“Speeches fail because they focus on the speaker not on the audience” – Phillip Khan-Panni

In the run up to the International Speech Contest Division B put on a public speaking seminar with Phillip Khan-Panni, former three-time U.K. & Ireland Public Speaking Champion, silver medallist in the World Championships and also former member of my home club Grosvenor Square Speakers. Read the rest of this entry

I cannot believe that it’s been 16 years since the legendary American comedian Bill Hicks died. I included him on a previous post I made about the 32 Most Influential Comedians. It only seems like yesterday that I had discovered his comedy on a compilation cassette tape (told you it
was a long time ago) when I heard that he’d died. Channel 4 aired a tribute show called “It’s Just a Ride” which also featured his last U.K. performance titled “Revelations”.

Here’s the quote that inspired that documentary’s title and also the
title of this post: “The world is like a ride at an amusement park. And when you choose to go on it, you think that it’s real because that’s how powerful our minds are. And the ride goes up and down and round and round.
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Ok alright I admit, I’m a comedy snob. You dragged it out of me. There are you happy? I really wanted to get into Bo Selecta, but I couldn’t.

I admired what Leigh Francis did, but as for actual physical laughs… none were to be found from me.  I did laugh once, and it was a short one, when the “neck-brace guy character” described Kelly Osbourne as having a lot of face. Read the rest of this entry

I’ve written before that I have a love hate relationship with joke stories or, street jokes. Let me clarify the sort of thing I am talking about:

Two campers are walking through the woods. A huge brown bear appears just ahead of them. The first guy drops his backpack and digs out a pair of trainers. The second guy goes: “you’ll never be able to outrun a bear.” So the first guy says: “I don’t need to be able to outrun the bear, I just need to outrun you”. Read the rest of this entry

In recent years there has been a “fashion” for some celebrities to try their hand at stand-up comedy. We’ve had DVDs from ex-Cricketer Phil Tufnell, sitcom actor Ricky Tomlinson and creator of The Office and Extras Ricky Gervais. Whilst for Tomlinson and Gervais it seems a natural progression of their comedy careers, it seems a bit incongruous for Tufnell. With some of the celebs you get a lesson in how NOT to be comedian.

Each of the above three have had success with the transition despite some seeing it as a cynical ploy of cashing in on their successes in other areas. Read the rest of this entry