“I am too serious.”
That was the answer I got when I asked “Connie” why she was signing up for Get Funny, one of our Ed2Go online courses offered through Club Ed. Over the years hundreds of students have taken every online course from Grantwriting to Creating Web Pages, but this was the first time anyone signed up for Get Funny.
“My job doesn’t require me to be humorous,” Connie explained. “It’s just that I love it when other people are funny. I always wonder ‘how do you do that?’ So I just decided I want to be funnier in everyday life.”
So how does a layperson learn to be funny?
The course description reads:
Humor enhances everything you do, no matter whether you're looking to deliver better presentations, increase your marketability as a writer, deliver more hits to a Web site, or simply become friendlier and more outgoing. Whether you're naturally funny or want to be, this hilarious course will help you sharpen your wit.
It turns out that learning to be funny is hard work. Get Funny starts by tracing comedy’s roots back to the ancient Egyptians.
Then students actually study the different types of humor: slapstick, observational, exaggeration, and innuendo. The course finishes with opportunities to perform improvisation with guidance on how to apply humor to your everyday life.
Students have to learn to observe and break down situations that occur day to day - mining them as sources of humor. One lesson is on how to construct a joke; another is on preparing a script for a situation comedy.
Connie has seen firsthand what it means to add a chuckle to other people’s lives. She had an experience at a previous job, with a boss who was “that kind of funny.” He would do the unexpected, like pulling out a Costco card to pay for a fancy dinner. “It was silly stuff that you would chuckle at,” she said.
Connie learned her boss was not always so glib. Turns out he used to have an anger problem. “At one point in his life he was so serious, he would get mad when things wouldn’t work out like he wanted. He decided he would stop that and try to instead find the humor in his life.”
She decided she wanted to be like that guy - “someone you wanted to be around.”
Of course Connie has no anger or stress issues - the girl just wants to have fun.
“I feel really good about my life right now,” she said simply. “I want to make it more fun for other people.”
xxx
For information or to sign up for online courses, click www.clubed.net, or call 830-895-4386.
Plan now to get your summer kids activity in Hill Country Kids!
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