God has a sense of humor.
If you don't believe me, watch ducks waddle. Or listen to them quack.
Watch penguins slipping and sliding on the ice.
Listen to the chatter of chimps and monkeys.
Hyenas aren't the only animals that laugh.
Ponder the platypus for a moment or two. And remember, those existed long before nuclear accidents.
God created us in His image, so it only makes sense that we would have a sense of humor too. Many of us prove God has a sense of humor all by ourselves.
Since God has His Holy Sense of Humor, logic dictates that His Holy Word would reflect that sense of humor. Not that the Bible is a hilarious joke book. It's not. But it's not devoid of humor either.
Especially since the Bible reveals the foibles and follies of mankind. Ever since we traded our holy natures for a bite of produce, we've been making poor decisions. We’ve become flawed because of our sin. Our thoughts and actions have become incongruous with the divine nature we once enjoyed. And incongruity creates all kinds of comedy!
Jacob doesn't realize he married the wrong woman until the next morning. Really, Jacob? Not even a "Hey Rachel, how you doin'?"?
Balaam's talking donkey. Seinfeld will tell you: Talking animals are funny!
Elijah's sarcastic taunting of the prophets of Baal. He even suggests that their "god" must be sleeping, on vacation, or going to the restroom!
To escape Saul, David hides among the Philistines. But then the Philistines recount how David has killed so many of their own. Obviously, the only sensible thing he can do is to act insane. Which he does brilliantly. Scratching the door posts and letting saliva run down his beard.
And that's just the Old Testament! I'll post detailed excerpts from my book in a future blog. In the meantime, remember, God loves you and has a wonderful plan for your life, so embrace that plan with joy and enthusiasm. We're called to be born again, not bored again.
Share a laugh with someone you love today!
Blessings & Joy,
Dean
Monday, May 30, 2011
Sunday, May 29, 2011
Audible's Free Trial Gives You the Chance to Get a Free Audio Comedy Book!
Or whatever kind of audio book you like from their massive selection. Only good while the offer lasts. Some restrictions apply. Not valid for current members nor those who already took advantage of this or similar offers before. Otherwise, enjoy!
I first joined Audible.com after listening to some audio books from the library. I especially enjoyed "Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin where the iconic "rock star" of comedy from the late 1970s/early 1980s recounts the development of his standup career. Although this book contains some comedy; this is more of a memoir or journal, really an autobiography of that phase of his life. He shares some jokes and their origins and he plays a few banjo riffs as segues. That book helped inspire and empower my section "Tips on How to Write Like Steve Martin" in my forthcoming book: "How to Write All Kinds of Comedy Jokes!" (Or whatever the title will be. I'm still open for suggestions.)
I had already read "Born Standing Up" once and listened to it at least twice from the library, so I didn't want to have to pay for it, so when I saw the chance to get a free audio book from Audible.com, I jumped on it!
Audible.com offers two special introductory offers:
and 
It's one or the other. I jumped on the one that said free; and free is always good. But I think the other deal's even better. Free gets you a free audio book and a 14-day free trial, which is just less than half a month. But the $7.49 for a month for 3 months saves you the cost of 1 1/2 months, not just two weeks. So if you already know the value of audio books, try the second offer. Whichever one you choose, enjoy!
I had fun searching through their collection of audio books so much that I actually chose a different book than "Born Standing Up". I picked Greg Dean's "Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy" (Unabridged) which gives you 7 hours and 17 minutes of instruction on how to put together and perform standup comedy routines!
After that, I got "The Woody Allen Collection: Without Feathers, Getting Even, Mere Anarchy, Side Effects" (Unabridged) 11 hours and 53 minutes of Woody Allen reading his own comedic short stories and humorous essays! Includes an exclusive Audible's 31 minutes, 15 seconds interview with Woody about his recording experience. If you like Woody Allen's prose, this one's by far the best value, because you get to hear him read four books' worth of prose and listen to the interview with him too.
Next I chose "Abbott & Costello: Masters of Comedy" -- 8 hrs and 11 mins of my favorite comedy team!
Finally, fourth, I picked "Born Standing Up". (Actually, that was much later than fourth, because I found several freebies on Audible.com that I downloaded before that.)
With Audible.com, you can download a vast selection of books to enjoy on a variety of listening devices. I don't have any of those listening devices yet, so I just listen to them on my computer. But you can listen to them on your Kindle, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.
My idea was that I could play audio books on comedy and how to be funny while I slept; and then when I awoke, I'd be hilarious! A man can dream; right? Besides, I love reading, but when my eyes get tired, I put my ears to work. I especially love hearing an author read his own book. I hope to record audio versions of my own books some day too.
So enjoy their $14.95/month Gold Membership for only $7.49/month for the first three months and also enjoy the many items and services which are Free for Members.
Or, with the free trial, you can give it a try for 14 days and still enjoy the many items and services which are Free for Members for those two weeks.
If you must hold a book in your hands and read it yourself, here are the books I mentioned in this blog post that are for sale at Amazon.com:
The Woody Allen Interview and "Abbott & Costello: Masters of Comedy" are solely sound recordings and thus, unavailable in book form.
And whether you read or listen, always learn something new every day!
By helping to make yourself a better person,
you're helping to make the world a better place.
Blessings & Joy,
Dean
I first joined Audible.com after listening to some audio books from the library. I especially enjoyed "Born Standing Up" by Steve Martin where the iconic "rock star" of comedy from the late 1970s/early 1980s recounts the development of his standup career. Although this book contains some comedy; this is more of a memoir or journal, really an autobiography of that phase of his life. He shares some jokes and their origins and he plays a few banjo riffs as segues. That book helped inspire and empower my section "Tips on How to Write Like Steve Martin" in my forthcoming book: "How to Write All Kinds of Comedy Jokes!" (Or whatever the title will be. I'm still open for suggestions.)
I had already read "Born Standing Up" once and listened to it at least twice from the library, so I didn't want to have to pay for it, so when I saw the chance to get a free audio book from Audible.com, I jumped on it!
Audible.com offers two special introductory offers:
It's one or the other. I jumped on the one that said free; and free is always good. But I think the other deal's even better. Free gets you a free audio book and a 14-day free trial, which is just less than half a month. But the $7.49 for a month for 3 months saves you the cost of 1 1/2 months, not just two weeks. So if you already know the value of audio books, try the second offer. Whichever one you choose, enjoy!
I had fun searching through their collection of audio books so much that I actually chose a different book than "Born Standing Up". I picked Greg Dean's "Step by Step to Stand-Up Comedy" (Unabridged) which gives you 7 hours and 17 minutes of instruction on how to put together and perform standup comedy routines!
After that, I got "The Woody Allen Collection: Without Feathers, Getting Even, Mere Anarchy, Side Effects" (Unabridged) 11 hours and 53 minutes of Woody Allen reading his own comedic short stories and humorous essays! Includes an exclusive Audible's 31 minutes, 15 seconds interview with Woody about his recording experience. If you like Woody Allen's prose, this one's by far the best value, because you get to hear him read four books' worth of prose and listen to the interview with him too.
Next I chose "Abbott & Costello: Masters of Comedy" -- 8 hrs and 11 mins of my favorite comedy team!
Finally, fourth, I picked "Born Standing Up". (Actually, that was much later than fourth, because I found several freebies on Audible.com that I downloaded before that.)
With Audible.com, you can download a vast selection of books to enjoy on a variety of listening devices. I don't have any of those listening devices yet, so I just listen to them on my computer. But you can listen to them on your Kindle, iPhone, Android, Blackberry, etc.
My idea was that I could play audio books on comedy and how to be funny while I slept; and then when I awoke, I'd be hilarious! A man can dream; right? Besides, I love reading, but when my eyes get tired, I put my ears to work. I especially love hearing an author read his own book. I hope to record audio versions of my own books some day too.
So enjoy their $14.95/month Gold Membership for only $7.49/month for the first three months and also enjoy the many items and services which are Free for Members.
Or, with the free trial, you can give it a try for 14 days and still enjoy the many items and services which are Free for Members for those two weeks.
If you must hold a book in your hands and read it yourself, here are the books I mentioned in this blog post that are for sale at Amazon.com:
The Woody Allen Interview and "Abbott & Costello: Masters of Comedy" are solely sound recordings and thus, unavailable in book form.
And whether you read or listen, always learn something new every day!
By helping to make yourself a better person,
you're helping to make the world a better place.
Blessings & Joy,
Dean
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
How to Write All Kinds of Comedy!
Welcome Comedians/Comediennes and Comedy-Enthusiasts!
You can be a lot funnier than you are! Even if you're already really, really funny.
Keep track of comical notions that pop into your head. You can turn your hilarious thoughts into jokes.
Find the Funny! Look for the incongruities and ironies of life! For instance: Before we acquire wisdom, we have all kinds of energy. But once we have a clue or two, we're too feeble to do much of anything.
How can we turn that into a joke?
First that fact manifests itself best with the way children want to help us with household chores when they're too young to be of any use, but when they are old enough to help, they often dread the thought and resent the inconvenience.
Children want to wash the car before they're old enough reach the roof. But once they can scrub the top, they'll only wash when they have a hot date. (The car and themselves.)
Not hilarious, but too true.
Be consistent! Write every day!
Writing 10 jokes a day is a worthwhile goal. If only 10 % are funny, you'll still wind up with 365 new funny jokes a year! And the more you write, the funnier you should become.
Writing consistently helped me write my first book:
Holy Laughter! Humor in the Bible
Practice and improve! Keep learning! Study the jokes of others, not to use someone else's material, but to understand better, and to enjoy, their joke construction. Good jokes give you goals for which to work. Bad jokes give you encouragement, because you know you can do better than that.
Learn and apply the techniques of comedy. And analyze what you find funny and why.
These concepts: "Comedy Writing Secrets" "The Secret to Comedy" "How to Write Comedy Jokes!" "Surefire Joke Formulas" "How to Make Anybody Laugh" fascinate me! So much so, that I will soon publish my own book on the subject! "How to Write All Kinds of Comedy!" (Or "How to Write Funny Jokes!") Which title do you think sounds best?
Until then, let me recommend a few others:
When I had to prepare my first full-fledged, full-length standup comedy show, I relied heavily upon and followed religiously Steve Roye's Killer Comedy Tips and Techniques. He helps you discover how to create reams of comedy material especially suited for you.
Click Here for Steve Roye's Top Comedy Secrets!
Click Here for Steve Roye's Killer Comedy System!
Other great books about writing comedy:
Overall, one of the best:
Great for movies and sitcoms:
Great for sitcoms:
Other great books for standup comedy:
Blessings & Joy,
Dean
You can be a lot funnier than you are! Even if you're already really, really funny.
Keep track of comical notions that pop into your head. You can turn your hilarious thoughts into jokes.
Find the Funny! Look for the incongruities and ironies of life! For instance: Before we acquire wisdom, we have all kinds of energy. But once we have a clue or two, we're too feeble to do much of anything.
How can we turn that into a joke?
First that fact manifests itself best with the way children want to help us with household chores when they're too young to be of any use, but when they are old enough to help, they often dread the thought and resent the inconvenience.
Children want to wash the car before they're old enough reach the roof. But once they can scrub the top, they'll only wash when they have a hot date. (The car and themselves.)
Not hilarious, but too true.
Be consistent! Write every day!
Writing 10 jokes a day is a worthwhile goal. If only 10 % are funny, you'll still wind up with 365 new funny jokes a year! And the more you write, the funnier you should become.
Writing consistently helped me write my first book:
Holy Laughter! Humor in the Bible
Practice and improve! Keep learning! Study the jokes of others, not to use someone else's material, but to understand better, and to enjoy, their joke construction. Good jokes give you goals for which to work. Bad jokes give you encouragement, because you know you can do better than that.
Learn and apply the techniques of comedy. And analyze what you find funny and why.
These concepts: "Comedy Writing Secrets" "The Secret to Comedy" "How to Write Comedy Jokes!" "Surefire Joke Formulas" "How to Make Anybody Laugh" fascinate me! So much so, that I will soon publish my own book on the subject! "How to Write All Kinds of Comedy!" (Or "How to Write Funny Jokes!") Which title do you think sounds best?
Until then, let me recommend a few others:
When I had to prepare my first full-fledged, full-length standup comedy show, I relied heavily upon and followed religiously Steve Roye's Killer Comedy Tips and Techniques. He helps you discover how to create reams of comedy material especially suited for you.
Click Here for Steve Roye's Top Comedy Secrets!
Click Here for Steve Roye's Killer Comedy System!
Other great books about writing comedy:
Overall, one of the best:
Great for movies and sitcoms:
Great for sitcoms:
Other great books for standup comedy:
Blessings & Joy,
Dean
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