———————————————————————————————————
OUR 90-MINUTE CONVERSATION CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE
———————————————————————————————————
I have just had a wonderful conversation with Alison Jean Lester from Singapore. She is a communication skills and creativity trainer (and let me tell you, she’s brilliant). She’s worked with the likes of McDonalds, IKEA, O2 and the list goes on…
We had a chat about many things and in fact, I am putting the Mp3 together for you now.
Alison is very funny and having studied the comedy and improvisation, she wants to share some “stuff” with you guys. We are going to have another Skype chat very soon and we’ll not only answer all your questions about humour and being funny, she’s also going to give us all some expert training.
So here’s what you need to do… in the blog below please ask any questions around humour or mention what challenges you might have. You will see I’ve started off the questions!
The more questions the merrier as I’ll be quizzing Alison!
Cheers,
Tom
———————————————————————————————————
OUR 90-MINUTE CONVERSATION CAN BE DOWNLOADED HERE
———————————————————————————————————
{ 23 comments… read them below or add one }
Okay Alison, here goes…
I’ve got my brother’s best man speech coming up (September 2011) and although I have plenty of funny stories about him, what killer tips can you give me? How can I be extra funny?
Looking forward to chatting about this!
Cheers and great chat earlier.
Tom
This will be really fun to discuss. It’s all about the structure, Tom!
Hi Alison,
Awesome – really looking forward to it!
Cheers,
Tom
Hi Tom
Just signed up to look at your video series.
First one was bril.
My question for Alison.
Stand up comedians never stand still, they constantly move around.
As Public Speakers should we move around the way the stand up boys do?
Hi Alison,
I have just began my career within the speaking industry and am confident speaking on my keynotes but not as an MC in occasions. My question is how do I become an MC if am not naturally a funny person. I have noticed there are more speaking engagement in this area of the industry. What do I do to start taking on the opportunities that are readily available here.
These are great questions, Keith and Lydia, and will I’m sure be interesting to a lot of people. We want to be natural not stiff, but how much movement is natural? We want to be funny, but how funny must we be? It will be an important discussion. Thanks to you both.
Thanks Alison
Look forward to hearing your thoughts.
If you want to do a little free advertising, please visit my site and leave a comment.
You are welcome to mention your Skype chat with Tom and in my reply I’ll send people in this direction.
Hi Keith,
Thanks for this and sorry for the delay in getting your message approved, I have just got back from Dubai and had a bout of food poisoning…!
Would be good to get your comments and let’s have a skype ourselves very soon, would be good to chat.
Cheers,
Tom
Thanks Lydia,
Great question and I’ll make sure I cover some information on getting speaking opportunities on the call.
Cheers,
Tom
Also Keith,
Great question about moving on stage as this is a question I get a lot. Chris Rock, the US comedian, springs to mind.
Cheers,
Tom
Good to see you back Tom and sorry to hear about the food poisoning.
Oh the life of a jetsetter. LOL
Never seen Chris Rock (will Google later) but even the UK comedians really use the stage and let’s face it… they know how to interact with the audience, even when a joke goes wrong.
When will the Alison interview be broadcast – don’t want to miss it.
BTW – as I mentioned to Alison:
“If you want to do a little free advertising, please visit my site and leave a comment.
You are welcome to mention your Skype chat with Tom and in my reply I’ll send people in this direction.”
Hi Keith,
Lol… I am really excited about this chat with Alison, it’s going to be a belter!
I’m probably going to record it first and then send it out so nobody misses it, so no worries there.
I’ll set a date very soon with Alison and have it with you shortly.
Cheers,
Tom
Look forward to it.
Chris Rock…
“If you aint contemplated murder… you aint been in love.”
“Men are handicapped when it comes to argument… because they have to make sense.”
Michael Mcintyre is probably even more animated.
Enjoy your Sunday – or are you catching up?
Keith
Brilliant Keith – love those quotes!
Love MM too.
This Sunday – catching up on getting back to everyone who’s been in contact (with the football on in the background!).
Enjoy your Sunday too!
Cheers,
Tom
Hi Tom,
What a fantastic and power packed chat, with so many valuable and more important usable tips and tools. Alison was amazing, with such clear diction and concise ideas ready to be applied.Your conversation just flowed.
Thank you Alison and thank you Tom for bringing so much value to the MSA. I really look forward to seeing Alison in one of the workshop.
I will need to digest and revisit the the Skype chat one more time as my head is buzzing and swimming with so many great tips.
Have a lovely weekend!
Kind regards,
Shobha
Hi Shobha, it was a great conversation and I really enjoyed it. Alison and I have been trying to get something into quite a while and I’m so glad we organised it.
She’s a brilliant speaker, someone I really respect as an authority in her field.
Cheers!
Tom.
brillian Alison
Thank you Shobha! Thank you fj! And thank you Tom!
Best wishes from wintry Beijing. I think the funniest thing about this training trip will be the very shall we say ‘special’ way I speak their language!
Looking forward to this being an ongoing conversation.
Alison
Great reminder to balance your content, be flexible and put a piece of yourself out there to re/connect with your audience to delivery your key messages. Well done and thanks for the interview!
Hi Tom, I found the interview with Alison most informative. One question for Alison please. I did not fully understand the horse racing point and should be grateful if she could expand upon it. Regards, David
Hello David. Sorry for the delay! Thanks very much for the question.
That horse racing comment was a moment that has sort of haunted me. I put that in during the discussion of how what’s surprising often makes us laugh, because what the presenter said about wondering what the horses were thinking wasn’t in fact funny – it was just a personal comment – but it took us by surprise, and that made people laugh, and it was memorable. He made the presentation more personal, and this made him – the CEO of the corporation – seem more human and approachable.
Does that clear things up a bit?
Best wishes,
Alison
Hey! Who made me a blue bug with a long pink tongue and frizz???
(The likeness is unnerving.)
Haha!
Hi Alison, it’s called your ‘avatar’ or ‘gravatar’ in this case i think! You can change it for your photo (or anything), and you can do this at the gravatar website: http://en.gravatar.com/
There are some great conversations and comments here, so thank you Alison for coming back time and again – it’s really useful information.
Cheers!
Tom