Be Funny Even If You Are Dull And Listless By Nature

More than once, people have asked me "How do you become funny?" Sometimes I don't know if that is a compliment or a complaint. It has always been a question I've pondered because "funny" is not a major in college, we don't study and get our degree in funny.

I really did not understand what went into being funny for many years. The jury is still out whether I do or not. I believe I have "paid my dues" though in learning just what is funny and what is not. And there is as much science to it as their is art.

Now I keep my ears open. I listen to not just the humor but the rhythm of how it is delivered. I watch people's reactions to other people's humor. I take notes. I see that short is sweet.

Shakespeare instinctively knew so many years ago that, "Brevity is the soul of wit". Even then, he had the insight to know that people's attention spans are short. Sure, they want to hear your joke or funny story, but they also have other things on their mind. Even if they think something is funny, if it is long-winded, and takes too much of their time, they may consider you "funny", but chances are they won't come back for more of your humor.

Consider the cartoonist and humor writer. That would be me. I created a single panel offbeat cartoon called Londons Times Cartoons in 1997. I based it on the Shakesperian theory that humor was and is the soul of wit. No long drawn out captions. Sometimes no captions at all. The picture would tell the story. It was an experiment. It was off the wall. That year, I posted less than a hundred cartoons on my website. Though I had thought of many others, those were the ones that past the litany test of "what is funny" to me.

So now I have one of the most visited cartoon sites on the Internet, 8.9 million visitors since January of 2005 when we first started counting. It all happened so quickly, it seemed, it would be hard for me to describe just how it did all happen. But I'll try.

I am sure there is more than just one road toward making something like that happen. In my case, it was mainly listening to other people whom I felt were funny, reading autobiographies of funny persons, and studying humor. I watched sitcoms. I went to funny movies. I noticed one-liners in real life were really not much different than one liners in a cartoon.

They got my attention. They were of value. They were something I could repeat to my friends and they would receive enjoyment from it.

Another element of "being funny" at least in the marketplace is to find one's niche or voice. Sometimes that can take time. A lot of time. In my case, I tried stand-up comedy, acting and other such venues for a number of years. The problem was that I didn't understand the art well and was not able to perfect it to the degree to which I wanted.

Of course there is a lot more to being funny than just "being funny". There has to be some "payback". It may come in the form of laughter, cash, testimonials, or a myriad of other elements and the more the better. I remember when I opened my first store, LTSuperstore that showcased 60,000 funny gifts, I learned that when people bought your products, it was one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.  Then I created a store with specialized offbeat cartoon gifts, ones that I felt were the better part of our work, and when those sold, it was like nirvana.

So I tried writing, and I finally settled for cartooning. I had read the late great Charles Schulz's autobiography in which he said the reason he went into cartooning is because he couldn't do much else very well. That was the story of my life. If it is the story of yours, it is never to late to develop your sense of humor. Listen, read, learn, and have a leap of faith.. .and oh, and don't be afraid to look foolish. They may just laugh at you yet.