How Howie Mandel Made Me A Better Speaker !

 Years ago, I had the honor of opening for Howie Mandel at the  
Amphitheater in Pittsburgh’s Station Square. This amphitheater
is probably the most difficult outdoor venue to work in the
country. Usually these types of venues are located in quiet areas
that are conducive to concerts. Not in Pittsburgh. The place is
sandwiched between the Monongahela River and a cliff face. It
gets worse. There’s a busy highway at the foot of the cliff,  and running parallel to the river are two sets of railroad tracks. About every twenty minutes a train rumbles past the stage, maybe fifty feet away at best! Soon after Howie’s limo dropped him off, we were backstage
exchanging pleasantries when a train passed by. I wish I
had had a camera with me to catch the expression on his face.
He looked at me and asked, “These trains will stop, right?” I
shrugged my shoulders. “Not unless there’s a wreck!” Howie
shook his head and said, “You’ve got to be kidding me. That’s
going to be going on all night?”So we put our heads together and started tossing ideas around about how we could pull off a show under these circumstances.
We had to go through our material and figure out what
jokes would work and, more importantly, prepare for the pauses
we would have to build into our act whenever a train passed by.
It’s not like you get interrupted for a few seconds—some of the
trains take a minute or two to pass. This will ruin any flow or
momentum you have established as a performer.
Howie, true professional that he is, took what looked like
an impossible situation and made it work. The first time a train
passed, Howie made fun of his agent for booking him in a railyard.
He then went on to poke fun at the engineer and used the
down time to do his trademark rubber glove bit. The show could
have been a disaster, but we focused on adapting our material,
anticipated the problems that would arise, made light of our
predicament, and like the trains, moved on.  Another show comes to mind that illustrates how you cannot prepare for every situation. I was asked to emcee a student-faculty basketball game. My job was to provide running commentary during the game and perform a comedy show at
halftime. I was a few minutes into the halftime program when
a loud buzzer sounded. I didn’t think anything about it until it
happened again. And then again. It was then that I realized that
the student running the scoreboard had taken it upon himself
to sound the buzzer any time he didn’t approve of one of my
jokes. The audience thought it was hilarious. I wanted to choke
the kid. Suppressing the urge to run over and knock him off
his chair, I just went with the flow. The next time he hit the
buzzer, I said, “It’s pretty sad when a buzzer gets more laughs
than the comedian.”
You can control a lot of things, but you can’t control everything.
Be as prepared as you can by expecting the unexpected. Comedians always get the unexpected thats why we prepare for it.  As a speaker you need to prepare for it too. Before you address an audience, imagine some of things that could go wrong and  write some humorous lines around that topic. That way you are ready for the worst that could happen and your response to it will appear confident , witty and spontaneous!                 

Jim Krenn: "Giving them what they want"

David Michael and Jim Krenn

Most people in Pittsburgh know Jim Krenn. For those of you who don’t, he is the versatile comedian and disc jockey who until recently spent the better part of the last quarter century as part of the morning show on WDVE radio. At this point no one knows what will happen between WDVE and Krenn but it seems as though he will not be a part of the morning show.

As sudden and abrupt as it was, Krenn has no need to worry. He will be in demand. How do I know you ask... well it goes back a few years. I met him when I was a young comedian just beginning my career and he was an established headliner. This was prior to his radio days. Jim was kind enough to ask me to open for him at some local corporate events. This was a nice break for a young comedian in two respects. First, it was nice to be working and getting experience and secondly, and more importantly, was the advice I received from a real professional comedian. Jim was very generous when it came to this and I’m not the only comedian who has benefited from his kindness and expert advice.

However, Jimmy gave me some of the most important advice I have ever received as a comedian, entertainer and corporate speaker that I implement in every performance. As a matter of fact, I put a chapter about it in my book. When Jim would open his show, he would nonchalantly talk to the crowd and even relay some joke jokes (i.e. three guys walk into a bar) to the audience before he would go into his material. I asked him later why he did this because most comedians would just begin with their material. He told me quite simply. “Because Dave that’s what they wanted ". He said you have to give the audience what they want first and then they will give you what you want. He was right. At the time if you told someone you were a comedian, the first line out of their mouth was, "tell me a joke" and they expected one.

Today comedians are so mainstream people realize we do material instead of joke jokes. Over the years through while listening to him on the radio and working with him in person, I have seen Jim repeat this technique hundreds of times in different formats. He no longer uses joke jokes, of course, but will implement several other funny bits that he has written and it never fails. We had our national television debut on the same show and I saw him use it there.

Jim Krenn has become one of the most beloved entertainers in Pittsburgh. He spent almost 25 years on the same radio station in the same position which is almost 3 lifetimes in the radio biz. A good portion of that time he was number one in the ratings. When he performs live, it is usually a sold out event. So when I say that Jim Krenn has no need to worry, I simply mean that wherever he lands and whatever he decides to do, he will be a success because in my 25 years in the entertainment industry working with everyone from Jay Leno to Chris Rock and Howie Mandel to Drew Carey, I have never seen an entertainer give them what thay want better than Jimmy Krenn. Good Luck Pal. I’ll see ya at your next gig!


David Michael
Comedian
Corporate Speaker
Author

www.davidmichaellive.com

@DavidMichaeLive • Twitter