How To Be Funny

Book Review

Jan 24

How To Be Funny

When you think about the word funny, who comes to mind? Does a close friend or family member come to mind? Is it an actor, or maybe it's you? I don't consider myself to be a funny person. Maybe a little funny looking, but not funny. Maybe you feel this way about yourself too. My job as a minister is to connect and communicate with a wide range of people. Sometimes I preach from stage, other times I teach classes, and I even meet with people one-on-one. If I’m not able to connect with the people I’m around, then I don’t feel like I’m doing my job well. Part of connecting with people happens through humor. People tend to enjoy being around people that make them laugh. Thats why I want to learn more about how to be funny.

We have all heard those humdrum preachers that have made us magically need to "pee" just to give our ears a break. We've participated in classes with teachers that sound like Ben Stein. I'm willing to bet that we have all talked with people that are social duds. If you haven't, well that probably means you are that person. Just kidding, none of us can be that bad…right? We dread these types of things and don’t connect with them. But if our pastors, teachers, and people we meet with have a good sense of humor, we really tend to engage in the conversation and enjoy being around them.

When it comes to public speaking and in relationships, I feel that one thing I lack is a little humor. I have set out to be funnier and try to make people laugh. I’m not talking about becoming a professional comedian or anything. I just want to use humor as a tool to help hold people's attention when I speak and build better relationships. A couple of weeks ago I found the book “How To Be Funny” by Jon Macks at my local library.

Jon Macks is a comedy and political writer. His shows have won 24 Academy Awards, and he writes speeches for actors and political candidates. His clients include Chris Rock, Billy Crystal, Jay Leno, Martin Short, and Steve Martin, just to name a few. He was one of the head writers for the 2020 Democratic Convention. But don’t let this deter you from reading further.

On top of all this, he has written five books, of which “How To Be Funny” is one of them.

In this book, Jon teaches the basics of how to bring humor into everyday life. It's a great book for anyone who speaks in front of a crowd and needs to be engaging with other people. “How To Be Funny” provides helpful and somewhat funny tips and anecdotes from comedy legends such as Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, and Billy Crystal along with a few others. He even has tips from Princess Leia! Who knew she was a comedian!? Jon also gives beneficial ideas on where to find humor, different types of humor, and how to use humor in life.

Who is this book for? This book is for those of us who need/want more laughter in our lives and for those who need to keep people's attention in public speaking. If you need to know where to deliver killer one-liners, if you need funny comeback lines, tension-breaking banter or want to win an argument with your spouse this book may be a good read for you. Or if you're like my friend Russ and need to know when and what kind of jokes are appropriate then this book may be for you as well.

Who should not read this book? If you are a Republican and get offended by off-handed jokes about Republicans and politics then this book is not for you. I almost put the book down because of some of the sociopolitical jokes Jon said in the book, but I pushed forward. If jokes about religion upset you, be warned there is a small amount of those as well. If you are wanting to become a professional stand-up comedian, that is not what this book is about, but it might be a good read anyways.

"How To Be Funny," is an easy and humorous read. It took me about 5 hours to read. Overall, I learned a few good things from this book. In fact, I put some of the tips from this book to the test this last Sunday while I was preaching, and IT WORKED! I was actually able to get the audience to laugh at a few jokes that I worked into my message. On top of that, I've made my wife laugh a little more as well. So to me, the book was worth reading. You’ll be at least 2% funnier if you implement the tips in this book.