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Look beyond the obvious. In his humor-writing classes, award-winning teacher Greg Gagliardi tells students to steer clear of well-known targets (read: cafeteria food). Instead, he urges them to find what's funny in, say, vending machines or pencil sharpeners. Miraculously, they usually do. If you want funny, he says, dig deeper.
It's the relationships, stupid. If the very idea of doing stand-up makes you want to sit down, keep this in mind: The funniest people don't hog the spotlight -- they deflect it. "Herb is obviously quite a character," says Colleen Barrett, president and chief operating officer of Southwest Airlines, about the company's legendary founder, Herb Kelleher. But he's not merely an exhibitionist. "It doesn't matter whether they're friends or passengers or employees," Barrett says. "He loves people and it shows."
Gotcha! Sometimes you have to sneak up on people to get them to laugh. Once Barbara Corcoran hired a motorcycle gang to "crash" her barbecue. Guests were outraged -- until they realized the joke was on them. Then they hopped on and went for rides. "People love surprises," Corcoran says. "There just aren't enough surprises in life."
Turn it around. Next time something embarrassing or horrible happens, take heart -- someday it could be funny. As Carol Burnett said: "Comedy is tragedy plus time."
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