jan jack | Perfect Verse

The importance of using humour in speeches – a visit to Hamwic Speakers

Are you self employed? Have you found your career going down paths you never thought it would? I was recently asked to speak at a Toastmasters event, and it made me realise how much my career has diversified. Dan Harrison, a regular guest at Basingstoke Comedy Club Laughter-House, and a member of Hamwic Speakers, asked me, as a poet & comedian, if I could give the group some ideas on how to bring humour into speeches. I decided the best way of doing this was to give them ten minutes of my own speech and then ‘break it down’ to show them how I made it funny. It was a lovely evening; lively and buzzy, and there were guests from other groups as well. It was so enjoyable to share techniques with them. Steve Bimpson, an attendee from Wessex...

Jan Jack’s Perfect Verse – Winner of a Theo Paphitis #SBS award.

Twitter’s a funny thing. Some people love it. Some people hate it. Personally I embrace it; I’ve been tweeting since March 2010 and as of last night I’d managed to accumulate approximately 2,240 followers. I’m a bespoke poet who tweets in rhyme. I use twitter to make people laugh. I help other businesses by tweeting about them in verse. It sharpens my sense of humour, finds new friends, and also brings me new commissions. But last night it brought me something else…and I’m now part of an elite group known as the Theo Paphitis #SBS (Small Business Sunday) winners club. Theo loves to support small businesses, and every Sunday night on Twitter he invites us to tweet him between 5.00pm and 7.30 and he personally picks six of...

So..what would YOU have done..?

This year, I was invited to provide the Christmas entertainment at a large networking event. It was a lovely event and I was blessed to see smiling faces all around me. Well..almost all around me. Because there’s always an exception isn’t there? Have you noticed that? The whole room might be laughing their socks off, but there will be one person looking at you as though you’ve just recovered something particularly nasty from the bottom of their wash bin. You can’t escape it. A year ago, when I first started after dinner speaking, I performed at a ladies golf club. They asked me for something a little risque. Fine by me. Risque I can do! I started my poetry/storytelling and all was going well. Until my eyes alighted on three...