ad-libs are simply an on-the-spot joke creation.

Sometimes the ad-libbed line doesn't have to be something someone said. One time Sam Horn (author of "Tongue Fu") told me about a comment that Bob Murphy (Murphy is a delightful humorist and long time National Speaker Association member) once made in response to a real-world event that was based on a vivid visual scene.

Standing in a hotel lobby he saw a bellboy puling a wheeled stand with a potted tree on it. In his dry, droll, Nacagdoches Texas accent he said, "Looks like some dog has ordered room service."

Do you see how easy it would be to think that was a 'You hadda be there' situation? But all you have to do is do as Sam Horn did. You describe the situation and tell the audience what you or your friend said in that situation.

Remember Cantu's rule of Being Funny #1: Always follow the laughter. Whenever someone laughs at anything you said or did that you did not intend to be funny, assume that it can be re-created another time for another audience and look for HOW that can be done.

Now, once in a blue moon you will discover, yes, it was a 'you hadda be there' situation. But always come to that conclusion very reluctantly. After giving it time, effort and creativity to find a way to recreate laugh.

The principle in using ad-libbed lines and spontaneous off-the-cuff lines as possible new material is: If friends or an audience laughed at the line once, you might get laughs with it again.

Here's another aspect to that principle. Be aware that lines your audience members ad-lib during your presentation can often be used again. This is a superb way of gathering new, already tested humor. Now this works better for the professional speaker than it does for the professional performer (comedian, magician, ventriloquist, etc.).

With performers, too often the audience line is intended to upset you or upstage you. And while that may happen occasionally in a speaking situation, more often than not, an audience member had simply gotten caught up in the spirit of things and is participating in a humorous way. And those lines can be pure gold. They are more valuable than ones you ad-lib for three reasons.

1. The line has been created by an audience member and thus is guaranteed to reflect your audience's perception of the material. Therefore the line has a very good chance of being effective when you give the same presentation in the future.

2. The line has been tried out at no risk to you. I.e., an audience member delivered the line and if it is considered unfunny or inappropriate by the audience the audience member gets the disapproval not you.

3. The line has been approved by the members of your target market, at no risk to you. I.e., audience members have voiced their approval with laughter before you ever present the line.

You can sometimes simply insert the line in your presentation somewhere. Other times you might tag the line by saying "Well, in one of my previous workshops/presentations/speeches one of the audience members said" and then quote the line.

One caveat about audience humor. Sometimes audience members will come up to you afterward and share a bit of humor with you. Often they will say, "You can use that if you want". This can sometimes also be a source material but it can also be a source of humor that can backfire or embarrass you. You will learn how to avoid this in Your best source of new material - But Beware!