Humor Speech (Blog)

[Steve Pavlina]

Use this thread to discuss the following entry from Steve Pavlina's blog:

Humor Speech

[tomjen]

Thank you, I had a couple of good laughs and that got me thinking - why dont you try to write more of your blogposts this way? It might get you a larger audience (who come for the humor but end up getting a few ideas with them)?

Second, I would not be happy to read about your demise.

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by tomjen

Thank you, I had a couple of good laughs and that got me thinking - why dont you try to write more of your blogposts this way? It might get you a larger audience (who come for the humor but end up getting a few ideas with them)?

I don't use a lot of humor in my blog posts because writing a really funny article takes much longer. For example, this 900-word speech probably involved 12-15 hours of writing and refining. To write and edit a 900-word non-funny article takes about an hour.

[Lallymac]

I joined a Tacorians (similar to Toastmasters) night class a few years ago and wrote, scrapped, rewrote my final speech several times to no avail. I went for a run on the beach to clear my head a couple hours before the final showdown, hoping for inspiration. The criteria was to present a personal perspective on a local community issue. I'd noticed the new plastic dog shaped bins the council had installed for conscientious dog owners to deposit doggie doo doos. The head of the dog flipped back to reveal a toilet seat and the local paper had called them dog dunnies.

As I was running, along I watched a little Jack Russell run up to one of the dog dunnies, **** it's leg and run off. I wrote my speech on how the dog dunnies at Long Bay Beach discriminate against short legged dogs.
I got my certificate and brought the house down. My motto now is, if in doubt, make them laugh.
Lallymac

[seeker5]

Steve, that was hilarious reading, especially about the cantaloupe. I think cantaloupe is a great choice, because it bought up in my mind at least, reference to the Tom Hank movie "Adrift" where he talks to a ball.

Very smart and funny with the reference to VP of Education, etc, I'll remember that for usage in my toastmaster club sometime.

So I take it you don't mind saying false statement for the purpose of humour? I've debated internally about whether to do that or not. So far I've chosen not to say false statement for humour in my speeches unless it's quite obviously untrue. I'd be interested in understanding your reasoning behind your usage of false personal statements for humour purposes.

[cdn2wheeler]

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

I don't use a lot of humor in my blog posts because writing a really funny article takes much longer. For example, this 900-word speech probably involved 12-15 hours of writing and refinining. To write and edit a 900-word non-funny article takes about an hour.

I can second this. Oh, can I EVER second this.

Writing humour can be monumentally difficult. Part of the reason that is, I think, is because almost all humour is based on tragedy - the slip on the banana peel, the pie in the face, the Three Stooges bumbling and fumbling and all the rest - and it's not an easy process to bring those two very human elements together.

The other part is that what may be funny for me may not be for you, and of course there's also the issue of the "politically correct" police...

[Zukin]

Congratulations on your speech! The text was hilarious, so I can imagine how funny it would be live.

Also, I have a question that may sound sarcastic, but I don't mean to be snarky:
If you can reprogram reality, why didn't you win the contest?

My guess is that it was your intention to have fun and learn. If that was the case then you were a great success!

[seeker5]

Originally Posted by cdn2wheeler

The other part is that what may be funny for me may not be for you, and of course there's also the issue of the "politically correct" police...

I don't think Steve pays too much attention to that type of police.

[Steve Pavlina]

Originally Posted by seeker5

Steve, that was hilarious reading, especially about the cantaloupe. I think cantaloupe is a great choice, because it bought up in my mind at least, reference to the Tom Hank movie "Adrift" where he talks to a ball.

Yeah, he talked to a volleyball named Wilson.

So I take it you don't mind saying false statement for the purpose of humour? I've debated internally about whether to do that or not. So far I've chosen not to say false statement for humour in my speeches unless it's quite obviously untrue. I'd be interested in understanding your reasoning behind your usage of false personal statements for humour purposes.

If the speech is meant to be humorous -- in this contest the whole point is to give an original speech that makes people laugh -- it doesn't have to be factually correct. A lot of stories comedians tell are just made up, although they may be based in truth. The log entries for the speech were entirely made up, but the experiment itself was real.

[Steve Pavlina]

Regarding political correctness... in Toastmasters part of the scoring for speech contests includes "Appropriateness" for the particular audience. A speech that's overly offensive would be downgraded by the judges. If you read John's commentary, you'll see a couple jokes I considered but dropped because they could have been considered offensive by some.

I figured making fun of the different Toastmasters officer's positions would be acceptable, and it helped bring the audience into the speech. It's well known in Toastmasters that Area Governor is a tough, hard-working position that requires a big time commitment, so those jokes worked very well.

[seeker5]

I figured making fun of the different Toastmasters officer's positions would be acceptable, and it helped bring the audience into the speech. It's well known in Toastmasters that Area Governor is a tough, hard-working position that requires a big time commitment, so those jokes worked very well.

The expectation and involvement of Area Governors in your area must be much higher then that of the Area Governors in my division. In my Division, I never had the impression that the Area Governor position required much of a time commitment or effort. I've just heard that it was quite of a fun position. However, the VP of Education, that's one heck of a demanding position.

Originally Posted by Steve Pavlina

If the speech is meant to be humorous -- in this contest the whole point is to give an original speech that makes people laugh -- it doesn't have to be factually correct. A lot of stories comedians tell are just made up, although they may be based in truth. The log entries for the speech were entirely made up, but the experiment itself was real.

Ah ok, thanks for answering. That make sense.

[lizthefair]

You are right on about the value of competition. I've not gotten involved in Toastmasters, but I did competitive forensics in high school and college, and I'm sure that has everything to do with how comfortable I am in front of a group today....

[raymond]

Thanks for the new perspective. It excites me especially when you spit out all the physics terminology.

As a person with some physics background, I agree with you that this is cause by the different energy level.

Look at the visible light and x-ray. They are the same thing. They are waves that's vibrating at different frequency.

Law of Attraction attracts things through resonance.

[Andrew Brunelle]

I am just curious, Steve, regarding your use of humor, you said you did some stand-up comedy recently. I was wondering what the nature of your material was about because I myself am a comedian. I would find it hard to see you doing comedy talking about lucid dreams and atral projection to people who have never experienced them, so I was wondering what you joked about. Moderators, feel free to put this in another forum or whatever if it doesn't fit the topic.

I just would like to hear a bit more of the humorous Pavlina.

[Steve Pavlina]

I did improv, so the topic isn't chosen in advance. The audience supplies the initial scene info, and then we make up the scene as we go along.


Some pretty funny lines can come out in improv in an unexpected way. Here's an example of a scene I did with a couple other players. There's no script -- we're making this up as we go along.

Scene: 3 French chefs cooking a fancy meal in a restaurant kitchen

Chef 1: I am making ze soup. It is ze special swan soup.

Chef 2: Ze soup smells very nice. Let me taste. [takes a taste, chews a bit] Oooh, ze swan is too hard.

Chef 3 (me): [to Chef 1] Idiot! Did you forget to bone ze swan?

We all busted up laughing for a minute after that line and could barely continue the scene. It took me a good 5-10 seconds to figure out why everyone was laughing so hard.

[Andrew Brunelle]

I've always wanted to do some improv. I bet it would help my stand-up. Although my comedy is more one-liners like STeven Wright, I would love to splice some observational humor on the fly about the club and whatnot. I have moments like that too where I say something everyone thinks is completely hilarious and I have no idea why until they explain it to me or I reflect on it momentarily. Funny stuff, man.