​Why a comedian?

Some benefits, results, and outcomes of having comedy at business events

  1. It’s fun. We’re all dead a long time, especially in the afternoons.
  2. It anchors your message, sometimes by sending it to the bottom of the harbour.
  3. An emotional catharsis that results from laughter is better than a budget meeting tantrum.
  4. The superiority/inferiority fulcrum swings both ways. Hierarchies are comedy’s natural enemy.
  5. Juxtaposing incongruous ideas results in humour, insight and transferable disruption.
  6. By lampooning weasel words and waffle, participants’ energy can be focused on real goals.
  7. It keeps your audience awake. Otherwise, your meeting may resemble a wake.
  8. It humanises the organisation, populating the abstraction.
  9. Better to having the bubble of bulldust pricked by a professional, than by every employee.
  10. Tell a joke, make a point.
  11. People remember humorous episodes – and associated messages.
  12. Promoting a sense of humour means promoting different ways of thinking, creating and doing.
  13. People will take you more seriously if you take yourself less seriously.
  14. Entertaining the troops enhances morale and productivity. And that’s just for the comedian.
  15. Humour is often the explosion of bringing disparate ideas together … good role modelling.
  16. Having a comedian say what everyone is thinking clears the air, deflating unhelpful tension.
  17. When people are laughing the organisation chart evaporates and the team appears.
  18. Work/life balance.
  19. Funny and serious are interdependent.
  20. Subtle humour can show the difference between organisational power and expertise.
  21. The in-house clowns may be encouraged to lift their game … or bow out gracefully.
  22. It sugars the pill.
  23. It stimulates conversation, breaks the ice, sets the tone – and allows clichés to be mocked.
  24. It shows confidence in the resilience of your organisation and its people.
  25. It makes your people memorable … in a good way.
  26. It’s a happier genre than tragedy – and leads to more optimism.
  27. Laughter is the best medicine. Except for penicillin.
  28. It’s a tool for qualitative research … the laugh-o-meter indicates what’s truly important.
  29. Even the wisest person likes a little nonsense now and then.
  30. It keeps clean comedians away from stand-up comedy venues, raising the tone of both places.
  31. Humour questions the status quo in an acceptable way, ventilating new ideas to open minds.
  32. It enhances the organisation’s values, vision, mission and strategy.
  33. It demonstrates the organisation’s values, vision, mission and strategy
  34. Humour is valuable at business events because it speaks truth to power.
  35. Comedy questions the existence of generally accepted beliefs, including:
    • that only leaders lead
    • that only managers manage
    • that only executives execute
    • that only workers work
    • that only MBAs are qualified
    • that public servants serve the public
    • that customer service services customers
    • that lawyers pursue justice
    • that big pharma invents diseases for cures they own (oh wait, that right)
    • that not-for-profit organisations are unprofitable
    • that previous generations did things better then
    • that people anywhere else do things better now, and
    • that the word that is redundant as often as not.