August 2011
Beginner
712 pages
16h 22m
English
One of the most pervasive pieces of advice bandied about in the presentation trade is to start a speech or a presentation with a joke. Wrong! No one can guarantee the success or failure of any joke—certainly not a businessperson, but not even a professional comedian.
Consider Johnny Carson. The legendary talk-show host spent 30 years on late-night television telling jokes written by a crack team of professional, experienced comedy writers, but the jokes didn’t always work. Fortunately, one of Johnny’s greatest assets was his ability to recover from failed jokes. Whenever a scripted gag elicited no reaction or even groans from his audience, Mr. Carson mugged a silent take or made a comment about ...
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