FINDING YOUR FUNNY MUSCLE: Introduction

A good laugh can feel better than sex on drugs in a rock-and-roll hot tub.

Know why?

Because your mind and body and mood all get a literal rise out of laughter.

Guffaws give us an emotional, physical, and energetic lift that’s cheaper than caffeine, less fattening than carbs, and 100 percent free of whatever that frothy funk is floating in rock-and-roll hot tubs.

In fact, it’s been scientifically proven (based on my one Google search) that laughter:

• Enhances your intake of oxygen-rich air.
• Stimulates your heart, lungs, and muscles.
• Increases the endorphins that are released by your brain.
• Relieves stress.
• Empties your bladder (if you do it right!).

And all for free, with no hangovers or sudden weight gain.

The most hilarious people you can think of have been funny their entire lives.

So, if that’s not exactly you, it makes sense that you might feel like you weren’t meant to be all that funny or weren’t meant to make other people laugh.

Wrong!

Sure, being born with a natural sense of humor helps with getting laughs, but that’s not the only route to becoming funnier. Anyone with a clear understanding of how humor works, even the most serious of people (squirrel tamers, federal workers, etc.), can learn how to create jokes that make people laugh.

That’s exactly what I’m going to teach you how to do in this book.

Why me?

Well, I’ve been funny since just before birth (once during an ultrasound, I mooned my parents). Plus, from 1990 through 2014, I toured the US as a stand-up comedian and improviser, making groups of drunk strangers laugh for money. I did packed shows from Chicago to New York to LA at bars, then clubs and theaters, on ships, and on radio and national and cable TV. I even did a yearlong run in Las Vegas.

(Tough to do all that without becoming famous, but I managed to get the job done.)

When I started to make a living at being funny, I wanted a better understanding of my natural “gift” so that it wouldn’t be such a mystery. I figured if I could break down how comedy works—you know, understand the nuts and bolts of what goes into creating a good laugh—then maybe I could reverse engineer the process. That way I could learn to create funny material sitting at my desk in my boxer briefs, instead of having to be fully dressed on a stage in front of a tipsy crowd to do it.

Turns out, there IS a method to the madness of creating laughter.

After decades of studying and performing the craft of comedy, mostly while wearing pants, I have put together a simple but effective game plan for creating laughs.

I call it the Humor Blueprint.

It unapologetically borrows from several classic laugh-creating strategies that the pros have been using over centuries of busting guts:

• Premise, setup, and punch line
• Yes, and-ing
• Heightening your Comedy Lens
• How BLANK is it?
• McGraw’s Benign Violation Theory

I didn’t invent any of those brilliant concepts—the same way Einstein didn’t invent energy or mass or light. However, just like phat Albert, I have glued it all together in a simple way to clearly explain a concept—getting laughs—that for most laypeople can seem as complex as mass/energy equivalence.

It doesn’t have to get complicated to be fun-E (equals MC2).

And you ain’t gotta be no Einstein to do it!

The humor blueprint is easy to learn and apply to your own world. It can help anyone learn how to create more laughs, especially if you think you’re the most unfunny person in the world.

Or if you’re always trying to be funny but only get groans and headshakes.

Or if you’re already sorta humorous or, maybe, a yet-to-be-famous comedian.

Absolutely anyone can use the humor blueprint to take their funny to the next level. It’s a simple-to-follow game plan for finding more humor in your world and turning it into laughs.

Okay, I’m getting the light, so I’ll wrap up this intro …

Bottom line, humor isn’t some obscure concept that only the chosen few can master.

‘Funny’ doesn’t come from a bone, either – bones are stiff and rigid, and humor is not.

Funny is flexible and elastic and grows stronger with use like a muscle, a Funny Muscle.

And every human being is born with their own Funny Muscle.

You’ve got one, too, or you wouldn’t have picked up this book (using your pick-it-up muscles, I bet).

True, some Funny Muscles start out less developed than others. But once you discover yours and understand how it operates, you can begin exercising it just like a slender bicep or wimpy quads. The bonus is with this game plan it gets flexed using your own Comedy Lens, which means it’ll have your flavor of funny smeared all over it.

This book will teach you how to:

• Find and flex your ‘Funny Muscle’
• Discover your own Comedy Lens
• Use the Humor Blueprint to get laughs
• Exercise your Funny Muscle the same way the pro comics do
• Squeeze more laughter out of life, which will (literally) do your body good

You may even get some humor insights that you haven’t stumbled upon just yet.

DISCLAIMER: Plenty of funny people have taught me what they know about comedy and some of their gems are mentioned in this book. I do my best not to ‘Peggy Hill’ any of it. So, whenever I share someone else’s take, I give them full credit with safe links so you can follow up on them. Please be sure to check out their material and buy their books and bits and leave great reviews the same way I have and will continue to do.

Now let’s get started finding that Funny Muscle of yours.