Allen, Steve (1998). How to Be Funny. Amherst, NY: Prometheus. How To Be Funny

Bonham, Tal (1988). Humor: God’s Gift. Nashville: Broadman Press. Humor: God’s Gift

Carter, Judy (2001). The Comedy Bible. Fireside Book. The Comedy Bible

Cousins, Norman (1979). Anatomy of An Illness. New York: W.W. Norton and Co. Anatomy of An Illness- As Perceived by the Patient

Klein, Allen (1989). The Healing Power of Humor. Los Angeles: Jeremy P. Tarcher, Inc. The Healing Power of Humor

Garland, Ron (1991). Making Work Fun. San Diego, CA: Shamrock Press. Making Work Fun Doing Business with a Sense of Humor

Hemsath & Yerkes (1997). 301 Ways to Have Fun At Work. San Francisco: Barrett Koehler. 301 Ways to Have Fun at Work

McGhee, Paul E. (1996). Health, Healing and the Amuse System. Dubuque: Iowa: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Health, Healing and Amuse System

Orben, Robert (2000). Speaker’s Handbook of Humor. Springfield, MA: Merriam Webster. Speaker’s Handbook of Humor

Peale, Norman Vincent (1952). The Power of Positive Thinking. New York: Fawcett Columbine. The Power of Positive Thinking Robertson, Jeanne (1998). Don’t Let The Funny Stuff Get Away. Houston: Rich Publishing Company. Don’t Let the Funny Stuff Get Away

Wilde, Larry (2000). Great Comedians Talk About Comedy. Mechanicsburg, PA: Executive Books. Great Comedians Talk About Comedy

Mark Twain’s “Our Fellow Savages” Humorous Speech in 1866

by Ron Kurtus (revised 8 August 2005)

After Samuel Clemens became famous as the writer Mark Twain, he started giving humorous lectures at age 31. “Our Fellow Savages of the Sandwich Islands” was his favorite lecture. He gave a version of this speech in his debut as a professional platform entertainer in San Francisco in 1866 and gave it almost 100 times until 1873.

Questions you may have include:

How can I use this speech to improve my writing skills?

How can I use this address to improve my speaking skills?

What is its historical significance?

This lesson will answer those questions.

Learning from speech

Read this humorous address to gain insight on improving your speech writing, public speaking, and historical knowledge. Perform the exercises below, in your area of interest.

Speech writing

Note that this speech is based on Twain’s observations and writings. He is presenting himself more as a personality than as a fine public speaker. The text of his speech probably is not a finely written speech, rather a transcription of his ramblings. (more…)

Humor – Tips for Using It in Talks and Speeches
By Cy Eberhart

There are many occasions when you can find yourself speaking to an audience. These can range from report to club members to a formal talk or lecture at a professional gathering. Whatever the occasion you want information be of interest and remembered.

Humor can help you achieve both goals.
Now this is not the same as giving humorous talk. That is a most difficult speech to deliver effectively, requiring a special talent and skill. These tips have to do with the
use of humor in your presentations, whatever these may be, to help make your
points clear and remembered.

Everything that said in my previous article, Humor – Tips for Using it in Everyday
Conversation, also applies to using humor in speeches. But public or platform
speaking at is sometimes called does have some additional considerations. Almost
every professional speechwriter agrees on what the important ones are.

First

You are speaking to present an idea or discuss a subject. Use only those jokes or
bits of humor that help you do that. A funny story that has nothing to do with your
subject won’t help you or your audience. Often a person is inclined to begin a
presentation with a joke or humorous story. Your are immediately on shaky ground
when you do. You have, in effect, a stand-alone bit of humor. It may or may not get
the laugh you want. If the audience does not laugh, then you’ve lost that moment of
initial interest audiences always give a speaker.

One way to overcome this risk is making sure your opening story has a point so
strong that even if the laugh does not come, you can continue immediately
focusing on the point of your story.

Second

With humor you can actually make a point three times. You make your statement,
follow it with your joke to highlight or illustrate what you just said, then you restate
your original point. Three times you made your point: Your statement, the
illustrative joke, a restatement. The listener, in recalling the humor at a future time,
also recalls the point associated with it.

One comedy-writing technique to help you fit a story to your subject is called
“Switching.” You can change either the build up or the punch line for it to fit your
subject matter.

Example of changing the build up:

Original:

Neighbor: Do you like your new sister, Tommy?

Tommy: Oh yes, but there are lots of things we needed more.

Switched:

Friend: I hear your mother married again. Do you like your new father?

Tommy: He’s all right, but there’s lots of things we needed more.

Example of changing the punch line:

Original:

Desperate panhandler: Lady, I haven’t eaten in four days.

Rich lady: Young man, you must learn to force yourself.

Switched:

Panhandler: Lady, I haven’t eaten in four days. Can you help me.

Rich Lady: Certainly. I recommend The Ritz, a wonderful restaurant on 14th
Street.

Take time to practice switching jokes. Beside being fun, it will expand your
story file.

Third

Try to personalize and localize your stories. Instead of saying “a man” and “a city”
give the man and the city names that the audience recognizes. If you can use their
locale and people in the audience, so much the better. Work yourself into the joke
as though you saw it happen, and if you can become the fall guy, better still. They’ll
love you for it.

Fourth

When your joke has quotes, deliver them in the style of the jokes above. Do not say,
“He’s all right,” said Tommy, “But there’s lots of things we needed more”. That’s OK
in writing, but in speaking it slows down the story.

With a practice you can make amusing stories funny ones.
(c) Cy Eberhart 2006

As a hospital chaplain Cy Eberhart, (now retired) was a firsthand witness to the
entire spectrum of human emotions: personal successes and failures; the deepest
despairs and the great peaks of joy. Two questions remained foremost in his mind:
How was it that some could find inner strengths that brought courage and hope and
others could not? What was to be learned from these experiences that would have a
positive and creative effect for daily, routine living?

His lectures, writings, workshops, book In the Presence of Humor and his living-history
performances of America’s famed humorist
Will Rogers offers some of the answers.

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