September 17, 2025 • 42 mins
Can laughter really be a leadership strategy?
In this episode of the Business Roundtable Podcast, host David W. Carr speaks with Adam Christing, keynote speaker, founder of Clean Comedians, and author of The Laughter Factor: The 5 Humor Tactics to Link, Lift, and Lead.
Adam shares how humor can serve as a shortcut to trust, a spark for creativity, and a bridge that connects leaders to their teams. His five humor tactics—surprise, poke, in-jokes, wordplay, and amplify—show how laughter, when used with purpose, can transform culture and communication.
In this conversation, you’ll learn:
Connect with Adam Christing:
Website: https://adamchristing.com
Book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/800211/the-laughter-factor-by-adam-christing/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.
Watch more episodes on YouTube and subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business
Connect with Steward Your Business:
Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarr
In this episode of the Business Roundtable Podcast, host David W. Carr speaks with Adam Christing, keynote speaker, founder of Clean Comedians, and author of The Laughter Factor: The 5 Humor Tactics to Link, Lift, and Lead.
Adam shares how humor can serve as a shortcut to trust, a spark for creativity, and a bridge that connects leaders to their teams. His five humor tactics—surprise, poke, in-jokes, wordplay, and amplify—show how laughter, when used with purpose, can transform culture and communication.
In this conversation, you’ll learn:
- Why leaders who use humor well build stronger trust and engagement
- How humor can break tension and foster resilience in challenging moments
- Practical ways to add humor to presentations, meetings, and daily leadership
- Why laughter is more than entertainment—it’s a tool for influence and connection
Connect with Adam Christing:
Website: https://adamchristing.com
Book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/800211/the-laughter-factor-by-adam-christing/
Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/business-roundtable--6049255/support.
Watch more episodes on YouTube and subscribe here:
https://www.youtube.com/@steward_your_business
Connect with Steward Your Business:
Website: https://stewardyourbusiness.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidwcarr
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Welcome back to the Business Round People podcast. I am
your host, David Carr, founder of Steward your business bringing
people together to accomplish great things. And I am so
honored to have a guest, Adam Christy, who I've known
for years, here on the podcast today with us. Welcome Adam, Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you, David. Great to be with you today.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, well you and I go away back and I'm
super excited because you are. You're not You've just done
so many things. We're gonna get into it today, but
you have. You are the founder of Clean Comedians. You
have done so many events and MC. In fact, you
were ranked I think number one MC in LA Best
(00:52):
of La. You've over done thousands of events. I mean,
just so many different events.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well I thought I thought my mom was the only
one who remembered that. David. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
See there you go. See we're gonna get lots of
comedy in here. Adam is great, Thank you, and I
had the honor. And some of you guys don't know
because I've done I'm not doing it as active as
I once did. But years ago I had my own
dj MC company and I love entertainment, and Adam, I
had to give me the honor of being able to
be the MC of his daughter's wedding, which I felt
(01:24):
really a privileged to do because he is a pro
at this and he invited me to be a part
of that, and we've known each other ever since. And
now it has a great new book coming out called
The Laughter Factor, which we're going to get into as well,
which I'm super excited about. But Adam, just thanks for
coming on here. Thanks for bringing humor. We haven't got
(01:45):
to get to humorous on this show. Sometimes it gets
a little more serious, and I'm glad, glad to have
you here bringing some levity and just bringing your wisdom
to our listeners. I hope that I freeze Adams.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Kind of that we go every crass, but in the
Hollywood entertainment.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Is oh hold on, let's see here.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's great that you mentioned all of this because I
think there's a link between funny and money, and I
believe that humor is a shortcut to trust, and really,
when you get down to it, business is about relationships,
and so people like to buy from those that they
like and trust, and I can't think of a better
way to connect with people than putting a smile on
(02:33):
their face and also receiving a smile. It's like a boomerang,
you know, when you smile or make someone laugh, you
feel better too.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Absolutely, absolutely so, Adam. I liked our guests that come
on the show because our listeners may have never heard
of you before, even though you've been around, You've done
a ton. And by the way, connect with Adam on LinkedIn.
He has some great content. But for those that aren't connected,
don't know you, Adam, give us a little bit about
your background. I give a little bit, but I love
a little bit more context about why do you do
(03:02):
what you do? And you have you're an EMCR, you're comedian.
I mean, you've just done a ton of things. But
talk a little bit about your journey as a business
owner and a leader, and now why you wrote this
book The Laughter Factor.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, thank you. Yeah, it really started from being broke,
from having no money. My background. I took a bunch
of classes. I went to Biola University. I majored in
speech and so I got to be on the speech
team and my favorite topic was called speech to entertain.
And what I didn't realize was it was preparing me
(03:38):
for the two worlds. That I'm really in now, which
is doing comedy but also weaving in an empowering message.
And so then I became a youth pastor, and then
I quit. And now if I were to quit something,
I would probably line something up ready to you know,
take its place. But back then I'm like I I quit,
(04:00):
And so I had no income. My wife was student teaching,
so there was a time when we were returning wedding
gifts just to pay our bills. My gosh, and I
had this feeling. I thought, if I'm going to make
this happen. I always wanted to be an entertainer, a speaker,
have a background doing magic, and so I just started
literally dialing for dollars back when we would pick up
(04:22):
the phone.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah yeah, back when we.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Use phones for phone faults. Right. But one thing I
learned David was to lead with a mindset of service.
So rather than calling a business or a school or
a church or a college, instead of saying, hey, book me,
I would say I'm calling to see if I can
be of service to you for your school assembly program
(04:45):
or for your after dinner entertainment at your banquet. And
I might get rejected nine out of ten times but
I started to see a pattern that if I was
willing to offer service and genuinely help, number of people
would book me. So one month, going way back August
of nineteen ninety two, I did sixty two gigs in
(05:07):
one month southern California, and my favorite one was near
where you live. I was in Big Bear, California, really
and David. I was so exhausted that night, I think
I had six I think I'd done three things at
a school and then a business event, so it was
like my sixth performance that day. I repeated the same
(05:28):
joke three times. I was so mentally wiped out, and
the first time I got a nice laugh. The second
time I didn't really get a laugh, and so it
kind of hit me. Oh, And I told it the
third time and it got a big laugh again, so
it looked like I did it on purpose. But I
don't do quite as many we call them gigs in
the comedy world as I used to. But I still
(05:49):
I'm probably on a stage about one hundred times a year,
still as an MC, as a humorist, as a keynote speaker,
And every single time I counted a privilege, because when
someone invites you to whether you're speaking to ten people
or a thousand people, you're representing that organization. There are people,
whether it's a sales goal or a faith based goal,
(06:12):
or bringing unity to a nonprofit or an association. So
I've learned a lot of things the hard way by
making just about every mistake you can make.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Well, you're very humble, Adam, and I'm so grateful that
you have you here because you have such a history
and and you really do have a servant's heart. I
definitely see that, and I have experienced that myself. Anybody
that gets a chance to be in your world and
the way that you help and lift up. I know
that you've raised a ton of money for nonprofits, helping,
you know, make a difference in the world. And I
(06:46):
so appreciate that. And and the deal in the humor,
I got to say I showed this. I was before
we recorded, but I put I wanted to show this
to the audience. If those are you that are watching this,
this is the Adams humor. You know. He sent me
soap on a rope, uh you know, and I thought
that was so hilarious.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You have to tell them what's at the end of
the rope, though.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, we got the microphone. There go those of you
that are listening. It's hope on a rope microphone. It says,
you know, no slip, just grip. We've got you know,
hold on the microphone. Rock on. So I thought that
was so hilarious, and so you adam, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, you know, I've identified these five laugh languages because
sometimes we think, well, I'm not a I'm not a comedian.
Someone might say you might not be maybe you're not
going to get a Netflix special. That's okay. But one
of the laugh languages is surprise. And I noticed when
you told me you got the gift, you were you
were smiling. And so there's something about simple gesture of
(07:43):
sending someone a surprising card, a funny birthday card. We
send these giant bouncy balls in the mail with no box,
and after I do an event, I will write with
a sharpie I had a ball at the chevron. Oh.
And so imagine the mail carrier walk into the office
with this like a bouncy ball that a preschooler would use,
(08:03):
like you get it Walmart, and people it's funny. I've
sent expensive chocolate gifts, but something that makes them smile
and laugh. Is more memorable.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Oh my gosh, no, that's that is that is so true, Adam.
And I think sometimes we just don't think about that
things being proactive like you said, and just saying how
could I make somebody smile? And I know you You've
got this new book coming out, The Laughter Laughter Factor,
which go if you guys want to go check it out,
go check out. It's just that The Laughterfactor dot com.
(08:36):
You guys, go check it out. But in that you
break down some things, like you just said, kind of
the the humor tactics if you will, uh for us,
and you mentioned one of them is surprised, But what
are the other ones that you you would say, Adam,
that help us? And Andrea humor.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
A quick backdrop, you've probably heard of that very famous
book called the Five Love Languages. Yes, scary Chapman. It's
sold a little bit more than my book, mays twenty
million copies, yep. And we gave a copy to our
youngest son, James, who's now twenty onenties in college, and hey, buddy,
what is your love language? And he said venmo. So
(09:12):
that was fascinating, but it got me thinking that sometimes
people feel like like I mentioned that maybe they're not
a stand up comedian or like, hey, I'm not a clown,
But as a human being, you're also a humor being.
And when you find and discover the tactic or the
laugh language that fits your personality. So we talked about
(09:34):
one of them surprise, yes. Another one I simply call poke,
and this is where you make fun of yourself and
eat people to the rush and where you gently tease
other people. And the third one is one of my favorites.
That's called in jokes, and this is where you do
you have a knack for developing like nicknames, inside jokes, stories,
(09:57):
and this is all about the unbelieve believable fun you
can have with shared experiences. And you know that kind
of stuff wouldn't work at a comedy club, like if
I was at the Ice House in Pasadena, California, where
a lot of great comedians have played, and if I said, hey,
I want to talk about Jerry and the coffee Maker,
Well that's going to bomb at a comedy club. But
(10:19):
in the right setting where everybody knows about Jerry and
the Coffee Maker or whatever it is, it becomes this
inside humor. The fourth one is for all the dad
joke fans out there, all the punsters. I like to say, Hey,
it's fourth down and you're punning.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
This tactic is called wordplay, and it's people who love,
you know, bancher clever language and wit. And then the
final one is called amplify, and this is people have
this laugh language if they're like to exaggerate, tell stories,
like somebody goes to the grocery store and they might
just say there was a long line, and then somebody
(10:56):
else turns it into like this epic tale. You know,
they were going to make me the mayor of Produce.
I was there so long and it's just like and
so finding. And we created a quiz, David. It's really
fun awesome. It takes like four or five minutes to
complete the quiz and it tells you it describes your
laugh language and gives you some suggestions on how to
best use it.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I love that, Adam. I mean, I've talked on the podcast.
One of the tools I use in my toolbox is
called the five Voices is your leadership voice. It's similar,
it's a similar concept, but it just breaks it down
in a simple way. And I'm super excited because hey,
I'm not typically that humor guy. But like you said,
this could be different ways. You could use this in
(11:38):
a way that builds relationship. And I think that's fantastic
because probably would you say, Adam had a question for
you on this. So when you understand this, you know
how you speak that. Like you said earlier, you joked
about your son's love language, but if you understand the
love language of your others too, how do they like
to be joked with?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
How do they like to be interact with? So it's like,
here's my preferred style, but what is it like would
be also to be playful? Is that something that you
get into? Hey, hey, hey, there we go, you're back
to pause there for a minute.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Okay, I'm gonna let you work the magic of editing.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, we'll get that. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Many years ago I worked at a magic shop and
I met this gentleman named Earl Nelson, who turned out
to be one of the all time great slide of
hand artists. But his personality was not fun, not zany.
It was like almost like the caricature of the accountant personally.
But I noticed something. He would have you pick a
card and the card would disappear and they would end
(12:39):
up in his wallet. Then it would catch on fire
whatever the illusion was, and just like you laugh, people
would they'd start laughing. I thought, well, he's not telling jokes,
he's not being you know, wacky, But surprise is. I
would say, even if you're not sure which of your
humor tactics fits you best, you can't go wrong when
you say something when you send the gifts that people
(13:02):
aren't expecting. So I've told my team at Cleancomedians dot
com that we want to make people sad. And what
I mean by that is the acronym sad. With your clients,
with your co workers, with your family friends, you want
to sad them. And here's what it stands for, surprise
(13:22):
and delight. It might just be a little thing, could
even be a meme or something in an email, or
something silly you wear or gifts are always great, but
you break up the pattern of what everybody's used to
and it just I don't know why it works. It's
like maybe it's brain chemistry, but we get used to
certain patterns. Yeah, when you flip them, it just makes
(13:45):
us laugh or smile.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
No, you're you're right on the money, Adam. I think
pattern interrupt disrupting in a good way. It gets us.
Oh that was something I wasn't unexpected, and yeah, we
love to be And then you said, I love that
you have surprise and delight those we don't want to have,
you know, go into something where we're not frightened. It's
not scary. It's actually a good thing. It's like, oh
(14:07):
my gosh. You know, I love watching those videos. You
know this what you watch those surprise videos? Right, America's
spending some videos where people come in and surprise and
they can all you know, thrown off at first, but
then they're literally happy. They're excited person, you know, if
they're delighted and in a good way of like when
you see the transition or when you see somebody. I
love the you know, there's all those videos of like
the servicemen coming from home right and surprising them, and
(14:29):
I'm like, goodness, yeah, those are just amazing.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
They touched the heart. And so when we talk about
the other laugh language, another one of them is called
poke mm hmm. One time, I'll tell you a quick
funny story. I was hired by one of the top
accounting firms kpmg uh huh, and they flew me to Washington,
d C. And they said, we're going to honor and
roast eleven retirees. So they gave me five minutes to
(14:55):
roast each one of them. And so here's what I did.
I got to know what actually made them great and
what people loved about them. And so instead of saying, well,
you know, she's short or he's heavy set, I never
go after that stuff. But it turns out this guy's
a great golfer, Well that's something we can actually tease
him about. Or she's known for saying certain expressions. We
(15:17):
could tease her about that. And they they were roaring
with laughter. But most important to me was the retirees
felt not just roasted, but actually celebrated, like when you
give a toast at a wedding. And by the way,
I still remember how awesome you were and what a
contribution you made at my daughter. You never forget it.
(15:40):
And I'll tell you why you did that. Not only
were you very good with the equipment and you have
a great voice, but you brought heart. And so there's
a link between positive humor and coming from the heart.
And so another little secret I'll share with your listeners
is the unbelievable power of what I call authenticity, where
(16:03):
you make fun of yourself a little bit. So we
think that by leading with a story. I'll give you
a quick example. Many years ago, I was profiled in
Success magazine, so I could get on stage and say, hey,
I was profiled in Success magazine, and you know, self serving.
But when I tell the truth of what really happened
is the night before the reporter came to interview me,
(16:25):
I was in such financial straits they towed my car away,
and so Herry was talking about, you know, how to
make money and yeah, and I'm like, I'm being interviewed
by Success, right, So now if I tell that story
and just like tell the whole thing, I think two
things happen when they say I like this guy because
he's being honest, and two we see ourselves in each
(16:46):
other's flops and failures. There's a delicate balance, Like I'm
not talking about self defeating humor, right about self effacing humor.
It's like a window. And as leader, this makes you
so much more approachable. Like and you know people are
afraid to laugh at the boss, right, but yes, absolutely
(17:08):
you go first. If you laugh at yourself first, now
it's safe for for us to have fun with each other.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Well, I think that's you're hitting on so many good points.
And then on the Business Around Table podcast, we're talking
about the business owner or we're talking to those focause
that maybe in a leadership role, whether you're a group
manager or director department and whatever the case might be.
And I think to your point, Adam, they feel like, oh,
I've got to be stoic, i gotta have all the answers.
I've got to hold it all together or they won't
(17:36):
believe me. And it's like it's counter to that. In fact,
they don't know that. They don't they like there's no
relationship there. And so by you said, I liked you
know that going first in being in a in a
good way because I think, what when I say that, Adam,
I know you're so successful and that that the event
that experience isn't is it? It's part of your history,
(17:57):
but it doesn't define you. That's not like, well, Adam,
that's all that. That's just one moment in time and
the clip, and so you're not defined by that, just
part of your story. And I think I've noticed too, Adam,
because I look at LinkedIn and I see these things,
and I fall into this trap too of telling story.
I'm not telling stories but actually just just saying like
I wasn't a success magazine, but this is why you
(18:17):
used to listen to me, right, this is my accomplishment. Instead,
it's not as relatable and your your others, your the
way you broke it down. It's like, oh man, he's
actually been through that or had that experience. I want
to lean in a little bit more. I can tell
he's more authentic and instead of just trying to be
this perfect you know, picture perfick person.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You know, you're so right. I just posted seriously about this.
I'm not sure if you saw this one, but I
said I'm not always awesome, but I've learned to be flawsome.
And it's it's kind of a bad pun, but there's
something to it. Because when we embrace our flaws and
we're not afraid to own them and share them, people
the opposite happens what we think might happen. They feel
(19:01):
like they can trust us, they feel, maybe most importantly,
like they can relate. And I've noticed a link in
the word in fact, the word comedy and community. Same route.
And so probably the first human beings were sitting in
front of the cave or whatever around the fire place,
but or the fire pit. And so when you're at
(19:23):
the campfire, what happens? You tell stories, you baby do skits.
I know for me, when I was leading youth groups,
people still talk twenty thirty years later about remember the
time around the campfire when you sang or you did
a magic trick. And so it's just kind of letting
our hair down. Of course, as business owners, as leaders,
(19:44):
there has to be a balance. I've seen some people
go too far where they feel like they have to
do a forty five minute stand up routine. It might
be as simple as weaving a few more POWs into
your presentation. So can you hit them with a funny
a funny visual aid. Can you do something that invites
(20:04):
audience participation? Can you share a vulnerable story. Can you
do a quiz that's interactive? Can you give away some prizes?
Pretty soon, the forty five minutes feels like fifteen minutes
because you've made it entertaining.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, yeah, you're you're you're. What I hear you saying,
Adam and any good that, any good presenter, and you're
so good at this is and I've seen some of
your great presentations with magic and other things where you're
involving the people and being a part of the process.
And I think whatever that is, like you just give
a whole list of examples, I think it's taking it
(20:38):
off of you and realizing how can I involve these
other people? And I think that's where, like, you know,
the role that humor brings in, like team building, because
there's a lot of burnout, people are feeling disconnected and
and I feel and a lot you know, even though
we're trying to get people back in the work offices
go back to work. What I found, even when we
were back in the office, quite honestly, Adam, before COVID
(21:00):
and all this stuff, there still was a disconnect for people.
I could be sitting in the cubicle or officex door
and I haven't really built a relationship with him. There's
a lot of stress and how do you see you know,
I mean, you've got highlights, but I mean I think
if humor's done well, he's just like how you find
it and start to de escalate when things are really
(21:21):
stressed right intimes.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Sometimes I think it's a great question. Sometimes I think
it's about identifying shared pain. A lot of times people
think that comedians, for example, are just funny wacky all
the time, But think of someone like a Robin Williams
who sadly we lost or Steve Martin is actually a
kind of a shy, introverted guy. So it doesn't mean
you're not a serious person. Means that you're taking moments
(21:44):
to let people have a moment of refresh, a reboot.
And so for example, right after COVID, when live events
started happening again, I would come out. One of the
first things I would say. I would say, Wow, I'm
so glad the pandemic is over. I sanitize my hands
so many times. I actually found the answers to my
eighth grade Spanish quiz and so it's a cute joke,
(22:09):
but I think it reminds people like, oh, yeah, we
went through that together. And then I talked about how
great it is to be gathered together again, and so like,
right now we're seeing each other through the screen face
to face, and that's cool. But there is something so
magical about like, for example, let's say you went to
see a movie. My daughter and I went to a
(22:30):
movie and there were a couple of funny moments and
what happens You look at each other and you just go, oh,
we just experienced that together. Yes. So what I tell
leaders is you don't have to be a comedian, don't
have to be a stand up or a magician or
even a professional speaker. But the word embedded in the
word funny is fun. All you need to do is
(22:53):
make it a culture where it's okay to have fun.
You don't set that example as the leader, it's really
hard for people to feel comfortable doing it. And again,
it doesn't mean you have to get up there and
do you know, juggle or something. It might be that
you invite participation. Like one thing I've done, it's crazy
dad jokes. It becomes so popular. Again. I will go
(23:14):
to a group and we'll hand out like four terrible
dad jokes and we'll have four different people read them,
and then we'll have a sound effect of you know,
but them bunch, and then somebody gets a silly prize
for delivering the best dad joke. That might only take
five minutes, but you've just changed the whole mood of
the room from you know, what's the information to more like, hey,
(23:37):
we're connected.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
M h.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I mean that that I think is so important, and
sometimes different leaders are going so fast sometimes I don't realize, hey,
I'll actually if I slow down and I do this,
you know in any end, Like I like how you
are saying, it doesn't do forty five minutes. This is
just being intentional here engaging them. You'll go further, You'll
get greater engaged, because I mean, I know when I,
(24:02):
like you just said, if I if I have a
positive experience and laughing, and I know that you've got
this new group that you're inviting folks to come on
and check out to where you can laugh together have
this experience, I think, which I think you know, we'll
let you share us more on that. But I feel
like when you get that, you know it's releasing literally,
I mean, this is science, the endorphins in our brain,
the way where we're experiencing it right, and you're like,
(24:24):
oh my goodness, it's it's creating this neural pathway, if
you will, my science background. But I geek out on
this because you know, we don't want we'd rather have
that than having you know, our cortisol go up, our
stress level, hormones go up, and that that also gets
embedded and we're like, so, how many of us have
ever got like, you see the phone call coming from
(24:46):
your your boss, do you feel good about that? Or
do you feel like, oh, cred you know, I don't
you don't call me? And so the stress level goes up, right.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I actually mentioned this in the book, David, in The
Laughter Factory, there's a chapter called leading with Laughter. And
the question I ask leaders is this, when your name
comes up and you're not there, do people smile? Like?
Do they feel feared? Do they feel worry? Do they
feel dread? And so we have a lot of impact
(25:18):
on how people perceive us by whether we connect first.
And as a leader, there's a lot of responsibility. I
get it. I've had employees, I still have staff today,
I have many clients. But what I've learned is that
it's relationship first. And my research surprised me because of
course I saw what you just mentioned that humor, no question,
(25:41):
all the scientific and medical research is showing it makes
us feel better. But what surprised me was the research
is also showing that it makes us feel more cohesive,
more collaborative, more playful. And you think about this in
the work that you really can't be mad at someone
when you're laughing with them. When I was in I
(26:04):
think it was third or fourth grade, there was a
bully chasing me around the playground and by the way,
we were still friends. Name His name is also David,
and he ended up winning a Super Bowl ring, so
this is a big kid, and he ended up in
the NFL later. But I knew that I knew he
could take me. I was a scrawny kid, and I
don't know how it hit me by I thought, I
(26:24):
wonder if I could make them up. I started teasing him,
making fun of myself. You'll never care. I don't even
know what I said, but he started laughing and he
literally fell down on the grass and he stopped chasing me.
And I think today as leaders sometimes were chasing and chasing,
and we can come across as controllers. Yes, if we
just let things breathe a little bit. And one temptation
(26:48):
people have is if you do try a joke and
if you want to talk about I have tips for
how people can improve their joke telling, but this moment
of vulnerability where I don't know if they're going to laugh,
and it's tempting to fill it in and laugh at
our own jokes. That's a no no. It's also attempting
to say to someone like, oh, you don't get it,
and then they feel put down. But if you can
(27:09):
just have the guts to let it breathe a moment
and it's okay if they don't laugh. In fact, that
can become funny as well.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah, I've been I've been there at him. I put
the joke out there and it completely fell flat, and
I'm like, okay, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Had that happen about one thousand times in my career.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah right, I mean I guess that. I mean for
those I love learning about the craft. You know, you've
done this adam for standup comedia, like be doing all
the jokes, but to get a full set of jokes
to go up there for whatever it is, fifteen minutes,
twenty minutes, half hour. That takes a long time to
get all that in there, right, I mean, you didn't
(27:52):
just like come up with those overnight.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Well here's the mistake. They say. The difference between an
amateur comedian and a pro entertainer is an amateur has
the same audience and is always trying new material, and
a pro has the same old material and different audiences.
This is challenging for a leader because you probably have
the same customers, the same sales or HR team, and
(28:17):
so your challenge will become keeping it fresh. But there's
another secret for that is not only do you want
to learn your laugh language, but get to know the
laugh languages of other people. If you have someone who
works for you who belongs in a punt a tentrey,
well by one of those. There's a button that I
sent someone. You got the microphone, nope, thing, But I
(28:38):
sent another one of our laugh launchers, this button where
you push a button and the worst dad jokes of
all time, just a loutily presented, and I knew that
he would appreciate that. So if you listen, people will
give you clues, Like if someone on your team is
a great storyteller, why not have them start to meet
and say, hey, I want you to tell the story
(29:00):
of the time five years ago we were at the
staff retreat. And you give them five minutes and it
makes them. You put the spotlight on them, everyone's laughing.
And so I think the more leaders can give away
some of their authority and some of the spotlight, the
better for everybody.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Mm hmm. That that is so true, Adam. And that's
one thing I work with business owners and their and
their teams. I was like, how do we get you
as potentially the apex out of the way a little
bit and let some others have the light on them?
And oftentimes they're like, yeah, I totally would like to that.
I didn't even think about it. I didn't even think
just to what you're saying, Adam, invite them. I just
(29:37):
didn't even considering that. So as you're listening to that,
I want to hopefully, like Adam said, consider that. And
I think more than ever today, Adam, because I work
with a lot of companies that are distributed to workforce
that don't come in the office all the time, and
so how you know whether it's even on the video
or at the beginning just being intentional leaving space. But
(29:58):
to your point, Adam, I think I found at least
more businesses or leaders trying to they go to I
think too long between bringing those people together to have
that shared experience. It's kind of like an oil change, right, like, Hey,
we could go longer and keep the guard going for
a while, but it will break down at some point.
(30:19):
So why don't we do it? You know, it doesn't
have to be every day, but it's do a little
bit more frequently to create these touch points. Like you're saying, Adam,
has that been your experience?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Absolutely? You know there's a saying I'm sure you've heard
and David and your listeners have heard called read the room.
But I think even deeper is feel the room. So
a lot of my work is serving as an event
host as an MC, and I might have a joke
that I'm ready to get up there and share, or
(30:49):
I'm going to queue a video that's coming on the
screen or whatever. But what I've learned is, in fact,
my Irish grandmother totally. You know, you have two ears
and only one mouth. Yes, and so I listen my
way into the laughter. So if someone, for example, let's
say I'm doing a nonprofit event as the MC and
(31:10):
we see a video about a family that's been through
the ringer, I'm not going to get up there and
do a dad joke, right, might I might give the
audience a moment to feel what's happening in the room.
I might even say, let's just take thirty seconds and
process what we just watched. Now, I can then take
them to the next place. So as leaders, I think
(31:31):
we lead by listening first. And it doesn't mean you
don't get to your message or your vision. It's just
really goes back to almost communication one oh one, which
is there's a sender and a receiver, and so more
often than that, we need to be better receivers and
that will enhance our ability to send the message.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
I mean, I like how you said read the room,
but read the feelings. And I think today I was
actually at a conference yesterday and they were talking about
doing performance reviews and all these other things and and
and you know, I think we've got some great technology
out there, those AI's out there and things like that. However,
it doesn't replace that emotional connection and understanding that. And
(32:14):
I think what I'd be curious Adam, your experience, because
I'm pretty sure I'd love to just confirmed this when
you go to a room or an event, when you
could tell the difference and the feeling of these people
are really filled Are they coming and filled up? Or
you can see like they're really like, oh they don't.
These guys are running on fumes here. You know, you
(32:35):
see the difference in the way they're reacting.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I remember walking into a room where it almost felt
like there was a ghost or some you know, dark
cloud in the room. It felt thick, and so they
asked me, as a outside kind of consultant person, to
share and I thought, I've got to break up this
tension that everyone can feel. And so I found out
that there was someone in the in the room, in
(32:58):
the group who was known for wearing funny ties and
really nice ties, but like every couple of days you'd
have a cool tie, and this was kind of risky.
But I said something like, oh, I know what's the
problem going on right now. It's Tod's tie. And that
(33:19):
would never have been funny at a comedy club or nightclub,
but that group, it was like a pause and then
everyone laughed, and Todd laughed the most, and it just
changed the feeling. So first you have to I guess
it goes back to the classic improv trick David, which
is called yes. And so you say yes to what's happening.
If you have tension in the workplace, you've got a
(33:39):
union dispute, you've got customer plans, whatever, don't you're not
trying to laugh over it. You're not trying to just
ignore it. You have to feel what's happening and maybe
me share that pain. You know, I've noticed my grandfather
was sober from alcohol for forty five years. He told
me that he was drunk for fourty years. He was
(34:01):
sober for forty five years, and he said something to
me said, I respect wisdom, but I obey pain. So
sometimes we need to be listening to the pain and
then we can share our wisdom or our wit or
the humor. But I always go back to listening. One
more thing I'll share with your listeners, so I know
many of them are leaders and business owners. Is be
(34:25):
intentional about it. Like some people say, well, hey, if
the funny happens, and that's always great. You know, there
are moments that just happen. I've dropped things. I one
time let a stage on fire and the alarm way. Yeah,
just about every mistake I've made it. But maybe the
greatest humorist in American history is Mark Twain. And Mark
Twain gave hundreds and hundreds of speeches and lectures. But
(34:47):
I love this quotation. He said, it takes me three
weeks to prepare good impromptu speech, meaning it came off
as spontaneous. It came off as perfect for the moment,
but he we gave that some thought and reflection before
he shared it. So as a leader, you might look
at your sales presentation or your annual report or whatever
(35:09):
it is, and think, where can I intentionally insert a
moment of participation, a joke, a memorable story. But leaders
are visionaries who are intentional about moving people from one
place to another.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
M hm, wow, that is that is that's profound. I
mean I really appreciate what that is. And we and
I think as you hopefully you guys are listening into that,
I mean you're getting all these different nuggets because he
is just a wealth of them. And again follow on
his LinkedIn particularly because I think almost every day you've
got something coming out there.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I got it.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
It's just so fun and and.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
And you know, I even I do love LinkedIn. And
I talk about this in the Laughter Factory that we
think that we are like leaders. For example, think I'm
a thinker. The best leaders are linkers, and I think
LinkedIn and other It's not really social media so much
as the point is, like I've met people in person,
(36:10):
I've had zoom calls with people I've met on LinkedIn
because you can find a common interest like you and
I have a lot of common links where we've lived,
the kind of work we've done, faith based organizations. But
I have learned that I can find a link with
pretty much anyone who's breathing and humor is a shortcut
(36:31):
to trust. So if I can make them laugh or
even better, I meant to share this earlier. Yes, even
better than making other people laugh is when you laugh
at something they said, or did not laugh at them,
but laugh with them, you know what. The times that
makes it feel like, oh they like me, they get me,
they understand, and most importantly, they're listening to me. Again,
(36:53):
I would tell managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, the temptation is to
kind of be a show off. And what I tell people,
for example, when I speak at an event or i'm
the MC, I tell them I'm not the star, I'm
the cement. I'm trying to bring all these pieces together
and create an experience where everyone goes like this is
(37:13):
the best event we ever had.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
No, I mean that is that that is great? Yeah,
we're here as servant leaders. I feel like, yeah, helping
and I love you just said that. If you can
create a space for this person to be the star,
to be to share, to help to make you laugh,
like hey, oh my goodness, we're we're connecting. And I
think it's what I can't remember who said this, but
(37:37):
it's to not think less of myself, but to think
think of myself less often, right yeah, right, right uh
And and so it's just about you know, I know
who I am and I appreciate that, but I want
to be able to connect with others. And so, like
you said, listening and creating a space intentionally instead of
like going going on, we gotta go so quick quick,
gotta get this thing done. It's like you're not building
(37:59):
that really, and I think that's where there's that's the opportunity.
And if you're going and I know you get these, Adam,
and that I was talking to somebody else on the
negative side of things, if you're just trying to push
your idea without that and I get them all the
time through emails or messages, and they're not there's no
opportunity to encounter and build a relationship. But I love
that you're you and I on the same page about
(38:20):
building a relationship first before the opportunity that's so important,
and humor is definitely one of those ways, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
You know, everybody's heard of the eighty twenty rule, which
is I think is preto principle and it's it's great,
and it basically says that twenty percent of your customers
or twenty percent of your activities result in eighty percent
of your impact or your income. It's a great principle,
but I would take even further from me. I've had
(38:51):
several thousand clients over the years, certainly in the hundreds,
and I can count probably twenty of them where I
can make a really good living, and I think about it.
I know their spouse's name, i might even know their
their pets name. I'm having dinner with them and lots
of laughs, and so look for ways to deepen the
(39:14):
relationship and humor it's it's a bridge to that.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, absolutely, I know we're getting to the end of
the podcast here. I would love to go longer with
the Adam because it's just a blast talking with you
and learning from you. We're going to make sure that
everybody you guys connect with Adam go to the Laughter
factor dot com. Laughter the laughter you.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Got, don't forget the word the it's the laugh right
dot com.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Yeah, because everything's in there. The new book. The new
book is coming on Is it next month? Adam?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, September sixteenth, and I'm so grateful it's being distributed
by Penguin Random House around the world. Last week I
did the narration and David, that was challenging, guys. I'm
so used to having a live audience. So there are
lots of jokes, so I'll give you an example of
a tactic for creating laughter. Yeah, and they don't have
(40:08):
an example of a joke or a way to do it,
and there's no audience, and so I have to leave
space like I think they would laugh there. No, it
was fun for me to record. But the book will
be available on audio and certainly in print and digital
on September sixteenth.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
That is great. So you guys told this is if
you've been intimidated by humor in any way, like I
don't know how to do this. You know, Adam is
giving you a roadmap here, some great tactics and to
empower you and ultimately, you know, like we were talking
about here, to be an effective leader, you know, leading
with humor and heart and connection, and again, I'm so
(40:46):
grateful having here on Any last thoughts you want to share,
any is people are listening to all cause we've covered
a lot, anything that you would just want to impart
to them as we're as we're wrapping up the podcast today.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah, it's actually maybe a bit a bit of a
more serious note. Most of the entertainers and comedians I
know are actually serious people. And here's what I would
tell my younger self and what I would tell your listeners.
I think is you're probably great at something. Maybe it's writing,
or maybe it's marketing, or maybe it's sales. And my
(41:18):
encouragement would be this, make sure you're giving yourself some
of what you give to other people. Many of us
are wounded healers, right, so we give and serve, but
make space to receive that back. Like so for me,
I need to stop sometimes and say, hey, I need
to sit down and watch some good, clean comedy. Well
(41:39):
I need to not just write a book, I need
to read books that will encourage me. So bottom line
would be, make sure you're receiving what you're giving.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Oh that's good, that's good. Adam, thank you so much
for being here on the podcast. We are so appreciative
of you and you guys make sure you go check
out the Laughter Factor dot com and Adam's all stuff's
on there. Adam again, thanks for being here on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
David, I've had a blast.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Great to see you absolutely everybody. Of course, you love
it when you subscribe and follow along. Leave any comments
we have, We'll make sure that Adam gets them whether
you're watching this on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.
Come back again and we appreciate y'all being here with
us on the Business Roundtabele Podcasts. Until next time, be well,
Thanks everybody,
Welcome back to the Business Round People podcast. I am
your host, David Carr, founder of Steward your business bringing
people together to accomplish great things. And I am so
honored to have a guest, Adam Christy, who I've known
for years, here on the podcast today with us. Welcome Adam, Hey.
Speaker 2 (00:29):
Thank you, David. Great to be with you today.
Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, well you and I go away back and I'm
super excited because you are. You're not You've just done
so many things. We're gonna get into it today, but
you have. You are the founder of Clean Comedians. You
have done so many events and MC. In fact, you
were ranked I think number one MC in LA Best
(00:52):
of La. You've over done thousands of events. I mean,
just so many different events.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Well I thought I thought my mom was the only
one who remembered that. David. Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
See there you go. See we're gonna get lots of
comedy in here. Adam is great, Thank you, and I
had the honor. And some of you guys don't know
because I've done I'm not doing it as active as
I once did. But years ago I had my own
dj MC company and I love entertainment, and Adam, I
had to give me the honor of being able to
be the MC of his daughter's wedding, which I felt
(01:24):
really a privileged to do because he is a pro
at this and he invited me to be a part
of that, and we've known each other ever since. And
now it has a great new book coming out called
The Laughter Factor, which we're going to get into as well,
which I'm super excited about. But Adam, just thanks for
coming on here. Thanks for bringing humor. We haven't got
(01:45):
to get to humorous on this show. Sometimes it gets
a little more serious, and I'm glad, glad to have
you here bringing some levity and just bringing your wisdom
to our listeners. I hope that I freeze Adams.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Kind of that we go every crass, but in the
Hollywood entertainment.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Is oh hold on, let's see here.
Speaker 2 (02:12):
It's great that you mentioned all of this because I
think there's a link between funny and money, and I
believe that humor is a shortcut to trust, and really,
when you get down to it, business is about relationships,
and so people like to buy from those that they
like and trust, and I can't think of a better
way to connect with people than putting a smile on
(02:33):
their face and also receiving a smile. It's like a boomerang,
you know, when you smile or make someone laugh, you
feel better too.
Speaker 1 (02:41):
Absolutely, absolutely so, Adam. I liked our guests that come
on the show because our listeners may have never heard
of you before, even though you've been around, You've done
a ton. And by the way, connect with Adam on LinkedIn.
He has some great content. But for those that aren't connected,
don't know you, Adam, give us a little bit about
your background. I give a little bit, but I love
a little bit more context about why do you do
(03:02):
what you do? And you have you're an EMCR, you're comedian.
I mean, you've just done a ton of things. But
talk a little bit about your journey as a business
owner and a leader, and now why you wrote this
book The Laughter Factor.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Well, thank you. Yeah, it really started from being broke,
from having no money. My background. I took a bunch
of classes. I went to Biola University. I majored in
speech and so I got to be on the speech
team and my favorite topic was called speech to entertain.
And what I didn't realize was it was preparing me
(03:38):
for the two worlds. That I'm really in now, which
is doing comedy but also weaving in an empowering message.
And so then I became a youth pastor, and then
I quit. And now if I were to quit something,
I would probably line something up ready to you know,
take its place. But back then I'm like I I quit,
(04:00):
And so I had no income. My wife was student teaching,
so there was a time when we were returning wedding
gifts just to pay our bills. My gosh, and I
had this feeling. I thought, if I'm going to make
this happen. I always wanted to be an entertainer, a speaker,
have a background doing magic, and so I just started
literally dialing for dollars back when we would pick up
(04:22):
the phone.
Speaker 1 (04:23):
Yeah yeah, back when we.
Speaker 2 (04:24):
Use phones for phone faults. Right. But one thing I
learned David was to lead with a mindset of service.
So rather than calling a business or a school or
a church or a college, instead of saying, hey, book me,
I would say I'm calling to see if I can
be of service to you for your school assembly program
(04:45):
or for your after dinner entertainment at your banquet. And
I might get rejected nine out of ten times but
I started to see a pattern that if I was
willing to offer service and genuinely help, number of people
would book me. So one month, going way back August
of nineteen ninety two, I did sixty two gigs in
(05:07):
one month southern California, and my favorite one was near
where you live. I was in Big Bear, California, really
and David. I was so exhausted that night, I think
I had six I think I'd done three things at
a school and then a business event, so it was
like my sixth performance that day. I repeated the same
(05:28):
joke three times. I was so mentally wiped out, and
the first time I got a nice laugh. The second
time I didn't really get a laugh, and so it
kind of hit me. Oh, And I told it the
third time and it got a big laugh again, so
it looked like I did it on purpose. But I
don't do quite as many we call them gigs in
the comedy world as I used to. But I still
(05:49):
I'm probably on a stage about one hundred times a year,
still as an MC, as a humorist, as a keynote speaker,
And every single time I counted a privilege, because when
someone invites you to whether you're speaking to ten people
or a thousand people, you're representing that organization. There are people,
whether it's a sales goal or a faith based goal,
(06:12):
or bringing unity to a nonprofit or an association. So
I've learned a lot of things the hard way by
making just about every mistake you can make.
Speaker 1 (06:24):
Well, you're very humble, Adam, and I'm so grateful that
you have you here because you have such a history
and and you really do have a servant's heart. I
definitely see that, and I have experienced that myself. Anybody
that gets a chance to be in your world and
the way that you help and lift up. I know
that you've raised a ton of money for nonprofits, helping,
you know, make a difference in the world. And I
(06:46):
so appreciate that. And and the deal in the humor,
I got to say I showed this. I was before
we recorded, but I put I wanted to show this
to the audience. If those are you that are watching this,
this is the Adams humor. You know. He sent me
soap on a rope, uh you know, and I thought
that was so hilarious.
Speaker 2 (07:02):
You have to tell them what's at the end of
the rope, though.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, we got the microphone. There go those of you
that are listening. It's hope on a rope microphone. It says,
you know, no slip, just grip. We've got you know,
hold on the microphone. Rock on. So I thought that
was so hilarious, and so you adam, Yeah.
Speaker 2 (07:20):
Well, you know, I've identified these five laugh languages because
sometimes we think, well, I'm not a I'm not a comedian.
Someone might say you might not be maybe you're not
going to get a Netflix special. That's okay. But one
of the laugh languages is surprise. And I noticed when
you told me you got the gift, you were you
were smiling. And so there's something about simple gesture of
(07:43):
sending someone a surprising card, a funny birthday card. We
send these giant bouncy balls in the mail with no box,
and after I do an event, I will write with
a sharpie I had a ball at the chevron. Oh.
And so imagine the mail carrier walk into the office
with this like a bouncy ball that a preschooler would use,
(08:03):
like you get it Walmart, and people it's funny. I've
sent expensive chocolate gifts, but something that makes them smile
and laugh. Is more memorable.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
Oh my gosh, no, that's that is that is so true, Adam.
And I think sometimes we just don't think about that
things being proactive like you said, and just saying how
could I make somebody smile? And I know you You've
got this new book coming out, The Laughter Laughter Factor,
which go if you guys want to go check it out,
go check out. It's just that The Laughterfactor dot com.
(08:36):
You guys, go check it out. But in that you
break down some things, like you just said, kind of
the the humor tactics if you will, uh for us,
and you mentioned one of them is surprised, But what
are the other ones that you you would say, Adam,
that help us? And Andrea humor.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
A quick backdrop, you've probably heard of that very famous
book called the Five Love Languages. Yes, scary Chapman. It's
sold a little bit more than my book, mays twenty
million copies, yep. And we gave a copy to our
youngest son, James, who's now twenty onenties in college, and hey, buddy,
what is your love language? And he said venmo. So
(09:12):
that was fascinating, but it got me thinking that sometimes
people feel like like I mentioned that maybe they're not
a stand up comedian or like, hey, I'm not a clown,
But as a human being, you're also a humor being.
And when you find and discover the tactic or the
laugh language that fits your personality. So we talked about
(09:34):
one of them surprise, yes. Another one I simply call poke,
and this is where you make fun of yourself and
eat people to the rush and where you gently tease
other people. And the third one is one of my favorites.
That's called in jokes, and this is where you do
you have a knack for developing like nicknames, inside jokes, stories,
(09:57):
and this is all about the unbelieve believable fun you
can have with shared experiences. And you know that kind
of stuff wouldn't work at a comedy club, like if
I was at the Ice House in Pasadena, California, where
a lot of great comedians have played, and if I said, hey,
I want to talk about Jerry and the coffee Maker,
Well that's going to bomb at a comedy club. But
(10:19):
in the right setting where everybody knows about Jerry and
the Coffee Maker or whatever it is, it becomes this
inside humor. The fourth one is for all the dad
joke fans out there, all the punsters. I like to say, Hey,
it's fourth down and you're punning.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Oh.
Speaker 2 (10:36):
This tactic is called wordplay, and it's people who love,
you know, bancher clever language and wit. And then the
final one is called amplify, and this is people have
this laugh language if they're like to exaggerate, tell stories,
like somebody goes to the grocery store and they might
just say there was a long line, and then somebody
(10:56):
else turns it into like this epic tale. You know,
they were going to make me the mayor of Produce.
I was there so long and it's just like and
so finding. And we created a quiz, David. It's really
fun awesome. It takes like four or five minutes to
complete the quiz and it tells you it describes your
laugh language and gives you some suggestions on how to
best use it.
Speaker 1 (11:17):
I love that, Adam. I mean, I've talked on the podcast.
One of the tools I use in my toolbox is
called the five Voices is your leadership voice. It's similar,
it's a similar concept, but it just breaks it down
in a simple way. And I'm super excited because hey,
I'm not typically that humor guy. But like you said,
this could be different ways. You could use this in
(11:38):
a way that builds relationship. And I think that's fantastic
because probably would you say, Adam had a question for
you on this. So when you understand this, you know
how you speak that. Like you said earlier, you joked
about your son's love language, but if you understand the
love language of your others too, how do they like
to be joked with?
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Right?
Speaker 1 (11:55):
How do they like to be interact with? So it's like,
here's my preferred style, but what is it like would
be also to be playful? Is that something that you
get into? Hey, hey, hey, there we go, you're back
to pause there for a minute.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
Okay, I'm gonna let you work the magic of editing.
Speaker 1 (12:14):
Yeah, we'll get that. Yes, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Many years ago I worked at a magic shop and
I met this gentleman named Earl Nelson, who turned out
to be one of the all time great slide of
hand artists. But his personality was not fun, not zany.
It was like almost like the caricature of the accountant personally.
But I noticed something. He would have you pick a
card and the card would disappear and they would end
(12:39):
up in his wallet. Then it would catch on fire
whatever the illusion was, and just like you laugh, people
would they'd start laughing. I thought, well, he's not telling jokes,
he's not being you know, wacky, But surprise is. I
would say, even if you're not sure which of your
humor tactics fits you best, you can't go wrong when
you say something when you send the gifts that people
(13:02):
aren't expecting. So I've told my team at Cleancomedians dot
com that we want to make people sad. And what
I mean by that is the acronym sad. With your clients,
with your co workers, with your family friends, you want
to sad them. And here's what it stands for, surprise
(13:22):
and delight. It might just be a little thing, could
even be a meme or something in an email, or
something silly you wear or gifts are always great, but
you break up the pattern of what everybody's used to
and it just I don't know why it works. It's
like maybe it's brain chemistry, but we get used to
certain patterns. Yeah, when you flip them, it just makes
(13:45):
us laugh or smile.
Speaker 1 (13:47):
No, you're you're right on the money, Adam. I think
pattern interrupt disrupting in a good way. It gets us.
Oh that was something I wasn't unexpected, and yeah, we
love to be And then you said, I love that
you have surprise and delight those we don't want to have,
you know, go into something where we're not frightened. It's
not scary. It's actually a good thing. It's like, oh
(14:07):
my gosh. You know, I love watching those videos. You
know this what you watch those surprise videos? Right, America's
spending some videos where people come in and surprise and
they can all you know, thrown off at first, but
then they're literally happy. They're excited person, you know, if
they're delighted and in a good way of like when
you see the transition or when you see somebody. I
love the you know, there's all those videos of like
the servicemen coming from home right and surprising them, and
(14:29):
I'm like, goodness, yeah, those are just amazing.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
They touched the heart. And so when we talk about
the other laugh language, another one of them is called
poke mm hmm. One time, I'll tell you a quick
funny story. I was hired by one of the top
accounting firms kpmg uh huh, and they flew me to Washington,
d C. And they said, we're going to honor and
roast eleven retirees. So they gave me five minutes to
(14:55):
roast each one of them. And so here's what I did.
I got to know what actually made them great and
what people loved about them. And so instead of saying, well,
you know, she's short or he's heavy set, I never
go after that stuff. But it turns out this guy's
a great golfer, Well that's something we can actually tease
him about. Or she's known for saying certain expressions. We
(15:17):
could tease her about that. And they they were roaring
with laughter. But most important to me was the retirees
felt not just roasted, but actually celebrated, like when you
give a toast at a wedding. And by the way,
I still remember how awesome you were and what a
contribution you made at my daughter. You never forget it.
(15:40):
And I'll tell you why you did that. Not only
were you very good with the equipment and you have
a great voice, but you brought heart. And so there's
a link between positive humor and coming from the heart.
And so another little secret I'll share with your listeners
is the unbelievable power of what I call authenticity, where
(16:03):
you make fun of yourself a little bit. So we
think that by leading with a story. I'll give you
a quick example. Many years ago, I was profiled in
Success magazine, so I could get on stage and say, hey,
I was profiled in Success magazine, and you know, self serving.
But when I tell the truth of what really happened
is the night before the reporter came to interview me,
(16:25):
I was in such financial straits they towed my car away,
and so Herry was talking about, you know, how to
make money and yeah, and I'm like, I'm being interviewed
by Success, right, So now if I tell that story
and just like tell the whole thing, I think two
things happen when they say I like this guy because
he's being honest, and two we see ourselves in each
(16:46):
other's flops and failures. There's a delicate balance, Like I'm
not talking about self defeating humor, right about self effacing humor.
It's like a window. And as leader, this makes you
so much more approachable. Like and you know people are
afraid to laugh at the boss, right, but yes, absolutely
(17:08):
you go first. If you laugh at yourself first, now
it's safe for for us to have fun with each other.
Speaker 1 (17:14):
Well, I think that's you're hitting on so many good points.
And then on the Business Around Table podcast, we're talking
about the business owner or we're talking to those focause
that maybe in a leadership role, whether you're a group
manager or director department and whatever the case might be.
And I think to your point, Adam, they feel like, oh,
I've got to be stoic, i gotta have all the answers.
I've got to hold it all together or they won't
(17:36):
believe me. And it's like it's counter to that. In fact,
they don't know that. They don't they like there's no
relationship there. And so by you said, I liked you
know that going first in being in a in a
good way because I think, what when I say that, Adam,
I know you're so successful and that that the event
that experience isn't is it? It's part of your history,
(17:57):
but it doesn't define you. That's not like, well, Adam,
that's all that. That's just one moment in time and
the clip, and so you're not defined by that, just
part of your story. And I think I've noticed too, Adam,
because I look at LinkedIn and I see these things,
and I fall into this trap too of telling story.
I'm not telling stories but actually just just saying like
I wasn't a success magazine, but this is why you
(18:17):
used to listen to me, right, this is my accomplishment. Instead,
it's not as relatable and your your others, your the
way you broke it down. It's like, oh man, he's
actually been through that or had that experience. I want
to lean in a little bit more. I can tell
he's more authentic and instead of just trying to be
this perfect you know, picture perfick person.
Speaker 2 (18:38):
You know, you're so right. I just posted seriously about this.
I'm not sure if you saw this one, but I
said I'm not always awesome, but I've learned to be flawsome.
And it's it's kind of a bad pun, but there's
something to it. Because when we embrace our flaws and
we're not afraid to own them and share them, people
the opposite happens what we think might happen. They feel
(19:01):
like they can trust us, they feel, maybe most importantly,
like they can relate. And I've noticed a link in
the word in fact, the word comedy and community. Same route.
And so probably the first human beings were sitting in
front of the cave or whatever around the fire place,
but or the fire pit. And so when you're at
(19:23):
the campfire, what happens? You tell stories, you baby do skits.
I know for me, when I was leading youth groups,
people still talk twenty thirty years later about remember the
time around the campfire when you sang or you did
a magic trick. And so it's just kind of letting
our hair down. Of course, as business owners, as leaders,
(19:44):
there has to be a balance. I've seen some people
go too far where they feel like they have to
do a forty five minute stand up routine. It might
be as simple as weaving a few more POWs into
your presentation. So can you hit them with a funny
a funny visual aid. Can you do something that invites
(20:04):
audience participation? Can you share a vulnerable story. Can you
do a quiz that's interactive? Can you give away some prizes?
Pretty soon, the forty five minutes feels like fifteen minutes
because you've made it entertaining.
Speaker 1 (20:18):
Yeah, yeah, you're you're you're. What I hear you saying,
Adam and any good that, any good presenter, and you're
so good at this is and I've seen some of
your great presentations with magic and other things where you're
involving the people and being a part of the process.
And I think whatever that is, like you just give
a whole list of examples, I think it's taking it
(20:38):
off of you and realizing how can I involve these
other people? And I think that's where, like, you know,
the role that humor brings in, like team building, because
there's a lot of burnout, people are feeling disconnected and
and I feel and a lot you know, even though
we're trying to get people back in the work offices
go back to work. What I found, even when we
were back in the office, quite honestly, Adam, before COVID
(21:00):
and all this stuff, there still was a disconnect for people.
I could be sitting in the cubicle or officex door
and I haven't really built a relationship with him. There's
a lot of stress and how do you see you know,
I mean, you've got highlights, but I mean I think
if humor's done well, he's just like how you find
it and start to de escalate when things are really
(21:21):
stressed right intimes.
Speaker 2 (21:23):
Sometimes I think it's a great question. Sometimes I think
it's about identifying shared pain. A lot of times people
think that comedians, for example, are just funny wacky all
the time, But think of someone like a Robin Williams
who sadly we lost or Steve Martin is actually a
kind of a shy, introverted guy. So it doesn't mean
you're not a serious person. Means that you're taking moments
(21:44):
to let people have a moment of refresh, a reboot.
And so for example, right after COVID, when live events
started happening again, I would come out. One of the
first things I would say. I would say, Wow, I'm
so glad the pandemic is over. I sanitize my hands
so many times. I actually found the answers to my
eighth grade Spanish quiz and so it's a cute joke,
(22:09):
but I think it reminds people like, oh, yeah, we
went through that together. And then I talked about how
great it is to be gathered together again, and so like,
right now we're seeing each other through the screen face
to face, and that's cool. But there is something so
magical about like, for example, let's say you went to
see a movie. My daughter and I went to a
(22:30):
movie and there were a couple of funny moments and
what happens You look at each other and you just go, oh,
we just experienced that together. Yes. So what I tell
leaders is you don't have to be a comedian, don't
have to be a stand up or a magician or
even a professional speaker. But the word embedded in the
word funny is fun. All you need to do is
(22:53):
make it a culture where it's okay to have fun.
You don't set that example as the leader, it's really
hard for people to feel comfortable doing it. And again,
it doesn't mean you have to get up there and
do you know, juggle or something. It might be that
you invite participation. Like one thing I've done, it's crazy
dad jokes. It becomes so popular. Again. I will go
(23:14):
to a group and we'll hand out like four terrible
dad jokes and we'll have four different people read them,
and then we'll have a sound effect of you know,
but them bunch, and then somebody gets a silly prize
for delivering the best dad joke. That might only take
five minutes, but you've just changed the whole mood of
the room from you know, what's the information to more like, hey,
(23:37):
we're connected.
Speaker 1 (23:38):
M h.
Speaker 2 (23:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:41):
I mean that that I think is so important, and
sometimes different leaders are going so fast sometimes I don't realize, hey,
I'll actually if I slow down and I do this,
you know in any end, Like I like how you
are saying, it doesn't do forty five minutes. This is
just being intentional here engaging them. You'll go further, You'll
get greater engaged, because I mean, I know when I,
(24:02):
like you just said, if I if I have a
positive experience and laughing, and I know that you've got
this new group that you're inviting folks to come on
and check out to where you can laugh together have
this experience, I think, which I think you know, we'll
let you share us more on that. But I feel
like when you get that, you know it's releasing literally,
I mean, this is science, the endorphins in our brain,
the way where we're experiencing it right, and you're like,
(24:24):
oh my goodness, it's it's creating this neural pathway, if
you will, my science background. But I geek out on
this because you know, we don't want we'd rather have
that than having you know, our cortisol go up, our
stress level, hormones go up, and that that also gets
embedded and we're like, so, how many of us have
ever got like, you see the phone call coming from
(24:46):
your your boss, do you feel good about that? Or
do you feel like, oh, cred you know, I don't
you don't call me? And so the stress level goes up, right.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
I actually mentioned this in the book, David, in The
Laughter Factory, there's a chapter called leading with Laughter. And
the question I ask leaders is this, when your name
comes up and you're not there, do people smile? Like?
Do they feel feared? Do they feel worry? Do they
feel dread? And so we have a lot of impact
(25:18):
on how people perceive us by whether we connect first.
And as a leader, there's a lot of responsibility. I
get it. I've had employees, I still have staff today,
I have many clients. But what I've learned is that
it's relationship first. And my research surprised me because of
course I saw what you just mentioned that humor, no question,
(25:41):
all the scientific and medical research is showing it makes
us feel better. But what surprised me was the research
is also showing that it makes us feel more cohesive,
more collaborative, more playful. And you think about this in
the work that you really can't be mad at someone
when you're laughing with them. When I was in I
(26:04):
think it was third or fourth grade, there was a
bully chasing me around the playground and by the way,
we were still friends. Name His name is also David,
and he ended up winning a Super Bowl ring, so
this is a big kid, and he ended up in
the NFL later. But I knew that I knew he
could take me. I was a scrawny kid, and I
don't know how it hit me by I thought, I
(26:24):
wonder if I could make them up. I started teasing him,
making fun of myself. You'll never care. I don't even
know what I said, but he started laughing and he
literally fell down on the grass and he stopped chasing me.
And I think today as leaders sometimes were chasing and chasing,
and we can come across as controllers. Yes, if we
just let things breathe a little bit. And one temptation
(26:48):
people have is if you do try a joke and
if you want to talk about I have tips for
how people can improve their joke telling, but this moment
of vulnerability where I don't know if they're going to laugh,
and it's tempting to fill it in and laugh at
our own jokes. That's a no no. It's also attempting
to say to someone like, oh, you don't get it,
and then they feel put down. But if you can
(27:09):
just have the guts to let it breathe a moment
and it's okay if they don't laugh. In fact, that
can become funny as well.
Speaker 1 (27:20):
Yeah, I've been I've been there at him. I put
the joke out there and it completely fell flat, and
I'm like, okay, yeah, I.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
Had that happen about one thousand times in my career.
Speaker 1 (27:32):
Yeah right, I mean I guess that. I mean for
those I love learning about the craft. You know, you've
done this adam for standup comedia, like be doing all
the jokes, but to get a full set of jokes
to go up there for whatever it is, fifteen minutes,
twenty minutes, half hour. That takes a long time to
get all that in there, right, I mean, you didn't
(27:52):
just like come up with those overnight.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Well here's the mistake. They say. The difference between an
amateur comedian and a pro entertainer is an amateur has
the same audience and is always trying new material, and
a pro has the same old material and different audiences.
This is challenging for a leader because you probably have
the same customers, the same sales or HR team, and
(28:17):
so your challenge will become keeping it fresh. But there's
another secret for that is not only do you want
to learn your laugh language, but get to know the
laugh languages of other people. If you have someone who
works for you who belongs in a punt a tentrey,
well by one of those. There's a button that I
sent someone. You got the microphone, nope, thing, But I
(28:38):
sent another one of our laugh launchers, this button where
you push a button and the worst dad jokes of
all time, just a loutily presented, and I knew that
he would appreciate that. So if you listen, people will
give you clues, Like if someone on your team is
a great storyteller, why not have them start to meet
and say, hey, I want you to tell the story
(29:00):
of the time five years ago we were at the
staff retreat. And you give them five minutes and it
makes them. You put the spotlight on them, everyone's laughing.
And so I think the more leaders can give away
some of their authority and some of the spotlight, the
better for everybody.
Speaker 1 (29:16):
Mm hmm. That that is so true, Adam. And that's
one thing I work with business owners and their and
their teams. I was like, how do we get you
as potentially the apex out of the way a little
bit and let some others have the light on them?
And oftentimes they're like, yeah, I totally would like to that.
I didn't even think about it. I didn't even think
just to what you're saying, Adam, invite them. I just
(29:37):
didn't even considering that. So as you're listening to that,
I want to hopefully, like Adam said, consider that. And
I think more than ever today, Adam, because I work
with a lot of companies that are distributed to workforce
that don't come in the office all the time, and
so how you know whether it's even on the video
or at the beginning just being intentional leaving space. But
(29:58):
to your point, Adam, I think I found at least
more businesses or leaders trying to they go to I
think too long between bringing those people together to have
that shared experience. It's kind of like an oil change, right, like, Hey,
we could go longer and keep the guard going for
a while, but it will break down at some point.
(30:19):
So why don't we do it? You know, it doesn't
have to be every day, but it's do a little
bit more frequently to create these touch points. Like you're saying, Adam,
has that been your experience?
Speaker 2 (30:28):
Absolutely? You know there's a saying I'm sure you've heard
and David and your listeners have heard called read the room.
But I think even deeper is feel the room. So
a lot of my work is serving as an event
host as an MC, and I might have a joke
that I'm ready to get up there and share, or
(30:49):
I'm going to queue a video that's coming on the
screen or whatever. But what I've learned is, in fact,
my Irish grandmother totally. You know, you have two ears
and only one mouth. Yes, and so I listen my
way into the laughter. So if someone, for example, let's
say I'm doing a nonprofit event as the MC and
(31:10):
we see a video about a family that's been through
the ringer, I'm not going to get up there and
do a dad joke, right, might I might give the
audience a moment to feel what's happening in the room.
I might even say, let's just take thirty seconds and
process what we just watched. Now, I can then take
them to the next place. So as leaders, I think
(31:31):
we lead by listening first. And it doesn't mean you
don't get to your message or your vision. It's just
really goes back to almost communication one oh one, which
is there's a sender and a receiver, and so more
often than that, we need to be better receivers and
that will enhance our ability to send the message.
Speaker 1 (31:52):
I mean, I like how you said read the room,
but read the feelings. And I think today I was
actually at a conference yesterday and they were talking about
doing performance reviews and all these other things and and
and you know, I think we've got some great technology
out there, those AI's out there and things like that. However,
it doesn't replace that emotional connection and understanding that. And
(32:14):
I think what I'd be curious Adam, your experience, because
I'm pretty sure I'd love to just confirmed this when
you go to a room or an event, when you
could tell the difference and the feeling of these people
are really filled Are they coming and filled up? Or
you can see like they're really like, oh they don't.
These guys are running on fumes here. You know, you
(32:35):
see the difference in the way they're reacting.
Speaker 2 (32:37):
I remember walking into a room where it almost felt
like there was a ghost or some you know, dark
cloud in the room. It felt thick, and so they
asked me, as a outside kind of consultant person, to
share and I thought, I've got to break up this
tension that everyone can feel. And so I found out
that there was someone in the in the room, in
(32:58):
the group who was known for wearing funny ties and
really nice ties, but like every couple of days you'd
have a cool tie, and this was kind of risky.
But I said something like, oh, I know what's the
problem going on right now. It's Tod's tie. And that
(33:19):
would never have been funny at a comedy club or nightclub,
but that group, it was like a pause and then
everyone laughed, and Todd laughed the most, and it just
changed the feeling. So first you have to I guess
it goes back to the classic improv trick David, which
is called yes. And so you say yes to what's happening.
If you have tension in the workplace, you've got a
(33:39):
union dispute, you've got customer plans, whatever, don't you're not
trying to laugh over it. You're not trying to just
ignore it. You have to feel what's happening and maybe
me share that pain. You know, I've noticed my grandfather
was sober from alcohol for forty five years. He told
me that he was drunk for fourty years. He was
(34:01):
sober for forty five years, and he said something to
me said, I respect wisdom, but I obey pain. So
sometimes we need to be listening to the pain and
then we can share our wisdom or our wit or
the humor. But I always go back to listening. One
more thing I'll share with your listeners, so I know
many of them are leaders and business owners. Is be
(34:25):
intentional about it. Like some people say, well, hey, if
the funny happens, and that's always great. You know, there
are moments that just happen. I've dropped things. I one
time let a stage on fire and the alarm way. Yeah,
just about every mistake I've made it. But maybe the
greatest humorist in American history is Mark Twain. And Mark
Twain gave hundreds and hundreds of speeches and lectures. But
(34:47):
I love this quotation. He said, it takes me three
weeks to prepare good impromptu speech, meaning it came off
as spontaneous. It came off as perfect for the moment,
but he we gave that some thought and reflection before
he shared it. So as a leader, you might look
at your sales presentation or your annual report or whatever
(35:09):
it is, and think, where can I intentionally insert a
moment of participation, a joke, a memorable story. But leaders
are visionaries who are intentional about moving people from one
place to another.
Speaker 1 (35:24):
M hm, wow, that is that is that's profound. I
mean I really appreciate what that is. And we and
I think as you hopefully you guys are listening into that,
I mean you're getting all these different nuggets because he
is just a wealth of them. And again follow on
his LinkedIn particularly because I think almost every day you've
got something coming out there.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
I got it.
Speaker 1 (35:45):
It's just so fun and and.
Speaker 2 (35:48):
And you know, I even I do love LinkedIn. And
I talk about this in the Laughter Factory that we
think that we are like leaders. For example, think I'm
a thinker. The best leaders are linkers, and I think
LinkedIn and other It's not really social media so much
as the point is, like I've met people in person,
(36:10):
I've had zoom calls with people I've met on LinkedIn
because you can find a common interest like you and
I have a lot of common links where we've lived,
the kind of work we've done, faith based organizations. But
I have learned that I can find a link with
pretty much anyone who's breathing and humor is a shortcut
(36:31):
to trust. So if I can make them laugh or
even better, I meant to share this earlier. Yes, even
better than making other people laugh is when you laugh
at something they said, or did not laugh at them,
but laugh with them, you know what. The times that
makes it feel like, oh they like me, they get me,
they understand, and most importantly, they're listening to me. Again,
(36:53):
I would tell managers, leaders, entrepreneurs, the temptation is to
kind of be a show off. And what I tell people,
for example, when I speak at an event or i'm
the MC, I tell them I'm not the star, I'm
the cement. I'm trying to bring all these pieces together
and create an experience where everyone goes like this is
(37:13):
the best event we ever had.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
No, I mean that is that that is great? Yeah,
we're here as servant leaders. I feel like, yeah, helping
and I love you just said that. If you can
create a space for this person to be the star,
to be to share, to help to make you laugh,
like hey, oh my goodness, we're we're connecting. And I
think it's what I can't remember who said this, but
(37:37):
it's to not think less of myself, but to think
think of myself less often, right yeah, right, right uh
And and so it's just about you know, I know
who I am and I appreciate that, but I want
to be able to connect with others. And so, like
you said, listening and creating a space intentionally instead of
like going going on, we gotta go so quick quick,
gotta get this thing done. It's like you're not building
(37:59):
that really, and I think that's where there's that's the opportunity.
And if you're going and I know you get these, Adam,
and that I was talking to somebody else on the
negative side of things, if you're just trying to push
your idea without that and I get them all the
time through emails or messages, and they're not there's no
opportunity to encounter and build a relationship. But I love
that you're you and I on the same page about
(38:20):
building a relationship first before the opportunity that's so important,
and humor is definitely one of those ways, no doubt.
Speaker 2 (38:29):
You know, everybody's heard of the eighty twenty rule, which
is I think is preto principle and it's it's great,
and it basically says that twenty percent of your customers
or twenty percent of your activities result in eighty percent
of your impact or your income. It's a great principle,
but I would take even further from me. I've had
(38:51):
several thousand clients over the years, certainly in the hundreds,
and I can count probably twenty of them where I
can make a really good living, and I think about it.
I know their spouse's name, i might even know their
their pets name. I'm having dinner with them and lots
of laughs, and so look for ways to deepen the
(39:14):
relationship and humor it's it's a bridge to that.
Speaker 1 (39:19):
Yeah, absolutely, I know we're getting to the end of
the podcast here. I would love to go longer with
the Adam because it's just a blast talking with you
and learning from you. We're going to make sure that
everybody you guys connect with Adam go to the Laughter
factor dot com. Laughter the laughter you.
Speaker 2 (39:36):
Got, don't forget the word the it's the laugh right
dot com.
Speaker 1 (39:41):
Yeah, because everything's in there. The new book. The new
book is coming on Is it next month? Adam?
Speaker 2 (39:47):
Yeah, September sixteenth, and I'm so grateful it's being distributed
by Penguin Random House around the world. Last week I
did the narration and David, that was challenging, guys. I'm
so used to having a live audience. So there are
lots of jokes, so I'll give you an example of
a tactic for creating laughter. Yeah, and they don't have
(40:08):
an example of a joke or a way to do it,
and there's no audience, and so I have to leave
space like I think they would laugh there. No, it
was fun for me to record. But the book will
be available on audio and certainly in print and digital
on September sixteenth.
Speaker 1 (40:24):
That is great. So you guys told this is if
you've been intimidated by humor in any way, like I
don't know how to do this. You know, Adam is
giving you a roadmap here, some great tactics and to
empower you and ultimately, you know, like we were talking
about here, to be an effective leader, you know, leading
with humor and heart and connection, and again, I'm so
(40:46):
grateful having here on Any last thoughts you want to share,
any is people are listening to all cause we've covered
a lot, anything that you would just want to impart
to them as we're as we're wrapping up the podcast today.
Speaker 2 (40:56):
Yeah, it's actually maybe a bit a bit of a
more serious note. Most of the entertainers and comedians I
know are actually serious people. And here's what I would
tell my younger self and what I would tell your listeners.
I think is you're probably great at something. Maybe it's writing,
or maybe it's marketing, or maybe it's sales. And my
(41:18):
encouragement would be this, make sure you're giving yourself some
of what you give to other people. Many of us
are wounded healers, right, so we give and serve, but
make space to receive that back. Like so for me,
I need to stop sometimes and say, hey, I need
to sit down and watch some good, clean comedy. Well
(41:39):
I need to not just write a book, I need
to read books that will encourage me. So bottom line
would be, make sure you're receiving what you're giving.
Speaker 1 (41:49):
Oh that's good, that's good. Adam, thank you so much
for being here on the podcast. We are so appreciative
of you and you guys make sure you go check
out the Laughter Factor dot com and Adam's all stuff's
on there. Adam again, thanks for being here on the podcast.
Speaker 2 (42:10):
David, I've had a blast.
Speaker 1 (42:11):
Great to see you absolutely everybody. Of course, you love
it when you subscribe and follow along. Leave any comments
we have, We'll make sure that Adam gets them whether
you're watching this on YouTube or your favorite podcast platform.
Come back again and we appreciate y'all being here with
us on the Business Roundtabele Podcasts. Until next time, be well,
Thanks everybody,
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