An interesting TEDx talk on Your Brain on Improv. It doesn’t have a lot of conclusions but it does give an insight as to what’s happening when you improvise and how that may relate to creativity.
interesting
This is a Book Review for Comic Insights: The Art of Stand-Up Comedy
Book Synopsis
If you want to build a stand-up comedy career, this book is a must read. If you want to write comedy, this book is a must-read. If you simply enjoy comedy …this book is a must read. Part One offers essential advice about understanding the fundamentals of stand-up, studying other comedians, finding your own style, writing your material, working the live performance, and appearing on television. Fascinating, candid, insightful interviews with today’s top comedians, who discuss at length why and how they do what they do, comprise Part Two, the bulk of the book. The third and last part of the book addresses your stand-up career through interviews with noted comedy club owners, an agent, a personal manager, and a television talent co-ordinator.
My Thoughts
If you’re looking for a book on how-to do stand-up comedy, this isn’t exactly it. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good book though; it is. As the name suggests, this book is for those looking for insights into what it means to do stand-up, and things to keep in mind when first starting.
Part One starts with one of the better breakdowns I’ve read for the elements of Stand-Up (Point of View, Honesty, Delivery, Timing, etc), and also gives the lay of the land for structuring material and performing in clubs. You won’t walk away from the first part with a set-list to perform, but you will have a much stronger sense for how to start thinking about creating one.
Part Two is where things really get good–tips, tricks and insights from some of the top comedians of the 90′s and early 00′s. While their comments won’t help you write a joke, they will give you a sense of what stand-up comedy is really like, what it takes to be successful and things to do/avoid as a comedian. Of all the sections, this is where I did most of my highlighting.
Part Three starts to hint at things to do if you want to be successful in the business of comedy by sharing thoughts from various managers and club owners. There are some helpful sections and interesting ideas, but there’s nothing written that will dramatically improve your skills in the industry. One of my favorite quotes did come from this section, from Jamie Masada: “The greatest good deed you could do for people [is] to make them laugh.”
My Favorite Part
The best part of the book is Part Two, specifically the excerpts from George Carlin and Jerry Seinfeld. And one of the pieces of insight that’s stuck with me the most, and applies to other areas of life, comes from Paul Reiser: “Watching a mediocre comic will trigger you. You’re not inspired by greatness, you’re inspired by mediocrity.”
The Bottom-Line
If you’re looking for a how-to write stand-up book, I’d recommend picking up something else. But if you want to improve your stand-up, or at least your understanding of it, pick this up to get into the minds and thoughts of some of the former juggernauts of the game.
Rating (out of 5): 
Buy it on Amazon: Comic Insights: The Art of Stand-Up Comedy
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photo by brokenarts
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 on my phone, I still always carry a pen with me, and here are 5 reasons you should do the same:
1. To Capture that Great Idea
I already gave this one away, but the number one reason to always carry a pen is to be able to take note of anything at a moment’s notice. And don’t think that this doesn’t apply to you if you aren’t a comedian–the solution to the budget crisis at work could come to you while standing in line at the grocery store, and you’ll want to make sure you’re able to remember it.
It also helps to have a notepad with you, but it’s much easier to find something to write on (such as a receipt, napkin or your forearm) than it is to find something to write with.
2. To Speed Things Along
While having a pen isn’t always required, there are instances it can speed things up. How many times have you been at a diner paying for your grilled cheese and chocolate milk only to have to wait 10 minutes as the cashier searches for a pen that works? When you have one in your pocket, there’s no wait.
This may not happen every day, but when you consider all the things that require your handwriting (credit card receipts, deposit slips, autographs for adoring fans), carrying a pen is easily justified.
3. To Highlight the Important Stuff
A recent revelation I had was that I could just as easily highlight key passages in a book or magazine using a pen as I could using a highlighter. Now instead of needing an additional utencil in my bag or at my desk, I’ve always got one in my pocket to take note of that life lesson from Watchmen.
4. To Improve Motor Skills
Before the days of iPhones and other gizmos, you had to find more creative ways to stay awake in class or meetings. With a pen, you can not only entertain yourself but also improve your motor skills and impress the one girl in your computer engineering class with your pen-flipping skills.
OK, so maybe flipping a pen won’t attract the opposite sex, but it can help prevent Alzheimers.
5. To Open a Letter
With the gradual decline of snail mail, a full-fledged letter opener seems a bit overkill. But when the mail fairy does bring you that special handwritten letter from a friend or loved one, you’ll want to be able to open it without destroying the letter inside. With a pen, it’s easy to do. Using the pen cap and a little finesse, you’ll have yourself a pen /letter opener in no time.
Got a utencil you love or a unique use for a pen? Share it in the comments.
We’ve all been there. We’ve all sat down to see a presentation, and within the first 3 slides, we already know that this is going to be another boring meeting that will slowly sap us of any energy, creative ideas, and hope for humanity (ok that last one might be a bit extreme). We’ve also all been on the other side of the presentation–the one giving it.
The secret to having a presentation that people are engaged in is starting off strong in the first 3 slides. With just a few tweaks, you can kick-off your presentation with energy, engagement, and have the audience’s attention.
Learn by Example
For the purpose of this post, I’ll be using a hypothetical example to show each of the suggestions in action. For our mythical presentation, let’s say the subject matter is training on a complex tool that is used for tracking expenses, we’ll call it “Expense System”.
Why a technical presentation? Because some people might be thinking that if it’s a technical training then there’s nothing you can do to “ease the pain”–but those people would be wrong. By starting off with humor, you get the audience listening from the start, which can help you throughout the “eye-chart” slides that explain the tool. If you don’t do technical trainings, don’t worry, these tips will work for your presentations as well.
Let’s start with…
Slide #1 – The Title Slide
Many people treat the very first slide as a “throw-away” slide. It’s your title slide: Name of Presentation, Name of Presenter, Date. But it’s much more important than that. By having a compelling title, or subtitle, you can pique the curiosity of the audience and get them eager to learn more. Which sounds more interesting: “Expense System Training” or “How to File Expenses in Less than 10 Minutes”? The slides that follow could be exactly the same for the two titles above, but which one are you more interested in listening to?
Slide #2 – The Agenda Slide
The second slide of your presentation should be the agenda. While an agenda isn’t particularly exciting, it tells the audience what to expect over the course of the next XX minutes you’ll be talking. You don’t have to spend a lot of time on this slide, but you want to give an overview of each bullet point. As is true for every slide in your deck, don’t read exactly what you have typed on the slide, and feel free to show some creativity in the individual discussion points. For example, your agenda might look like:
- Introduction – What’s this all about?
- Launching the Application and Beginning Your Journey
- 7 Clicks to Completed Expenses
You could then say the following, in reference to the agenda topics:
“Over the course of the presentation, we’re going to introduce what the Expense System is and what it’s supposed to do. We’re then going to share how you can get started with the application, and then provide the details on how to quickly get everything you need into the system.”
Slide #3 – The Metaphor Slide
The third slide of your presentation is where you either hook the audience or lose them, because the third slide is your first “real” slide. Many presentations get right into the meat of the topic, but this is where a quick detour can greatly improve your presentation. Humans learn by metaphor, by connecting what they are now being taught with something that they already know. This is why sharing a creative metaphor for your training (and referencing it throughout) can greatly increase the retention of the training that you give.
But don’t be intimated. The metaphor you find doesn’t have to be something epic, such as the deep metaphor for life/death in the movie No Country for Old Men. It’s as simple as connecting it to a single idea. The easiest way to do this is to find an image, video, or quote, or think of a personal anecdote, that parallels your topic.
For our Expense System example, I might try to find two images that represent the old way to do expenses (a picture of a horse-drawn carriage) and the new way (a shiny new Mustang), drawing parallels between how the old way was slower, required more maintenance, and smelled funny, and how the new way is faster, has more features, and can get you a date on the weekends. Then throughout the training, as I hit key topics, I can tie them back to the horse / car metaphor. Now, when the user is trying to remember your training, they can think, “Oh yeah, I can find my summary on this tab because it’s like the dashboard on the Mustang.”
Slides 4, 5, 6…
The rest of your presentation can then become more technical. But you’ve now captured the attention of the audience and already have them listening and ready to learn. It helps to also have other examples of humor scattered throughout the presentation, either in the form of additional metaphors, interesting tidbits or asides, but focusing on your first three slides sets the stage for you to deliver a successful presentation.
For more tips on presenting, check out all of our posts on the topic of presentations.
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