Most people who know me will probably remember the time I took a stand-up comedy course, culminating in a live gig. For anyone else though, let me explain why I did it.
Like many people, public speaking makes me a bit nervous. I like to try and develop myself and overcome such fears and weaknesses though. So I decided to do what any sensible person would, and throw myself into the most personally nightmarish situation I could think of. I hoped it would be much like in Fight Club (but fighting replaced with making-a-dick-of-oneself); “after that, the volume on the rest of your life is turned down”.
It was an also a bit of an attempt at thrill-seeking. But whereas most people in need of an adrenaline rush go bungee-jumping or hang gliding, I told jokes in the back room of a pub to a couple of hundred drunk Scousers.
I won’t recount my entire adventure in stand-up comedy – that’s for another blog post - but I will say that ever since I’ve been very interested in the process of writing jokes. And to that end, entered the recent heavenly humour contest at the Humour Power blog. I was pleased to find today that one of my lines was picked among the top few:
“You know you’re in heaven when you’re hanging out with Einstein, Shakespeare and Hendrix. And you’ve not been drinking.”
I also quite liked some of my other lines (but I would). They were:
- You know you’re in heaven when there’s nothing on the news about terrorism. And it’s not just because Paris Hilton is out of jail.
- You know you’re in heaven when you can always find a bathroom when you need one. And it’s not in a McDonalds.
- You know you’re in heaven when Richard Dawkins admits he’s wrong.
- You know you’re in heaven when spam is nothing but a tinned meat product.
As you can see, some were better than others. But at least when a joke bombs online, you don’t get bottles thrown at you…
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July 18, 2007 at 7:59 pm |
You can’t assume we’re not throwing bottles, it’s just easier to dodge them in cyber space!!!! LOL!
(I’m sorry!)
July 18, 2007 at 8:15 pm |
I found your blog from the “Heavenly Humor” contest on John Kinde’s Humor Power site (www.humorpower.com). Your entries are absolutely brilliant – especially the Dawkins reference! Here’s another fine blog you’ve hooked me into!
July 21, 2007 at 9:18 pm |
Yes: Your response was way better than “first and Second Placers ” in the
Kinde Kontest. They were “Just” PUNS; yours had “Character”
( Real Characters ) and “History” (depth ) going for it . Puns are ( usually )
just “slight – of – mind” — just “playing with the TOOLS of Language.
January 21, 2009 at 2:28 pm |
I like the Dawkins one