One of my favorite things about storytelling is its weird, mystical ability to turn the wretched into funny. Honesty is the storyteller’s best friend in all things, but with humor, it’s just required without question. Nothing is funnier than the truth.
In 2015, Kevin McGeehan told a story on The Moth about the final days with his terminally ill mother. I was gob-smacked and immediately Googled to see if he taught storytelling anywhere. It was a quick, short search. He taught improvisation at The Second City Hollywood. I arranged a coaching session and flew out to meet him for coffee. (Link to story at bottom of post)
Kevin had me email some stories so he could choose the best one for oral storytelling. One story I sent him was about a phone conversation with my mother. The story he liked was about dropping our oldest daughter off for her freshman year in college. In the dorm room I froze holding a beautiful pair of her sandals, unable to let them go, while everyone else was organizing her new life. He chose the sandal story because the Mom story was just a daughter complaining about her mother, and therefore, yuck.
Kevin believes we, “Tell stories from scars, not wounds.” Yes, this is widely known among storytellers, but I wasn’t a storyteller yet, so this philosophy rocked my world.
By using the scar guideline I’ve been able to add perspective and humor in crafting stories, and thank God, also to my life.
Some thoughts on humor:
In his Ted Talk, The Skill of Humor, Andrew Torvin laid out five reasons why humor is essential in storytelling:
- Gets people to listen
- Increases long-term memory retention
- Improves understanding
- Aids in learning
- Helps communicate messages
In my experience, all of these things have proven to be true.
Here are a few things I’ve used, some successfully even, in crafting stories.
Share your point of view, invite your personality out to play. It’s you, your uniqueness, that brings the audience in to care about you, ideally anyway.
Kevin McGeehan suggests telling two events, or two moments, and then sharing how you felt at the time. This can be a timing thing for comedy but also can allow a space for a quick personal interpretation for all seriousness. For exp:
- He looked like he was about to punch me.
- And then, he tried…
- I hated him and the troll he rode in on, so I kicked him and took off, forever.
The rule of three is a principle that suggests people better understand concepts, situations, and ideas in groups of three. This is a quote from someone who studied this, but I cannot find it!
I recently took an Erma Bombeck ‘writing funny’ class with Marta Kaufman, creator of Friends. Marta’s suggestion: “Mine your embarrassment.” Some of us will have more stories than others…
Erma Bombeck: There is a thin line that separates laughter and pain, comedy and tragedy, humor and hurt. Specificity always, Dive into the details and find the funny.
There is always,120% of the time, room for hyperbole.
Personally, finding what’s funny in our truth gives some unique distance for perspective. Looking for the humor helps me not take myself so seriously and has even saved my life.
Last favorite story thing: finding the lighter/laughable qualities in a human you either love or loved, lets them live again in that same delightful light.
"A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking." Steven Wright
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