Ralph Carlson Blog

Last summer I confessed that I can’t tell jokes.  Exploration of humor to research a blog post persuaded me that this was just one more the self-limiting lies I believe about myself.  Humor and the simple ability to tell a joke can be learned.  This was clearly the lesson of my research and so when I committed to speak at an industry conference I told myself that I would tell a joke.

Tuesday was the day.  I gave my presentation.  I opened the talk with a joke and people laughed.  I know that Jay Leno is not worried but I am excited by my accomplishment.  It wasn’t a buffo, belly-laughing joke but it opened my remarks with something funny that tied to my topic and established a relationship with my audience which I have never accomplished before.  I’m a facts guy with the right answers and I usually berate people about what they are doing wrong.  Amazingly they don’t relate to my lectures.  On Tuesday I was still the same guy telling them what they ought to do but I was able to refocus on helping them with a problem. I used a new technique that I won’t go into here for the content and organization but a good part of the success has to go to the simple joke that started it all off.

After my commitment to tell a joke no matter what the consequences because after all, it couldn’t make me any worse as a speaker, I searched the web for energy humor because that is the industry where I work.  I hit pay dirt.  The joke I found was simple, energy-related and poked a little fun at environmentalist.  I thought it would work but the real question was…could I tell it?

I personalized by telling a white lie.  I claimed that the story was from my sister-in-law in Pennsylvania where the joke is based. My story was that I like to keep aware of things in the rest of the country because sometimes California goes its own way. So it helps me when I talk to my wife’s family in Pennsylvania.  Then I told the joke and amazingly, people laughed.  It was more than the polite, humor the speaker laugh that I expected and it was all I could do to keep from giving myself a high five.  But I still had the talk to give so I just smiled and moved on.

I don’t share this to pat myself on the back.  I do it because there are probably many others who have told themselves that they can’t tell a joke and so they go through life proving that they are right instead of taking it as a challenge to grow and become a joke teller.  Believe me, if I can tell a joke, anyone can.  Stop defining yourself down. And don’t just stop at jokes.  What else is there that you believe you can’t do?  GO DO IT!

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