This is the first of two reviews for products not traditional used or marketed as "for magicians". This product, as you can guess by the title, is on the science behind making people laugh. The other product is on a special mental excercise for people who have stage fright or who are nervous approaching people to show them magic can get rid of their fear and be congident, performing at their peak.

This is by a professional comedian called Max Matterson. He basically lays out in ninety-something pages the exact way people perceive comedy, and how you can strengthen the impact of your performance. He goes EXTREMELY in depth, covering topics you never would have known to think about when trying to come across as charming and witty. Chapters include details on everything from the two basic "rules of comedy" (what makes something funny) to body language and voice tone. It also includes a section on how to script your own jokes, which could be extremely useful in tailoring jokes or making gags for a specific effect.

My overall view of this is that if you want to gain a broader understanding of comedy and be able to make yourself come across as witty and professional then I would most definitely buy this. In my opinion it's a fair price ($30) for what you get. I would recommend this even just for the section on writing your own jokes, as I have used it to write up new gags and one-liners directly related to effects I perform. It's like Jay Sankey once said; comedy is a great form of misdirection.

For more information and to purchase the e-book, visit this site: http://www.how-to-be-funny.com/?afl=83869 . The layout is mostly hype-based, but the product itself is a very nice addition to a magician's "hall of knowledge". I'll be posting a review of the other product either tomorrow or the next day.

Thank You for the tip, looking forward to seeing you around more often. Please post some of the examples the book gives and some of the lines you came up with.

All right. Here's a selection from 13, talking about one of the techniques for making your own jokes.

"Whenever you're stuck for an idea, get out your dictionary. There are plenty of words in there that will help inspire you and spark off some ideas. Just select a word and look up its meaning, even if you already know it. Then use that meaning to create your own twist and come up with a new one-liner all you own.

For example, suppose you looked up the word 'amnesia'. Depending on the dictionary, you'll get a definition something like: 'loss or impairment of memory'. So amnesia means you can't remember. Use that information to make up your own joke:


I had amnesia once - maybe twice.

As long as I can remember, I've had amnesia.

Or how about the word 'bigamy'? The dictionary tells us that bigamy means being married to two people at the same time; a criminal offense. Surely there's plenty of ammunition here to make up some good gags. Let's try one:


Bigary=one wife too many. Monogamy=same thing."


It goes on to list a couple more examples, but you get the idea. As for the jokes I made up myself, it's hard to do them justice on a computer screen. The real work comes together in the way you say it, the way you breathe and the tone and voice inflections and a dozen different other things. Nonetheless, here's something I put into my Card-toon 2 routine for some light-hearted laughs.

Halfway through, when the magician on the cards is about to turn the card over, I suddenly stop and "rewind" the part so that he goes just barely back into the cannon and continue while saying, "Stop, rewind, instant replay for theatrical effect..."

Anyway, that's part of what it offers.

Learning how to be funny seems to me like learning how to be an artist. It sounds great in theory, but it demands creativity, the ability to think in unexpected ways.
To whit, when doing my spongeball routine, I give my audience my personal assurance that I did not purchase them from clown poachers; no, the clowns that provided these were drugged, the nose was carefully removed, and the clown was then safely released back into its native habitat.
(Feel free to insert your own Dr. Rockso references.)

Thank You, firefly NICE post! Good thinking to add that quip to your Card-toon routine.

At a woman's 30th birthday party;
My doctor just diagnosed that I have had amnesia for the last 366 days. ...By the way, Happy 29th birthday!

They say one can display symptoms of amnesia if they endure a sever head injury.
If one doesn't remember where their head is, how would you check?

plainswalker...

planeswalker321: true, it is a challenge. While this e-book won't exactly help you to be smarter, it will give you tips to expand your mind and think of really original stuff, as well as how to deliver it most effectively.

EZrhythm: Hey, that was pretty nice. Did you just immediately think of those, or did you do what the technique suggests and actually look up the definition, pulling clues from the wording?

The ideas were there almost immediately. I didn't look up the word, seeing what I could conjure up off hand using being inspired by you.