Humor is not about one-liners or being able to tell jokes. It’s about accepting things about yourself that can’t be changed and finding the humor in situations around you. Things happen on a daily basis that are really funny, but people often let the funny stuff get away, either because they don’t notice it as funny, or they don’t make it a priority to look for it.
The eight personalities listed below are among the most popular and most-requested celebrity humorists and satirists available to meeting planners. Humor is found within the context of their stories as opposed to the usual one-liners and jokes.
American Storyteller and Writer
Laughter, song, and American values on stage
Dave Barry
Bestselling Author
Crockett and Tubbs are the second most famous personalities to come out of Miami
Bill Bryson
Acclaimed Author
Humor is always better with a British accent
PJ O’Rourke
Journalist and Writer
At the intersection of William F. Buckley Jr. and Art Buchwald
Political Satirist
The Shoreham Hotel is long gone but Mark Russell is going strong
Scott Adams
Creator of “Dilbert”
The wisdom of “Dilbert” comes to the podium
Rick Reilly
Sportswriter and Commentator
There is often humor in the drama of athletic competition
David Feherty
Golf Broadcaster and Author
You don’t have to be a golfer to enjoy his presentation, but it helps!
The benefits of humor to the meeting industry are well-established. A humorist can be used to set the tone for the meeting as an opening speaker, to send attendees home on an upbeat note as the closing speaker, or in an informal, after-dinner setting. Humor reduces stress and encourages cohesion among meeting attendees that will result in a more positive and productive meeting experience. Finding the right humorist for your event is like discovering lightning in a bottle – of course, putting the wrong humorist in front of your membership or employees can be a disaster. Not every humorist, no matter how well-known, is right for every group. When it comes to identifying a humorist for your next meeting, The Speaker Experts strongly suggest contacting a IASB-member speaker bureau to maximize laughter and minimize risk at your next meeting.
……a duck and a lecture agent walk into the a bar and order two whiskeys. The bartender says to the lecture agent, “How are you going to pay for these drinks?”. The lecture agent points to the duck and says, “I’m going to put it on his bill!”. Tip your waiters and waitresses! The Speaker Experts will be back next week to finish this post by looking at the leading humorist speakers from the non-celebrity category.
Gary McManis & Jay Conklin
The Speaker Experts 