A Tapestry of Storytellers' Tips and Tales
© Yvonne Healy 2003. All rights reserved.
Published: www.creativekeys.net/StorytellingPower
Yvonne Healy Shares Her Ideas on Humor
- Take yourself lightly.
- Third time's the charm: introduce the bit, repeat the bit, twist the bit.
- Take risks. Make mistakes. Comedian Martin Short claims 30% or more of his material is horrendous - a sacrifice in the search for humor.
- Unexpected gifts are found along new paths.
- Stretch your face before performance. Like vocal warm-ups, stretching makes it more flexible and expressive.
- Find a different way to say the same old thing. Jack Benny was praised as one "who says things funny, as opposed to a comic, who says funny things."
- Watch old comedy films & TV variety shows. Trained in vaudeville, these comics adapted classic material, tailoring it to their speech rhythms & personas, and considered it an honor to be emulated but not copied.
- Include loving-kindness when poking fun at anyone including oneself.