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5 Tips for Corporate Entertainment Success

By on November 21, 2011 in How-To Humor

I’ve had the pleasure (and sometimes pain) of doing and seeing a wide variety of corporate entertainment events for a number of different organizations. Many of them have gone phenomenally well, others weren’t quite as lucky.

Many times, the bad shows weren’t a result of bad performance or even a bad audience, but rather misguided planning. Here are 5 Corporate Entertainment Tips to help sure you have a successful event:

1. Be Clear About Your Expectations.

As someone who (presumably) knows the audience, you can help the entertainer get crystal clear on what’s appropriate, what’s inappropriate and what will result in getting the mic turned off. Some comedians are more risqué than others, knowing the audience, and sharing it with the entertainer can help make sure everyone goes home happy.

Expectations to be clear on: start time and end time (and amount of flexibility), content rating (G, PG, PG-13, R), size of audience, AV equipment, room layout, attractiveness of audience (OK, maybe not this last one).

2. Shorter is Better.

Even if you want to go “all out” for your group, rarely does more than 60-minutes of comedy go well (particularly if it’s been an all-day event). Keep it short and keep it fun. The audience should be left wanting more, not wanting the show to end.

If you do have more than 60-minutes scheduled, consider a keynote or workshop that is fun and educational.

3. Don’t Schedule Comedy During Dinner.

While it might seem like an efficient way to schedule the agenda, eating + comedy don’t go well together. Either no one laughs because they have food in their mouth, or no has food in their mouth because they’re laughing.

The best time-slot for comedy is before dinner or right after the desserts have gone out (just make sure to tell catering not to clear plates during the show).

4. Don’t Forget About Bio Breaks.

Before the comedy happens, make sure to allow time for a bio break and announce it! Nothing interrupts a comedy show more than a mass exodus to the restrooms, or worse, someone who laughs so much they… well let’s not get into that.

5. Tailor the Comedy to Your Audience.

Finally, as an event planner it’s important to consider your audience when selecting a comedian or group. The entertainment should be appropriate for the size of the audience, setup of the venue and the energy of the event. After all, you wouldn’t book U2 for a show in a conference room.

A good corporate entertainer will help you understand all of the nuances to consider.

Have any questions or concerns? Feel free to send us an email at entertainment@humorthatworks.com. Ready to book some entertainment for your next event? Check out our Corporate Entertainment Offerings.

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5 Reasons to Use Humor in an Interview

By on January 28, 2011 in Humor Benefits

When preparing for an interview, it’s likely you have been given the advice to be serious when you meet with people at your prospective job; it’s important to know that advice is absolutely wrong (unless you’re interviewing to be a funeral director, banker (of doom), or to play Buster Keaton in a biopic).

It’s true that interviews are an important part of the hiring process, and as an interviewee, you have a very personal stake in wanting it to go well, but the perception that avoiding humor during an interview is the safer option is fundamentally flawed.

Desire to control the outcome of the interview often leads people to not use humor because it feels unsafe, but the safest path is to be the greatest job candidate that any of the evaluators have ever seen. Unless you have abilities far beyond those of mortal men, you’re better off being the kind of person they want to work with.

So here, to dispel any misconceptions or misunderstandings, are 5 Reasons to Use Humor in an Interview.

1. To Show You’re More than Just a Good Worker

If you’ve been asked to come in for an interview, then either you’re already qualified for the job or the company likes wasting its time. Being a good fit for the company on paper makes you a shoo-in only if you and the other candidates are all robots.

No matter how great your resume is, people still have to work with you, so a significant portion of any interview will be spent evaluating your facility in working with others. By using humor during the interview, you demonstrate how well you’d fit in to their office environment, and showing you belong there puts you one step closer to being there.

2. To Model How You’ll Behave in the Job

Given the current trend of behavioral interviews, sometimes you may wonder how to answer interview questions diplomatically. Humor is a tool you can use to truthfully answer these interview questions while simultaneously avoiding negative behaviors like assigning blame or complaining.

When questions like “describe a time when you had to work in a challenging work environment” come up (and they will), humor is an especially good way of discussing the difficulties in a positive manner.

By showing you have a sense of humor about a situation that was likely stressful when you were in it, you clearly demonstrate that you have moved on from negative aspects of the situation and now see it as a learning experience. In other words, you’re showing your interviewer that you’re a model employee.

3. To Demonstrate Your Social Skills

It’s hard to be successful and a misanthrope unless you own your own business or happen to be a fictional character. Not many people interview themselves before starting their own business and I have it on good authority Gregory House doesn’t visit this site, so neither of those audiences will be addressed in this article.

Unavoidably (and luckily), workplaces are filled with people. Depending on your role at work, you may be called on to interact with these fellow humans occasionally, or even more frequently than that.

In fact, several times a year you may be called upon to interact with coworkers in a purely social setting, rather than a work-related setting. Using humor during an interview sends a strong signal that you can navigate the professional and social dynamics of the company.

4. To Show You Can Roll with the Punches

Just like when you’re on the job, things can go wrong during an interview. Rather than being bad, these moments are opportunities to show how calm and unflappable you are. Being able to bring levity to a situation that would cause stress in other people provides a very concrete example of you handling a potentially frustrating or stressful situation without becoming unpleasant to work with.

5. To Get To Know The Other Person Better

At a fundamental level, every interview is the same, because every interview is a conversation. When approached this way, an interview is an opportunity for you to engage with the interviewer and, all job considerations aside, forge a connection with another human being.

Humor is a powerful tool for creating an open and honest feeling. When someone smiles, you know if it’s genuine or forced (just ask Guillaume Duchenne).

The base honesty involved in sharing humor acts to build trust where everyone involved can be more open, which makes it more likely you and the interviewer will have a great— and memorable— talk.

Just look at it from the interviewer’s perspective. After interviewing a number of people over the course of several days, are you more likely to remember the person who answered every question perfectly by rote, or the person who you had a great conversation with and actually made the time you spent with them enjoyable?

Got your own thoughts on using humor in interviews? Share them in the comments.

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Using Humor to Create Fun Surveys

By on December 2, 2010 in How-To Humor

A survey is only as good as the responses it receives from the responders. One way to increase the number of survey responses is to use humor to make your surveys fun. You can easily do that in one of two ways:

A fun survey

  1. Adding humorous questions among your standard survey questions, or
  2. Asking your standard survey questions in a humorous way.

The benefit to your responders is that they enjoy taking the survey more and the benefit to you is that you get more responses.  These rules apply to just about any survey you could think of: employee surveys, customer satisfaction surveys, training surveys, surveys about surveys–you name it, humor can help.

Ready to make your surveys fun? Here’s how to do it.

Adding Humorous Questions Among Standard Survey Questions

The easier way to add humor to your survey is by adding interesting questions to it, just for the sake of humor. This is as easy as picking a question or eight (such as any from 50 Questions to Get to Someone) and adding them in between your “serious” questions.

The key to doing this effectively is to design it in such a way that it doesn’t cheapen your survey or negatively impact its results. To accomplish this,

  1. Use a 4-1 ratio of 4 serious survey questions for every 1 humorous one. This allows you to have fun survey questions without detracting away from the most important questions.
  2. Where possible, use humorous questions that are related to or inspired by your actual questions. This keeps people from straying too far away from your subject matter. If this isn’t possible, keep the humor questions simple so they don’t require too much thinking (you don’t want to wear out your responders).
  3. The humorous questions should be appropriate and upbeat for your audience. You don’t want your responders to be offended (or in a bad mood) while they’re answering questions about employee satisfaction or your site design.

As for specific survey questions to use, there are countless, just use your imagination. If you’re lacking inspiration, take the Humor That Works Survey for some sample survey questions, or adapt a few humorous questions from 50 Questions to Get to Know Someone.

The added bonus to this method is that it will make the analyzing your survey results that much more fun, because in addition to getting the survey research you wanted, you’ll also learn your responders’ favorite colors or hear a humorous one-liner.

Asking Standard Survey Questions in a Humorous Way

The other option for adding humor to your surveys is through spicing up the serious questions you want answered. This keeps the focus on what you want to know but does it in a way that is more engaging to the responders. To do this,

  1. Include humorous measures along with real ones.  Instead of using a standard scale of 1 to 5 in your training survey, try using a scale that draws on your subject matter (such as a scale of Ha (1) to Hahahahaha (5)).  You still accomplish your goal, but it’s more engaging than the typical approach.
  2. Use humorous examples to demonstrate what you’re looking for.  This is a perfect time for the comedy rule of 3, allowing you to have two real examples and a third humorous one.  You accomplish your goal of giving an example while at the same time injecting humor into your survey.
  3. Provide humorous responses as possible answers.  The last option for any given question can be one that is included for humor, not for a legitimate response.  The key watchout here is that people may choose your humorous answer instead of an actual one, so only do this on survey questions you would be OK not getting a serious response on.

Using Humor to Create Fun Surveys

Adding humor to your surveys can go a long way in improving your response rates and can help you get more engagement from the responders. As the responders realize you’ve sprinkled humor throughout, they’ll start looking forward to the upcoming questions to see your use of humor instead of dreading the questions to come. Do it consistently in each survey and they’ll start looking forward to answering future surveys.

If you want to see a sample survey that uses these tips, and wouldn’t mind helping me better address the humor needs of you as a reader, fill out the Humor That Works Survey.  It’s guaranteed to make you laugh (or at least smile (or at least click the mouse a couple of times)).

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Mentos and Mentors

By on September 13, 2010 in Learn with Humor

I recently read a fun article, titled Mentor or Mentos: A Comparison, that talked about some of the differences between Mentors (the guiding person) and Mentos (the candy).  As I thought (and researched) more about it, I realized the two m-e-n-t-o words have more in common than you might think.

But first, here’s a classic Mentos commercial to get us started.  (Seriously you should watch it, not just to put a smile on your face but also so you understand some of my references below.)

For more of the best Mentos commercials, check out the Top 10 Classic Mentos Commercials.

The Name

This one is obvious (for English speakers), the words “Mentos” and “Mentors” are just one letter off.  The word Mentor has been around longer–it was the name of a character in Homer’s Odyssey, though the modern definition stems from a book from 1699;  Mentos were first introduced in the 1950′s in the Netherlands.

The Product

Mentos are described as “small oblate spheroids, with a slightly hard exterior and a soft, chewy interior.”  The best mentors are the same way (ignoring the spheroids-shape thing): they have a slightly hard exterior (meaning they won’t be afraid to give you constructive criticism) and a soft interior (ultimately they want you to succeed).  If your mentor doesn’t call out what you’ve done wrong or what you could do better, it’s like have Gummi bears instead of Mentos–sure their nice to have, but they’re not going to help you fix a suit you just got paint on.

The (Known) Benefit

If the Mentos jingle is to be believed, and I think we can all agree it can be, then “(Doo doo doo doo, doo-doo, do-Wah!) It doesn’t matter what comes, fresh goes better in life, and Mentos is fresh and full of life.”  As with Mentos, if you have a mentor, it doesn’t matter what comes because, between you and your mentor, you’ll be able to figure it out.  Nothing will get to you because you’ll stay fresh with new ideas from someone else who is experienced and can provide an outside perspective, and you’ll be cool with the confidence knowing that someone who is doing (or has done) what you ultimately want to do has your back.

The (Secret) Benefit

Most people know the main benefit of Mentos–they’re enjoyable candies you can snack on (and they can help you solve everyday problems).  Most people know the main benefit of Mentors–they’re enjoyable people that help propel your career with expert guidance and perspective from years of experience (and they can help you solve everyday problems).  But an additional secret benefit has recently come up for Mentos and Mentors.  For Mentos, it’s the amazing ability they have to turn Diet Coke into an awesome geyser.  For Mentors, it’s the amazing ability to turn a mentor into a more knowledgeable, connected leader.  The term is called “reverse mentoring” and it’s the insight and perspective a more experienced person can learn from a newer person in the workplace.  Sure, watching an exploding geyser of Diet Coke is more fun than witnessing reverse mentoring, but it’s probably not as valuable to your organization (probably).

Sources:

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Team-Building Activity – Line Up

August 13, 2010

One of my favorite team-building activities of late has been the “Line Up.” It’s an exercise that involves all of the participants lining up single-file according to a specified criteria. As an example, you might have everyone line-up alphabetically by first name.  As you specify different criteria, you can add conditions like not being able [...]

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Old Spice: The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

July 24, 2010

The most recent Old Spice campaign has generated over 100 million views online; the Old Spice channel on Youtube has over 100,000 subscribers; there are nearly 700,000 fans on Facebook.  What started out as a well-done commercial for Old Spice has turned into a hilarious internet phenom–and all of this for body wash and deodorant. [...]

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50 Questions to Get to Know Someone

June 2, 2010

Want to get to know me better (or anyone really)?  Just ask one of the below “get to know you” questions… they’re meant to be fun, interesting questions that can help you learn more about the person you are talking to.  These questions can be great for team-building, learning more about your fellow co-workers, and [...]

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5 Myths of Humor at Work

February 24, 2010

When you take a look at all of the benefits of humor, it’s hard to understand why there isn’t more humor at work.  This is getting better (I don’t think they were having a whole lot of fun in the coal mines, but I could be wrong), but there is still far too little fun [...]

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10 Life Tips from Improv Class

January 31, 2010

“Life imitates art far more than art imitates Life” – Oscar Wilde Though the art/life debate is similar to that of the chicken/egg, I am a firm believer that much can be gained from taking a look at art to reflect on our life (take the “What I Learned From” series for example).  With that [...]

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5 Reasons You Should Always Carry a Pen

January 21, 2010

One of the things that has always stuck with me from the stand-up comedy world was always having something to write with. You never know when inspiration will strike, and when your job relies heavily on creativity, you want to capture every idea you can. Even though I now do most of writing and note-taking [...]

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