For the last seven years Jay Arthur, a master practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has been studying and reverse engineering how comedians think. With his co-author Karyn Ruth White, a standup comedian and professional speaker, they have refined the process and come up with the essential skills of how to think like a comedian.
In Your Seventh Sense you'll find a step-by-step guide to creating and developing humor. There are four main steps:
1. Prospecting for Humor: First learn to develop your comedy radar.
2. Mining the Humor - The next step involves creative lateral thinking. Comedians ask themselves: "What's this like?" "How are women like cars?" "How is dating like a laundromat?" Learning comedy is a great way to develop your creativity.
3. Refining the Humor - Next, comedians distill their thinking down into the traditional joke format: setup-punchline-punchword. "Take my wife please!"
4. Presenting Humor: Finally, determine what point of view, attitude, and character would be best for this particular joke. Are you mad, sad, or glad? Is it hard, weird, scary, or stupid? What do you do when you bomb?
This book also has detailed examples from actual workshops about how to develop a joke from start to finish. There is even a chapter about how to add humor to any speech; it's ideal for corporate executives or anyone who speaks to groups. Anyone can do it. It is up to you to decide how far you will take your comedy career...Maybe just to a backyard barbecue or all the way to a comedy club.