Your Seventh Sense: How to Think Like a Comedian [Paperback]

Jay Arthur (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1, 2004

Want to be the last comic standing? You can! Learn how to think like a comedian and find the funny in everyday life.

For the last seven years Jay Arthur, a master practitioner in Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has been studying and reverse engineering how comedians think. With his co-author Karyn Ruth White, a standup comedian and professional speaker, they have refined the process and come up with the essential skills of how to think like a comedian.

In Your Seventh Sense you'll find a step-by-step guide to creating and developing humor. There are four main steps:

1. Prospecting for Humor: First learn to develop your comedy radar.
2. Mining the Humor - The next step involves creative lateral thinking. Comedians ask themselves: "What's this like?" "How are women like cars?" "How is dating like a laundromat?" Learning comedy is a great way to develop your creativity.
3. Refining the Humor - Next, comedians distill their thinking down into the traditional joke format: setup-punchline-punchword. "Take my wife please!"
4. Presenting Humor: Finally, determine what point of view, attitude, and character would be best for this particular joke. Are you mad, sad, or glad? Is it hard, weird, scary, or stupid? What do you do when you bomb?

This book also has detailed examples from actual workshops about how to develop a joke from start to finish. There is even a chapter about how to add humor to any speech; it's ideal for corporate executives or anyone who speaks to groups. Anyone can do it. It is up to you to decide how far you will take your comedy career...Maybe just to a backyard barbecue or all the way to a comedy club.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Karyn Ruth shows you the art of humor and Jay delivers the science. Together they reveal the inner workings of the comedic mind and, best of all, how you can do it too. --LeAnn Thieman, Co-Author of Chicken Soup for the Nurse's Soul

As a single mom for two decades, I know firsthand how challenging and overwhelming life can be for single parents. That is why being able to laugh is so important! "Your Seventh Sense: How to Think Like A Comedian" is an essential guide to bringing more humor into your life. --Nancy Vogl, Co-Author of Chicken Soup for the Single Parent's Soul

About the Author

Karyn Ruth White, Denver, Colorado, has been a stand-up comedian and professional speaker for 20 years. She teaches others to use humor to manage stress and better cope with life. Karyn presents funny keynote programs and business-related motivational humor nationally.

Jay Arthur, the KnowWare ® Man, Denver, Colorado, is a master practitioner of Neuro Linguistic Programming and has studied and reverse engineered how comedians think over the last seven years.

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: KnowWare International / LifeStar (July 1, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1884180272
• ISBN-13: 978-1884180279
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #251,365 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Jay has a unique ability to analyze complex situations and problems, and quickly summarize them and offer direction.
- Brad Montgomery

Jay Arthur works with companies that want to plug the leaks in their cash flow using Lean Six Sigma. Jay is the only improvement specialist that understands and can help you pinpoint areas for improvement in processes, people, and technology. Jay is first and foremost a Money Belt; he knows how to use data to pinpoint broken processes. Jay helps teams understand their communication styles and restore broken connections. Jay has 30 years experience developing software on everything from mainframes to PCs.

My Story: I spent 21 years working in various parts of the Bell System-one of the biggest and best cash cows of the last century. Like most businesses, managers and employees used trial-and-error-the slowest method of improvement-to reveal common sense ways to better the business.
In 1990, the Baby Bell I worked for started to implement TQM-Total Quality Management. We trained team members and team leaders (greenbelts and blackbelts) and started hundreds of teams. Frustrated by the glacial slowness and paltry returns, a few of us started to look for ways to use TQM to drive breakthrough improvements.

The first successful improvement project I worked on involved just myself and the building manager. It seemed that we'd had a higher number of false fire alarms than expected back in 1992. In just under four hours, we traced the root cause to fire detectors that were being triggered by cell phones. This kicked off national standards work to improve fire alarms. We were able to reduce false fire alarms from 11 per year to just one.

In subsequent years I lead teams that, in a matter of months:

*Saved $20 million in postage expense
*Saved $16 million in adjustment costs
*Reduced order errors in a wireless company from 17% to 3% in just four months saving $250,000 a month in rework.
*Reduced denied insurance claims in a healthcare system that saved $330,000 a month with simple process changes that could be implemented immediately.
*Trained a toll road team that saved $1.5 million in expenses their first year and an additional $1 million per year over the following two years.

I have over 25 years of experience in aligning people, process, technology in a wide variety of environments to deliver business results. How can Jay help you?

Do you need to:
Increase profits by plugging the leaks in your cash flow?
Simplify, streamline and automate monthly reporting, defect tracking, and supplier analysis?
Improve communication by reducing conflict and confusion?

www.qimacros.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars One long advertisement., November 9, 2010

By 

Christopher - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Your Seventh Sense: How To Think Like a Comedian (Kindle Edition)

This book is, essentially, one long advertisement for one of the author/comedian/public-speakers behind it - Karyn Ruth White. If that's what you're looking for in a book then you might enjoy it, but otherwise you're likely to be very frustrated and feel like you've paid for promotional material. The book starts out fairly well but gets worse and worse as it goes along. In the first few chapters the text is is interspersed with quotes and examples from well-known comedians. Most of these are really funny and support the text well. As the book goes on it increasingly begins to refer to one of the co-authors in the third person, use her jokes in the break-out boxes, quote her, refer to her techniques and praise her techniques and abilities. This is fine once or twice but it soon starts feeling like self-promotion and becomes really obnoxious. By the end of the book it becomes very clear that the whole book is, first and foremost, a pitch to hire Karyn Ruth for events, as a humor coach, etc. I was extremely frustrated realizing that I had essentially paid her to advertise to me. This situation is made worse by the fact that the co-author/comedian in question really doesn't seem to be very funny, especially in comparison with the people quoted earlier on. Now I fully realize that each person has their own sense of humor, but to me Karyn Ruth White is only marginally funny. Whether you enjoy her humor or not, the bottom line is that in buying this book you are buying an advertisement.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Quick read..., June 9, 2010

By 

L. Massaar "Len Massaar" (Vancouver, WA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Your Seventh Sense: How to Think Like a Comedian (Paperback)

I bought the Kindle version and I gotta say I quite enjoyed this. It didn't feel like a near-200 page book though. In fact, the whole thing just flew by.

I must admit I didn't feel as though I learned too much. I saw where the authors were going and for sure others will gain insight from the words. But the overall message is pretty simplistic.

Quite frankly you can hone your comedic instincts just as well (probably) with a far meatier book such as "Comedy Writing Secrets" by Melvin Helitzer.

For what it's worth though, I do believe the techniques in "Your Seventh Sense: How to Think Like a Comedian" are pretty sound. I would just like more... certainly more examples or even tidbits from individual comedians to try and tap into their insight.

I couldn't quite believe when I got to the end... it was over and I remember thinking "huh... is that it?"

But I did like it... and I have tried the techniques and can attest that they do work. I certainly have faith (following their advice) that it gets easier in the long run. However, I may be the wrong person to comment, as I've often spotted patterns myself and love humor in all its forms. So immersed and surrounding yourself with books and movies and tv sitcoms, you can't NOT have some of that rub off on you. :)

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved it, June 27, 2011

By 

Brad Montgomery (Denver, CO United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Your Seventh Sense: How to Think Like a Comedian (Paperback)

I'm a comedian, and thought this book was a hoot. But the joy in this book is that it isn't for comedians...it's for anybody who wants to think like one.

Jay has the brainy side that makes you think differently, and I loved it. And Karyn is funny. It's a great value...easy to read. Go for it!