Blue Humor—A Comedy Cop Out

Keep your humor clean for long-term success.I've been studying and using humor from the platform for 30 years. As each year passes, I believe more strongly that keeping your humor clean is the way to go. I've made the mistake in the past, more than once, that I can take more liberties with "this audience"... and have normally been wrong.Why do people use off-color humor?First, it's easy. It's much simpler to say a four letter word or tell a sex joke...

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Developing Original Humor for Your Talk

Most humor in the real-world setting is unplanned. It just happens. Most humor in the business setting is unplanned. It just happens. Spontaneous events with clients and co-workers create the surprises and uncomfortable situations which call for humor as a coping tool. We all have differing abilities to recognize, appreciate and create humor. How's your HQ (humor quotient)? Do you work with people who are full of wit? Regardless of where you are...

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Public Speaking Nightmares

Bad speaking situations and lessons learned. As a speaker and entertainer with over 30 years experience, I've had my share of nightmare speaking and performing conditions. The best thing that can come from a bad situation is that we learn something which will prevent it from happening again! Let me share some of my worst memories...and what I learned. The Nightmare: Booked to perform 30 minutes of comedy at a New Years Eve Party, I was introduced...

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The Use of Timing to Make Your Humor Connect

Humor is more than just words. Humor is one of the most effective tools for connecting with an audience. It builds bonds and refreshes the mind. And although the right words can make people laugh, humor is more than just words. As speakers, we learn that the impact of humor is heightened by how you say it, what you do when you say it, and how you use silence...the pause. The pause adds punch to the punchline! One of the reasons the pause strengthens your laugh lines is that it builds tension. There is a relationship between tension and laughter....

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Interview with Rolf Heimann

Rolf Heimann (born 9 May 1940) is an Australian author, cartoonist and illustrator. Heimann was born in Dresden, Germany, fled to the West in 1955 and migrated to Australia in 1959. He is the author of over forty books, including novels, travel books, cartoon collections, but mainly of children's books, which have been translated into German, Danish, Spanish, and Chinese and have sold millions of copies worldwide. In 1974 Heimann skippered La...

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The Woman Driver

Story by Darminto M Sudarmo It was a stinking hot day, with the sun burning down relentlessly and dense clouds of dust whirling about, as everybody tried to fan away the choking pollution. Srikandi kept her cool as she sat astride her motorbike. She was the only woman in the group, and she was also the only women who made her living driving an “ojek”. An “ojek” was a motorbike commonly used in Indonesia to transport passengers cheaply. Srikandi...

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The Generous Man

Story by Darminto M Sudarmo Mr. Gembrul was the richest man in my village. He had a nice house, surrounded by a wall that was topped by spiky shards of glass. He also owned large rice fields. He owned not just one or two cars, but several. Unfortunately he was also very tight-fisted. His house was always locked and looked haunted. No neighbors ever visited the house unless they had a very good reason. One day my father and some villagers went to...

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