Specific Tips for Comedy Writing Pt 4

This is the fourth in a short series of specific, technical tips for writing funny. This is the kind of work that expert, experienced comedic speech writers do, whether it's a funny speech for a wedding, birthday, anniversary, retirement, bar mitzvah, corporate or business event, or a civic public speaking engagement:

A Person’s Career or Hobby

When writing about someone’s career or hobbies, it’s important to stay away from anything too tragic or embarrassing. You might try: “Herman is quite the surgeon. With my own eyes, I have seen him separate the inferior lateral gluteous from the ventricular pectoralis. And that was just the boiled lobster.” Or, “Debbie’s a certified public accountant. I better be nice to her, or she’s going to report my poker winnings.”

Specific Tips for Comedy Writing Pt 3

 This is the third in a short series of specific, technical tips for writing funny. This is the kind of work that expert, experienced comedic speech writers do, whether it's a funny speech for a wedding, birthday, anniversary, retirement, bar mitzvah, corporate or business event, or a civic public speaking engagement:

Specific Personal Attributes and Qualities

As with personal appearance, make the jokes about qualities that your subject would take pride in, or that are widely known as safe topics for ribbing. For instance: “Aunt Nadine acts incredibly youthful, like she’s a fraction of her age. Last year at her birthday we hired a clown. And she still cried and ran away.” Or, “Brian is pretty oblivious to holidays. He asked me 'What's the date for 4th of July?” There's a way, in a funny speech or roast, to make fun of someone's qualities- good or bad- without causing serious embarrassment or hurt feelings. 

Specific Tips for Comedy Writing Pt. 2

This is the second in a short series of specific, technical tips for writing funny. This is the kind of work that expert, experienced comedic speech writers do, whether it's a funny speech for a wedding, birthday, anniversary, retirement, bar mitzvah, corporate or business event, or a civic public speaking engagement:

Personal Appearance

If you joke about someone’s personal appearance, it’s important that your subject have a good sense of humor about the topic. Making a public joke about someone’s attractiveness, baldness or obesity can be embarrassing for a family member or friend unless they are open and comfortable with such issues. Does the person regularly joke about these topics upon meeting a total stranger? If so, then it could be fair game.

Is Uncle Joe extremely tall? You could write: “It makes sense that Joe loves living in the Valley, because when he stands up, he’s actually above the smog.” That line combines a gentle dig at a local geographic area with a gentle dig at an attribute — height — which almost no one is going to mind being ribbed about.

Say one of the honorees is an extremely beautiful woman: “Cousin Sally is quite a looker, as everyone knows. It’s almost annoying. At her table, we had to include place settings for three stalkers.”

Will Sally or anyone else mind that you made a joke about her attractiveness? Probably not.

Specific Tips for Funny Speech Writing #1

 This is the beginning in a short series of specific, technical tips for writing funny. This is the kind of work that expert, experienced comedic speech writers do, whether it's a funny speech for a wedding, birthday, anniversary, retirement, bar mitzvah, corporate or business event, or a civic public speaking engagement:

1 - General Writing Rules

Try to keep the jokes general rather than too inside or obscure — those things only your family or closest friends would understand. Not everyone has to know every reference, but in most cases it’s important to shoot for recognition by at least 60 percent of the audience.

Jokes have a specific structure — a setup and punch line, not the other way around. Jokes can be as short as one sentence in length, but it’s important that the setup not go on too long; consider that your audience has been sitting in shul for several hours and a long setup might not play well.

Part of comedy comes from specificity, so when “punching” a joke — writing the ending words — “fish” can usually be replaced by “halibut” or “red snapper,” and “car” can usually be replaced by “Prius” or “Buick Skylark.” Some words just sound funny, like “halibut” and “Prius.” Develop your feel for that, and then use words that have a sharp, crisp, funny sound.

Use exaggerated or mixed-metaphor comparisons. For instance, “He’s made more people cry than Simon Cowell.” Or, “Her report cards have seen more A’s than the Oakland Coliseum.”

And it’s OK to get a little edgy or negative with your humor, but do not cross or possibly even get too close to the line. Know your crowd. If they are all pretty salty and irreverent, up and down, you can go a lot farther than if they are primarily prim, proper and socially conservative. You can ruffle feathers, but don’t singe them or rip them out.

Where and How Humor Fits in to Various Life & Work Situations

I like to remove misconceptions about the alleged need for seriousness and propriety in life and work situations that do not require such restrictions. 

Most people probably realize that at a private/personal gathering or event, like a wedding, anniversary, birthday, bar mitzvah, home retirement party, or even a funeral, some excellent cutting humor- tight, fitting jokes and such- is almost always extremely appropriate. And much needed!

Using strong humor shows that you have a sense of fun and irreverence about life, that you care about people's time and the toll put on their attention span by speeches and events. It conveys that you care about entertaining them and making them feel good, rather than just taking their time to listen to something purely "serious". 

If you don't happen to be a naturally sharp, effective comedy writer, it is advisable for private/personal events to hire an experienced, proven comedy speech writer, who writes funny speeches that utilize powerful and effective humor. When you get to experience the laughs, smiles, applause and hearty compliments afterward, you will freshly realize the immense positive effect of humor for speeches given at private life event parties and gatherings.

Perhaps less people realize that in the vast majority of business or corporate events that requite public speaking- whether it be a keynote speech, a quarterly check-in meeting, a sales dinner, a major employee promotion recognition, a lecture before industry peers, annual company outing or what have you, that well-places, sharp, cutting-edge humor- jokes, punchlines, laugh lines- are not only far more appropriate and allowed than one may think, but they are a crucial part of the public speaking of many of the most charismatic, powerful, likable and successful corporate and business achievers out there. 

At Funny Biz Speech Writers we happen to know this for a fact, not only by studying various fields and industries with regard to the use of strategic and tactically placed humor, but also from the feedback and results of our own very happy clients. Something powerful to think about in your own life and professional career, whatever your position, industry, job title or specialty. 

       

What I Love about Custom Writing Personalized Funny Speeches for People's Events.

I love custom writing funny speeches for weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and corporate, business or public speaking events. I love bringing immense value and creating powerful moments for my clients and their families, friends, co-workers, customers- whoever the audience might be. 

I am very interested in people and their lives- their attitudes, quirks, strengths and weaknesses, likes and dislikes, complex histories, offbeat anecdotes- all of it.

I get to know something about my clients and the people in their lives they are going to talk about, and my clients are very often impressed by my willingness to dig a little bit deeper to find the connection, the meaning, the history behind the reference or joke. I take my position seriously, both in terms of writing extremely funny, sharp lines designed to wildly entertain, and also to understand and honor my clients and their friends and family as a sympathetic, trusted, confidential observer. 

The unexpected joy and surprise, the wow factor and the uproarious laughs- that's a big part of why I do what I do and put so much of myself into this creative work. 

If you have a private or business/public event coming up, please reach out- I would love to answer any questions, send you appropriate funny speech writing samples, tell you more about my comedy background, my writing process and the results I've seen countless times in the reports and the videos from my clients' events. That's a real promise and an assurance- you shouldn't have to worry about your next speech or presentation being incredibly entertaining and attention grabbing. Leave that work up to me. It's what I do and what I'm quite simply very good at. -Adam Gropman @ Funny Biz Speech Writers

Funny Biz Writers  

Funny Biz Writers Helped Write This Fun Book!

                       

Funny Biz Writers took an interesting assignment and helped to write the book 'Creative Thinking Journal', put out by the company Pilgrim Soul.

It's an interactive journal book that you wrote in, with really fun creative exercises that get you thinking, imagining, and out of your regular intellectual zone, into a more playful, whimsical and free-flowing creative state.          

The exercises have a lot of humor in them and in the examples, but they also offer profound lessons in making new mental connections and help you to build the create and artistic parts of your brain. 

You can find the creative exercise journal on Amazon or at PilgrimSoul.com, online. It's gotten great reviews on social media and various review websites. This is just another type of creative and humorous writing that Funny Biz Writers excels at.