Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Expert Speaking Seminar at The World Series of Comedy !

If you follow my blog you already know that my usual topic for my posts have to do with how some of the famous comedians I have worked with in the past made me a better speaker and communicator by giving me priceless advice while I was working with them. As a matter of fact I wrote a book about this very topic called "Secrets from the Greenroom" A comedian's inside techniques for effective speaking. This post deals with several up and coming professional comedians who have inspired me with their performance and their participation in the World Series of Comedy held in Las Vegas in late September.

Corporate Speaker David Michael
Expert Speaker David Michael in Las Vegas


I was invited by executive producer of the event Joe Lowers to give a seminar on my book to the comedians and attendees of this event as well as attend some of the shows and elimination rounds of the contest itself. The contest starts at the beginning of the year and has several rounds across the country in an effort to find the funniest comedians. In September, all the finalists gather in Las Vegas for a week of competition and to eventually crown a winner. It is the premier comedy competition in the country. My seminar was greeted by several comedians anxious to get into the corporate world as expert speakers on such topics as wellness, corporate speaking, punch up writers for script and several other topics. I focused mainly on the sweeping movement in the corporate world of using professional comedians as public speaking coaches and their expertise as communication experts for presentations. After the seminar I had a chance to get to know some of the comedians and was blown away by some of the fantastic stories of some of these young, middle aged and retired people who have entered the world of stand up. I was immediately energized by sharing stories with my fellow comedians and was inspired by the comradery that still exists among people who communicate at the highest level of public speaking. The sacrifices some of these performers made just to be able to do this craft for a living were truly inspiring. I met dozens of comics and it would take me forever to tell you all the stories from these budding stars. So I will instead list some of the names of the comedians I met and you can go to their Facebook page or website and enjoy their stories and videos and hopefully hire them! A few of these up and coming stars are Ken Garr, Rachel McDowell, Brad Stewart, Heather Jones, Joe Dungan, Anthony De Guzman Jr., Steve Lee, P.J. McGuire, Phil Johnson, Dave Williamson, Ken Townsend, Eric Shantz, David Tobey, Luke Soin, Lauren Kirshner, Cory Michaelis, Jerry Corley, Garry Roy, Myke Herlihy, Skyler Payne, Joe Eberle, Ray Love, Sandra Risser, Dave DeLuca, Jason Dudey, Greg Willett, Dougie Almeida, Jason London, Cheryl Anderson, Hollie Himmelman, Michael Beers, Matt McClowry and eventual winner Thai Rivera !