How To Be Funny

Some people say that you can't teach stand up comedy or for that matter teach somebody how to be funny. And while I do believe you are born with talent and you develop skill, I also know that if you have a reasonable amount of intelligence and a command of the English language you can learn the structures of how to manipulate words to take something seemingly mundane and turn it into something funny.

All it takes is a little surprise. Sid Caesar said, "Comedy is a story with a curlicue." If you tell me a story and you give it a surprise ending, you have just written your first joke. Tell me something about yourself:

Comedian Tim Bidore used to open with this joke: "I come from a big family�four Moms, five Dads�" He just took something mundane, a cliché of everyday life and changed the ending. It's unexpected. It's a surprise. It's a curlicue. Funny? Well, the audience still laughs every time.

How about when you go to the grocery store. When you check out, what does the clerk always say? "Did you find everything you were looking for?" Right? How do you usually respond? By saying, "Yes." Because even if you didn't find everything you were looking for, you just don't want to deal with it. What if you really looked at that question and answered it in a unique way?

First, look at the question: "Did you find everything you were looking for?" We know what he/she means when they ask that question. What they're asking is: Did you find everything you were looking for while you were shopping today. What if we blew it up a little. What if we took the meaning to the next level Did you find everything you're looking for well in a universal sense, what do most people look for? The meaning of life, or a soul mate, or love. So what if we took one of those interpretations and responded to the question differently? Does it change? Let's look:

Clerk: Did you find everything you were looking for?

Me: (Looking at the items on the conveyor) Well, I found some wine and some candlelight, but I couldn't find a soulmate. You had Mahi-Mahi, but I'm just not into twins.

Now you have something that's clever and unique. It will get a laugh every time and since it's impossible to hate someone who makes you laugh, the next time you go into that store, they're going to have everything you're looking for!