Humor in Business Tips

Years ago I was performing at a Casino in Reno Nevada right around when cell phones were starting to get big. During the first show, a guy in the front row's cell phone went off and he proceeded to answer it AND talk over me. I tried to joke around with him, but after a few minutes of him ignoring me, and still talking, I snapped. I got angry and yelled at him. Finally I got him out of the showroom, but it was almost impossible to get back into being funny. I wrapped up that show and did a second one later that night that went great – no cell phone interruptions! The next day I'm walking through the casino, when a group of people yelled, hey there's our comedian from last night. You were great. I said thanks – which show did you see? One guy looks at me and goes, you know. Oops he saw the bad one.

This week I’m talking about guidelines for using humor in business, and today's tip – don't use humor if you're angry or the group is hostile. It doesn’t work. If you're angry, it just comes out angrier, and if the group is hostile, it just sounds like you're being flip with them. In my keynotes, I do talk about how to use humor to diffuse tension . . .that's tension, not hostility. And again, YOU need to be in the right frame of mind to use humor.

I'll be giving more tips for using humor in business this week through Friday. On Saturday I'll give you a tip on finding the funny yourself – since I've sold comedy material to everyone. And on Sunday I'll have a live clip of my clean comedy.

That's it for today. Take care and enjoy your journey.