HOW TO BE FUNNY AND ADD HUMOUR

Edinburgh Festival. The fringe. Before Covid19 every year you would hear the jokes from the Edinburth Festival, held in Scotland, UK. Other festivals of comedy were held in Australia and Asia and the USA. Maybe we can all attend these in 2021. Meanwhile, time to start exploring our favourite jokes. When I went on a standup comedy course organized by Amused Moose in London, I heard about shows at the Edinburgh Festival. The cost of hiring a room in a pub can be expensive and you need lots of flyers and publicity to get your money back. Many shows are supposedly free but they pass a hat for contributions. The cost of hiring the room is not usually down to one individual, unless they are world famous, but shared by up to 20 or more participants in the sketches. The cost could be borne by a sponsor, such as a school or college or students union. What about street theatre? We saw one great act. As we approached the crowd the one man performing rushed up to me and shouted, '

First find your joke. That's easy. Can you speak another language? Can you find a stooge, a puppet, an animal, or a member of the audience as a plant? HATS & PROPS & Maps Change hats to show which language you are speaking. Or carry a flag or umbrella. If you are on zoom you can have a picture of an audience laughing, or import your own canned laughter. 1 Look up jokes and tell them about yourself or a prominent member of the audience - with their permission. 2 Find a humorous song. It doesn't matter if you sing flat. Exaggerate your bad singing and this will make it funnier. 3 Find a serious song and write a parody. Not anything which might offend. Note national events and the audience. Eg Happy birthday could be happy funeral. 4 Find humorous poems, limericks and couplets. Make up your own. 5 Prolong the joke. (See President Kennedy and German below under Germany.) American Pick presidents such as Bush. Reagan. Trump. Humorous pe

If you can't think of anything funny, quote a famous person. Quote them long enough, and you'll get the hang of it. Mostly you reverse an idea. Alphabetically by surname A JOHN ADAMS, PRESIDENT, USA ”In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm, and three or more is a congress.” JANE AUSTEN It is a truth universally acknowledged that a man in possession of a fortune must be in want of a wife. B LUCILLE BALL You see much more of your children once they leave home. VICTOR BORGE (Danish Comedian.) Santa has the right idea. Visit people only once a year. CHARLOTTE BRONTE The only difference between me and a madman is that I am not mad. C JIMMY CARTER, US PRESIDENT My esteem in this country has gone up substantially. Now, when people wave at me, they use all their fingers. DALE CARNEGIE Today is the tomorrow you worried about yesterday. Charlie Chaplin. Wikimedia. Photo author P D Jankens. C

Clowns are classic comedy characters. Famous clowns include Grimaldi, In modern times, Danny La Rue. Along came pantomime characters in Xmas plays. Marilyn Monroe appeared with two characters in drag, Tony Curtis, and Jack Lemmon,  in the movie, Some Like It Hot. Drag The classic way to be funny is for a man to dress up as a woman. You could also do the reverse. A woman with a fake moustache. Hats You could wear funny hats. A Xmas Santa hat in summer. Hair and Wigs A green wig. A red wig. A purple wig. More Subtle A bow tie in pink or red is not too outlandish but adds an air of light heartedness. Animals A cat or dog you are trying to control is bound to cause laughter if it decides to play with the microphone, hide your face, howl through your speech. Useful Websites https://www.a-speakers.com/speakers/brad-ashton-keynote-speaker/  Brad Ashton's books on comedy:  “How to Write Comedy”,  “The funny Thing about Writing Comedy”,  “The Job of a

The surprise apple has red tinged flesh. Not to be confused with anothe apple of the same name. In other words, when you order a Surprise apple, you never know which one you will get, so it is always a surprise. Surprises create laughter. Here are two ways to create surprise. The Absurd - what if? What if is a usual way to find a plot for novelists and fiction writers. You can also use it to create humour. This works best if you are creating a fictional scene. You can use it to be serious. For example, you could describe yourself packing every item in your wardrobe What if it rains - I must take an umbrella? What if my plane is diverted to Europe? I must pack Euros. What if Covid-19 keeps me there until next spring? I must pack my ski boots. You then conclude with some sensible advice on packing. Using your packing list from a previous year, The Rule of Three Tell the audience two truthful or serious facts but end with the opposite emotion, or absurb. For example: What

How can you be funny about your family? Easy-peasy. I went on an Amused Moose stand up Comedy course. We were asked to talk about ourselves, as introduction to the group. I said, "My husband and I have separate bedrooms. Mine is in London, his is in Singapore." I had not intended that to be funny. But everybody found it funny. You can see many stand up comedians talking about their nearest and dearest. Spouses. Children. Grandchildren. List All the Members Of Your Family - And Pets Mother Father Children Grandchildren Uncles and aunts Cousins Pets - dogs, cats, birds, fish, others Successes My impoverished, plain, lame aunt, the Cinderella of her sisters, had to work as a piano teacher. She married a wealthy widow whose son she taught. Failures Divorced Died young Married the wrong person Lost all their money Kept coming to you with sob stories Contrast - eg only children and big families You are an only child. Contrast with someone who has many

Punch and Judy The classic Punch and Judy show was a seaside entertainment, a favourite of children. The story is good and evil, husband and wife. GLOVE PUPPETS OR HAND PUPPETS A single puppet is good for stand up comedy. Or sit down comedy. Sooty, created by Harry Corbett, 1952 A double act of puppets. Giant character puppets. War horse, on the theatre stage. Avenue Q Tiny glove puppets FINGER PUPPETS You can buy hand puppets with a different character on each finger in supermarket bathroom departments. I bought some in Tesco in London. MARIONETTES Puppet on a string, as the song says. The cost of puppets Even the most successful puppets can be made from old what-nots. DIY puppets  As they say, necessity is the mother of invention. Here's an example or mother's coat and son's invention. Kermit The Frog Kermit the Frog first appeared on May 9, 1955, in the premiere of  WRC-TV 's  Sam and Friends .  This prototype Kermit was created

Have you had a holiday disaster? You have the ingredients for comedy. What kind of disaster? PACKING Packing Success Co-ordinated clothes: black, white, red, scarves. Packing Disasters Example Too much for the suitcase - on my return. Solution. Pack what you came with. The rest is in a second bag. Suitcases - broken and lost Broken suitcase Lost suitcase or key An American couple lost their suitcase for a fancy dress party in England. Examples Swapped suitcase with spouse (happened to me) Car What can't you do? Open the boot Turn off the alarm Happened to me in Oxford England. Lost car in car park (I lost my son in the Watford shopping mall car park. I tried to phone him but he was on the phone. Eventually he phoned me. 'Where are you, Mum." "I've been all over the the top floor and the whole mall looking for my little lime green car. It's not here. Where are you?" "Where you left on the top floor. I am not in your l

AMERICAN - BRITISH I speak the Queen's English. GREETINGS Hi - how do you do? Fine - Very well thank you Thanks a bunch - Thanks a lot A bunch of people - a group of people/a bunch of flowers ON THE ROAD Make a right - turn right TOILET STOPS yield - stop rest room - toilet FOOD pie a la mode - pie with ice cream CLOTHES pants - trousers underpants - pants CARS hood - bonnet trunk - boot SHOPPING eraser - rubber rubber - contraceptives/ Durex (brand name) the check - the bill Useful Websites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English About the Author Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer. Her books include: Wedding Speeches & Toasts Quick Quotations Writing Poetry For Fun Angela's Alarming Animal Poems

Sources of good, humorous quotations are: American Presidents, Winston Churchill, Mark Twain, Mae West, and Oscar Wilde. I have rewritten them colloquially, as I would say them. A Quotations on America Oscar Wilde, arriving in the USA, asked if he had anything to declare, replied, I have nothing to declare except my genius. Quotations on Apologies Bernard Shaw sent tickets to the first night of his play, to Winston Churchill. Churchill replied: Sorry I cannot attend your first night. I will attend the second night, if you have one. B Quotation on Berlin John F Kennedy tried to use German in his speech in Berlin, Germany. He said Ich bin Ein Berliner. A Berliner is a type of sausage, like saying, in Hamburg, I am a Hamburger. Quotations on Books Your book made me laugh and laugh. When I have time I shall open it and read it. (Groucho Marx.) C Quotations on Clubs I will not join any club which would have me as a member. (Groucho Marx.) D Quotations u

1 Humour is Essential Charlie Chaplin said, A day without humour is a day wasted. Of course it was a day wasted for him, because a well-paid comedian who is not making people laugh iss not earning money. How does that help you? If you have no other talents, you can be a comedian. In fact if you are a disaster at everything, you have stories for comedy. If your life is a total tragedy, to others it can be a comedy. It makes their troubles seem smaller. The way to learn to be a comedian is a) to watch comedy, b) watch it a second time c) copy it by writing it out d) or acting it out, e) analayse it, f) make small tweaks, g) create totally new. Learn From Brad Ashton Am I just making this up? No. I was told it by Brad Ashton. Who's he? Most people don't know the secret script writers used by comedians. Brad has written for many famous names. His book on comedy writing is used by at least one American university course. I read his book which I bough