Laugh to Good Health

Motivational Speaker and Humorist - Sally Edwards

I want to share what I have discovered through a career of delivering laughter to hundreds and sometimes thousands of people at a time.  Humor helps!  Humor boosts the spirit!  Humor and laughter will do wonders for your physical health.

Having performed as a motivational speaker and corporate comedian in countless clubs, theaters and special events across the country, I have witnessed laughter's cleansing powers. Walking into a room of strangers and standing before them to make them laugh is as terrifying as it is empowering.  What draws the humorous speaker and corporate comedian back to the stage over and over again is the heightened spirit that is born out of room full of positive human vibrations heard as laughter.  It is intoxicating and quite addictive.

Laughter is shown to have positive effects upon health which include a boost in energy, a diminishing of pain and a strengthening of the immune system. Laughter has even been shown to be a fantastic aphrodisiac.  Yes.  It's true.  Get your calendars out cupids.

I often include crowd participation in my presentations because I want the audience to be the stars of the event.  I want them to experience the rush of well-being that comes from a community participation that generates laughter.  The resounding sound and energy wipe the slate clean of stress, worry and anxiety.

Laughter is personally available to everyone.  Let it in.  Find it.  CDs, DVDs, live shows, theater, books - laughter can be derived from so many sources.  Every day we have the choice to be happy or sad.  Choose laughter - your positive spirit and good health are the outstanding rewards.
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Sally Edwards is a motivational speaker and corporate comedian who speakers of the effects that laughter has on health and well being.

The Radio Interview - What Stand Up Comedians Need to Know

I'll never forget my first radio interview as a stand up comedian.  I was on the road in a small Ohio town and I was asked to go to the local radio station to promote my stand up comedy show at a nearby comedy club.  I had strict instructions from the radio station.  "Write out five questions that will lead into jokes.   Tell the jokes."  End of instructions.

What the radio station failed to mention is that many radio hosts may step right on every one of those five set-ups and/or punchlines and completely ruin the timing of a joke.  That can make a radio interview very painful.  Comedians know that the best hosts are either highly sensitive to the talent of their individual guests or they are former stand up comics themselves.

This type of radio interview remained the status quo until the day that I walked into the WGN Radio studio and handed my sheet of questions leading to jokes to Steve Cochran, a true veteran of outstanding radio (and a stand up comedian).  Steve, looked at me, unsmiling, and said, "Oh you can throw that away.  We're going to wing it."  My heart stopped.  "Wing it," I thought.  That's what I've been trained "not to do" by countless radio personalities.  I was totally unprepared mentally.  That day, I began to "wing it" in shock.  It was one of the best experiences of my life.

Years later, I still recall this first unrehearsed radio interview every time I walk through the doors of a new radio station.  This past week, I co-hosted the "Down and Dirty" Show with Frank Fontana.  I could not have been more at ease. Frank is a wonderful host who knows how to interview effortlessly.  I've learned a lot since my first encounter with Steve Cochran of WGN Radio and I now interpret the experience of a live radio interview on my own terms:  Talking on the radio is an experience nearly identical to talking to an old friend on the telephone.  You listen, you laugh, you chat, you laugh.  What could be natural?!  Would you talk to an old friend with a handful of prepared notes?  Of course not.  Hearing a natural and fun exchange is what makes radio enjoyable and engaging.  The listeners become caught up in that camaraderie.

If you are being interviewed on the radio, throw those notes away.  Look at the interviewer as if he is a long lost friend.  Catch up on news.  And as Steve Cochran most brilliantly put it, "Just wing it!"

Frank Fontana Interviews Clean Comedian Sally Edwards