Ep. 233 UNFORGETTABLE RESEARCH With Vince Antonucci and Chris McGuire

Hey there, Mark Brown. I think one of the missing elements for a lot of presenters is they don't go deep enough. They know their topic, they know their story, but they don't take the time to research it and go deeper. Where we could find some more irony, some more statistical facts that would back things up. What's your thoughts, Mark?

You know, it's easy to be comfortable with our stories and our experiences, but sometimes that little known fact, that tidbit can turn a topic on its ear and really draw the audience in. But the question is who? How can we provide unforgettable research?

238,799.5 miles.

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcasts with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown. Mark Brown.

Your life tells a story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time, stage time, Stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation. Ahas, let's dive right in.

All right, so Mark, I just did a workshop last weekend with Chris McGuire. Those of you don't know him from friend, comedy mentor, just a guy that knows Hollywood story. So good, so deep. And we're talking and I realized when we started talking about research that I in fact use some of the principles that he loves and teaches and lives. And when I was working on Ouch, I was diving deeper into the Dr. Goddard story. Cause I had so much anxiety, I'm like, I gotta do something. So let me go deeper, let me research more. So I, I went over to the Dr. Goddard Museum, which I didn't even know there was one. And what's interesting, Mark, is I grew up in the town where the first rocket was launched. There's a monument next to the fire station. There's a monument on the golf course where he launched it. I knew all this, but what didn't I know? So I went to the museum. I found out that Dr. Goddard had invented solar panels. He was trying to find a way to propel the rockets after it went through the Earth's atmosphere. So we have solar panels because of him and his journey. I found out he developed and invented the bazooka, which is a shoulder launched rocket. Okay, those are interesting facts. I found out this high man, which is a biography written about him, was actually taken to the moon because that was his dream and brought back. And now in this museum, interesting fact, none of them were in my speech. However, in my research, I found out the New York Times were mocking him, and they put a headline in the paper, 238,799 and and half miles, that because of my comedy training, I was like, ooh, that helps make my point of strangers are gonna make fun of you. Strangers are gonna tell you you can't. So I did a lot of research, but that one fact made my speech better. So two of my heroes, Chris McGuire and Vince Antonucci. Chris, just big fan. He's been a lead comedy writer. And we just did find the funny workshop together. Just love his process. And then Vince. Vince is one of my best friends in the world. Somebody I looked up to, someone who's made me a better writer. Well, now he's helping do research to help pastors create better sermons. So I'll let him explain it, But I thought if we're going to talk about research, we need these two guys. And Mark, just so you know, I couldn't not invite Maureen Zappala to talk about research since that's her ninja skill. But she was booked up this morning, but she said, I can't wait to hear what they say about it because she loves research. So, Chris and Vince, I've yapped enough. Vince, let's start with you. So just give us a little background about what you do now in terms of research, because I didn't even know there was such a thing I was a pastor for.

I guess I still am, but what, for 28 years? Something like that. And during that time also started ghostwriting for people. I've ghostwritten. I've written five books of my own and ghostwritten, I think, a little over 20 books for different authors. And recently shifted from preaching every week to helping pastors who are preaching every week. And so I do research for them, typically bigger churches where they have a little bit more budget and where the pastor, because the big church has many hats they have to wear. And so being able to reduce their sermon writing time from 20 hours a week to, you know, 12 hours a week or whatever through me doing some research for them and giving them some, you know, I. I look up biblical insights. I look up research and data from today that confirm what the Bible teaches a long time ago and all kinds of stuff like that. So between the books I write, which the way I do it is people give me content and then I reformulate the content and make a book out it. But I also do research on their content and will add 10 or 15% to. To what they've written as I go trade the book.

Who needs chat GPT when you got Vince Antonucci.

There you go.

Chris, what's your experience background on researching?

Oh, sorry, you clipped off the beginning. You talking to me?

Yes. What's your research background? Where do you come from when research?

Well, I don't really have a, I don't have a background per se, but what I, you know what. But I always have an, you know, interest in it. So if in particular, if I'm writing a screenplay or something like that or a script, if it's, if it's set in a world, you have to know the world. So it helps to kind of deep dive in the world and understand, you know, where your characters are living. You know, that usually leads to, you know, plot points and character quirks and things like that. But with speakers, because generally I'm building on what they're doing. It's just kind of additive. So like in the pile of material that you get from a presenter, well, the first thing I'll ask is where are you speaking? Because, because that's a twofer in terms of research. Because if you're speaking, if you're speaking in New Orleans, okay, for everyone asking.

The question, listen, how both Chris and Vince think, what are they asking that's going to help you with your research? So Chris, you had a coaching client.

That was client who was, who is doing like hosting an event in New Orleans and they were doing like, like they were doing jokes, they were doing comedy, but it still had to have the message and themes of the night. So the first thing I asked him is where are you going to be and what are you talking about? And he told me what he was talking about. And then so there's like the stuff that the event is about, there's the stuff that he's doing, which is he's doing comedy and then there's New Orleans. So I'm like, okay, the first thing I did was research, you know, what is New Orleans known for? And then go a little deeper. What are some things people don't know about New Orleans? And one of the things that, you know, came up right away. I mean, obviously everybody knows about, you know, Bourbon street and the heavy, heavy drinking and all that stuff. But we got, I got a lot of, of comedy out of that. Where. Well, the first thing was, it was about I found out that New Orleans was the most haunted city in America. So you know, that immediately took me to, you know, a stand up comedy thing where it was like, you know, New Orleans is the most haunted city in America, which is great because we're going to need a seance if any of these jokes die. You know what I mean? So you go right, you know, you go right to the thing about, like, you know, that a comedian can die on stage to a haunted city. And you're right there. Then I asked, like, where he's from. So he's from Buffalo. So again, going into what, what is New Orleans and Buffalo have in common? And you just, you know, I'm just making, like, lists of associations. So I'm like, well, you know, just in the research of, you know, famous food and drinks from New Orleans, it's like the hurricane came up, right? And so immediately I'm like, well, why would you name a drink after, like, the worst thing that ever happened in New Orleans? But then I thought about Buffalo and I'm like, so the joke became, you have this drink called the Hurricane. Why would you ever name something out of the biggest disaster to come out of New Orleans? I'm from Buffalo. We don't have a drink called the 93 bills.

You know.

You just make those. So for me, like, it's, it's associations. I just kind of go, I do some research and I make associations and I just try to, you know, comedy is about connecting things that aren't related. And it doesn't have to be comedy. I mean, if you're, whatever you're speaking about, if you're giving a sermon or whatever, you just want to, you want to surprise your audience. So it doesn't have to be funny. It could just be like a surprise or an insight by connecting things that don't seem like they're related. But you can make the connection. So that's where I start. I start with where you're from and where are you the two for? Is this the last thing I'll say? And I'll shut up. Is the two for about where you are is everybody's in the same room or everybody is connected to the same event. So you're. So if you're doing a joke about where you are, like, I'm in Las Vegas, everybody's in Las Vegas. So you're now making a connection with the audience on something that you have in common. It's a twofer.

Yeah.

Mark, I realize this is. This podcast is kind of like a, a bar joke, a street joke. So a comedian, a pastor walk into a bare.

Vince.

I did do, I did do stand up comedy for a couple of years here in Las Vegas. So I got a Little bit. Coming with you.

Oh, yeah.

And some of that was research like that. And some of it. Some of the material I developed, which wasn't anything amazing, but was just like, I would read Time magazine, I would read Entertainment Weekly and just find things, you know. So I remember one day I was actually backstage, I was the host. And so we have, like, we had our show had like six comedians, and then the MC would kind of go out between each one, tell a joke, introduce the next one, and I would just read backstage and at. This was whatever year it was, 2009, 10. And at SeaWorld, one of the killer whales had attacked one of the trainers. And it was all the shock about it. You know, when. When you're training a killer whale, that may be a hint, you know, they may attack. You know, like, if you're training a counting whale, you know, you're probably.

You're probably safe.

Yeah.

Anyway, so.

But you have. But. But if you're in. Whether you're in comedy, I mean, comedy is just another public branch of public speaking in some way. It's people getting up in front of an audience, trying to connect. It's good to keep up with what going on. I'm sure in your work with pastors that, you know, you want to draw current things into what's happening. So, you know, that's just becomes a daily habit, you know. And if I'm working with speakers, I like, I have a, you know, news alert on, like, humor. And if I see something that, like, I just put something on my substack, which was about last week. The federal government just came very close to banning. They did it. They did a U turn on it. But they came close to banning those humorous electoral electronic signs that you see on the road. You know, slow down, your in laws will be there. You know, stuff like that. You know, the only thing sparklers are, only thing that should be lit on 4th of July, stuff like that. You know, those messages. So the federal government was like, they're. They're not clear. They're getting in the way of the message. Humor is getting in the way of the message. Does this sound familiar? Darren and Mark, you know what I mean? So they ended up doing a U turn on it, because everybody was like, you're no fun. You're the fun police. And so they. They. But if that, like, sort of struck me immediately, like, oh, this is a speaker's message, which is don't let humor get in the way of your message.

Or the cat.

I think it's a little ridiculous. I Thought it was something interesting for. For my audience.

So, Vince, when you're helping, how does it start? Where they give you some content or what the subject is, and then you jump on? I know you said I just jump on, but I'm curious, like, what you search for, how you search. Sure.

A couple things I do is, one, I read 40 to 60 books a year and take notes. And so I have a library of notes from books, you know, so over, you know, a couple. Couple years, you got hundreds of books. And so I try. Like, right now, I'm ghostwriting a book for somebody on burnout, workplace burnout. And so I'm reading books about that. Obviously, this guy has his own great content, but if I find some good quotes, if I find a research study that he doesn't have, I can. And we'll cite those, obviously, if they come from a book. I did a book a couple years ago on brain science about how to win the war in your mind.

And.

And so I was. I read some books, but I also just googled, like, crazy neuroplasticity, neural pathways. And so Google is a great friend. So an example, last week, I had a pastor who said, hey, I'm doing this sermon on science, and I want to use George Washington Carver as an example. Somebody who was one of, if not the preeminent scientists of his time and a committed Christian. And I want to talk about how his faith and his science interwove. Like, they weren't. They don't battle each other. You know, I feel like science and faith, or no, they. They go together. So he said, do some research. Give me some good stuff. So I know nothing about George Washington Carver except the Eddie Murphy skit from the 1980s and Saturday night Live where he said, and George Washington Carver died penniless and insane trying to play a record with a peanut. So that's about all I knew. So I'm like, all right. And so I. There's nothing sexy about this, but I googled. And so I googled. And so I guess the trick. But I think. I don't know if this is pretty obvious, but I will try to just brainstorm. I went to law school, and this is something that you are taught in law school is how to research. So maybe I have a little. A little help from that. But I will just Google 10 different combinations of what I'm looking for, because they don't. And sometimes a lot of it's the same results, and it's annoying, but every once in a while, the different wording hits and so I'll Google George Washington Carver faith. George Washington Carver, a Christian question mark. George Washington Carver, faith and science. George Washington, George Washington Carver's science effectiveness. You know, just like all these different things and then just real quick skim through and say, oh, that's different. And, and I've developed the ability to read fast and because there's a million results, you know, and so you want to just try to get to the best stuff. And so I got all my stuff, gave it to him last night. I was thinking about today, about talking to you, and I thought, I wonder if it would have been easier and better to use ChatGPT. And so I chat GBT'd George Washington Carver and Faith and Science. And I said, you know, how did George Washington Carver's faith impacted science, whatever. And the results I got were way, way not as good as Google, not even remotely close as good as Google. And so if I had given the chat GBT results to. I'm so glad about your cat, by the way, because at some point my.

Dog'S gonna jump in here and I.

Will feel less bad.

She won't leave me alone.

Normally my dog's jumping on the couch. So I'm glad for that. Anyway, if I had given the ChatGPT results to this passer, I would have felt like I failed him. And, and so I'm so glad I didn't do that. However, he also said, I know that George Washington Carver fought against racism. Could you do research on that for me? I googled that last week and didn't get great results. I chat GBT it last night and got a little bit better and far more organized results. And so I have only. I'm only beginning to be a chat GBT or researcher. And so the lesson I learned was do both because Google might give you a whole lot better. Or in the other case, ChatGPT was a little bit better. And so I would say if you really want to dive into a topic, if you just need cursory results, I think you could do one or the other. But if you really want to dive in, do both. Because I got some different stuff from both. So that's the non sexy response. I Google, I read a lot, I take notes, I use Evernote to categorize my notes so I can go back and find stuff. Yep, there you go.

Yeah. What I love is you did both. I want to remind everyone, listen to this. You may be an expert in customer service, you might be an expert on leadership. However, there's more, there's deeper that you're missing if you don't take the time. Because what we're realizing, you come up with one gem, just like if you're speaking in New Orleans, one gem right near the beginning, or maybe it's an entrepreneur association. Luke, dive a little deeper and you might get that one or two gems that you use right up front that, whoa, this is not somebody mailing it in, so we don't have to redo our whole presentation. But Speckle, a couple of interesting facts or unknown facts I didn't know about the New Orleans being the most haunted.

Mark, I did not either. You know, but I can't help but go back to what you said earlier, because you gave us some wisdom. You did the research and you found out all this information about Dr. Robert Goddard, but you found one piece that seemed to work, and boy, did it work. So in the research, you're going to find more than you need. The second piece of doing unforgettable research is deciding what's the best content to insert in the humor routine, in the book, in the sermon. So I'm going to ask you first, Vince, how do you navigate that and determine what is the best content to include and exclude when you get this ton of research results? What's your process?

And I don't know if I have a process. That's a great question. It's a. It's. You're completely right. It's. It's calling down and saying, what's the. What's the right thing to use? I'm looking for stuff that's compelling, unique, you know, something that it's not like, you know, that people would. Hopefully they won't hear it and go, I kind of knew that. Or I kind of figured that, you know, it may be necessary to, depending on what you're writing or speaking, to give a little bit of the basics. You know, if. If you have an audience who doesn't know the basics. But I'm looking for something that's like, oh, wow, that's. I had no idea. You know, and so with the book on brain science stuff, you know, I'm. I'm Google neuroplasticity, which just means that your brain changes over time and develops. A lot of people think I am what I am, and I always think how I think. And it's like, no, your brain is just always adapting and morphing and changing. And so I would Google neuroplasticity. So this book was a Christian book, but about brain science. And so I'd Google neuroplasticity and faith, neuroplasticity and God. And so, but I happened to hit one was neuroplasticity and prayer, and got a result that I hadn't gotten any other ones. And it's the science that was. It's people at USC who are not Christians, not faithful people, scientists who have determined that prayer changes your brain. That if you pray for, I think it's like five minutes a day for 30 days, your brain will. The shape of it will be different. What lights up at different times will be different. Like, it literally changes your brain. And so that's cool. Like, you know, and if you're writing a book about, you know, how to overcome negative thinking and stuff like that and realize, hey, it's not just good advice, that prayer might help you find peace, it might help you, you know, but it's, like, actually scientifically proven. That's a. That's a nice one. So looking for that, you know, that. Those compelling or unique facts.

Yeah, Mark, I think it's kind of piggybacking on, like, capture what captures you. If I'm hearing you both right, it's that thing that go. Makes you go, ooh. That might. Might more be likely to get other people to go, ooh. Didn't know that.

Mark Yarrow down here. Early, early. My keeper. But ask what generates an emotional response? You see the aha. The eyes pop open. So is it. Is it fairly safe to just to say then that part of the research on the back end of it is the testing to see how your audience reacts and responds to it, or how the. The pastor receives what you say? Oh, I didn't know that. That looks really, really good. Because sometimes you said, Vince, it's nice to know, but I think I already knew that. Finding what's different but also compelling almost helps you narrow down the pool some more because there may be several different ideas, facts and data, but what's intriguing, what's compelling, what's interesting. And that's part of the deeper dive as well.

Yeah.

How does that work when researching for comedy and script writing, Chris, that same principle. How does that.

Do you phrase that again?

Yeah, the idea of trying to find what's interesting and unique, not just different, but compelling, that might generate an emotion, an aha or a response. I didn't see that coming. Is that part of your process for screenwriting or when coaching a humorist? And how do you fit all of that in this part of the research?

I mean, I cast a wide net, you know, I kind of, you know, one of the Guys I work with on a late night show who was a monologue writer said hey, we're in the volume business. Which is why I always deliver more than I over deliver. Because I feel like everybody's taste is different, especially when it comes to humor and stuff like that. So, so like I said, I cast the wide net. So I don't. A couple of things I don't get. I don't waste a lot of time. I'm not like what Vince is doing where he's like do. He's doing like super deep stuff, he's going into a heavy duty topic, stuff like that. What I try to do since I'm a little more surfacey is I tell my students when I talk about research is every time you reference something in your, in your presentation, just take five minutes to go to Wikipedia, Google it, whatever, and you know, you can go down a rabbit hole. I've spent hours researching because I kind of dig it. But you know, in terms of being productive is just like give it a quick hit. I had a student who you know, was, or a client who was talking about deep depression and they were, they were in a depression for a very long time, extremely long time. And I was. And that immediately took me to the reference Great Depression. And then I googled how long was the great depression? It was nine years. Nine years. My depression lasted 12. You know what I mean? So you know, it's just simple things like that or it's like referencing a song, you know, if somebody, or a quote or a saying another thing is whatever your topic is, an easy thing is just research a quote, a famous quote on funny quotes on whatever topic if you want to engage them that way, or faith based quotes on a topic. You know, those are things that you can easily incorporate. And if it's humor, that's a gold mine because it's not on you because you never said it. So that a funny quote that you start your speech with, if it, if it doesn't kill in the room, well you didn't write it, you're just referencing something somebody else said. So it's a really easy, easy thing for, for a beginner to do. Like for example, I like to show I like case stories a lot. You know, I really like, like if I'm talking about using a particular aspect of humor in a presentation, I like to show famous people or successful people using that. So I go deep into that. So like for example, when we did our seminar this weekend, Darren and I, we built a whole story around Warren Buffett. So that came out of me googling funny CEOs, and, you know, funny CEOs. It's a small list, by the way. Even though There are funny CEOs, it didn't return me much information. And I tried ChatGPT, I tried Google, all this stuff. And I got. Anyway, I got back a list. Richard Branson's funny and Steve Jobs was funny and Warren Buffett. And then I'm like, oh, okay, well, let me check into Warren Buffett. And I found one fact that connected with the audience, which is he was so terrified of public speaking when he was a teenager that, like, he would get physically ill. So he credits going to Dale Carnegie as being why he's successful. He actually has the diploma for Dale Carnegie behind his desk, you know, and this guy's a billionaire. So that immediately took me to. Well, everybody's nervous getting on stage. I'm dealing with. With emerging speakers, they might be nervous. And I'm like, this guy was a billionaire and now he's funny. Let me show you some of his funny quotes. But he started out just like you, Chris.

Just to piggyback on that, what I found fascinating is what you found out about the check that he wrote for the course.

Oh, yeah. I mean, like the story. I mean, look, I have. The other thing is just I have a developed sense of humor over, you know, 30 years of doing comedy. So I have, like, what I call my humor detector will just go off. So one of the things as I went through there that I found Warren Buffett was that, you know, he's cheap. He's well known for being, like, the cheapest man in the world. Like, and that's why he's a value investor, and that's why people love him, is because he. He's not a crazy investor. He's a guy that goes, this is a value. I'm cheap. This is the price to buy at all this. So when he, He. When he decided to go to Dale Carnegie because he was so nervous, he knew the only way he would go would be if he went down there and wrote a check, because he would definitely go. If he wrote a check, he was going to show up because he's cheap. So he goes down, he registers for the class, he writes the check, he leaves the office, he gets cold feet, calls the bank and cancels the job.

Yeah.

Wow. It's a great story. It's a terrific story. Eventually he, you know, he has his aha moment where he's like, I cannot be as successful as I need to be until I Overcome this fear. And then he goes through it and now he's proud of it. And he's got like, you know, Excalibur behind him is a piece of paper, you know what I mean? That says Dale Carnegie on it. It's a cool story. Yeah.

And if you're listening to this and you thought the Warren Buffett story was interesting, when you found out that he took the Dale Carnegie that was interesting when he told you that little aspect of the story, it just got better. More interesting and more unforgettable. That's what we're saying to look for. And Chris, just because you have a frame of reference, none of us do. When you guys are writing jokes for, let's say a comedy roast or opening monologue, just give us a ballpark. How many jokes are written and then given to the decision maker, the comedian, and how many actually get into the show?

Well, it depends on the show. If it's a daily show, there may be anywhere from 10 to 20 jokes. Leno used to do like 20 plus jokes in his monologue. 10, 15 jokes, you know, depending on the show. How many write? I don't know, the probably. There's probably 100, 200 jokes that are written that, that gets called down by the head writer and then, and then presented to the host and then depending on the host. Some hosts, like, literally want to see every single joke. Other hosts, like Lionel was a guy that read every single joke. But. And Jimmy Kimmel. But like other hosts, they're like just, I trust you.

You're.

You have taste. Just get it down. And then if I need more, I'll get more. But when I did like the roasts, the roasts were like. Because it was a one time event and we worked for three weeks on it, it would be an enormous amount of jokes. So, like, what I did, I was the head writer on the Comedy Central roast for Justin Bieber. And I didn't want my writers spending too much time doing research. And the production wouldn't, the production wouldn't pay for it. So I had a little extra time. So I spent, I spent a day. But I dug it. I figured I should know and I just found I don't know. I gave him about 10 pages of research on Justin. All the crazy stuff he's done, all the times he got in trouble, you know, the names of all the songs, all the awards, all the gossip, all that stuff. And I put it into something and I gave it to my team when they showed up. And they, yeah, they were all like, this is Great. Because now they don't have to do it. So sometimes you have to look at your team and go, like, whose time is best used? When I did the research, my time was cheap because it was between gigs. I had an extra day or something like that. So I just did it.

And tell me if you can't talk about this, that's okay. But I thought it was fascinating when you figured out a way to get Martha Stewart onto that roast fair game.

I didn't get Mark on the roast date.

In fact, well, the subject.

Oh, the subject of. Well, the subject of Martha on the roast was just an association about Martha. Her people wanted to do the roast, and we were just trying to think of an angle of why Martha Stewart should be on the roast. And after kicking it around, one of the writers suggested that was like, oh, well, if she talk about being in prison, that would be amazing. And so that just set off a light bulb for us. And, you know, and so when I assigned the piece to be written, I gave it to the best writer and I said. Or the. Yeah, one of the best writers. He was fantastic. And I said, make sure this reads like advice for Justin on what will inevitably be his first day in jail. So that's like, you know, coming from somebody who had been in federal prison. So that made that, like, super personal, super connected, and something that no one else could do. So that came out of that. We knew a lot about Martha Stewart.

Yeah. If you want to.

When we do the roast, we research, like, everybody we know. You're looking for that little detail, you know, that can lead to. To a joke. So, yeah, that's. That's it. And on that thing, I always said that that show. That the wastebasket on that show was the funniest because we. We had. We would do 500 jokes a day, and, you know, only a few would make it into the show because, you know, we had to have so much material because we're dealing with very picky people. Whether it's the network, the showrunner, or the talent, you just have to have, like, tons of stuff. So very, very small percentage. Percentage of it may tear.

So, Vince, in your situation, when you're. You come up with a bunch of ideas and you think it's intriguing, do you test it on any of your friends or buddies just to kind of see if it's interesting? Do you have, like, a little filter?

That is a great question. In my new life? No, I just. I just give them kind of. Kind of what Chris was saying. I give them more than they need and figure that they can go through and pick what. What. What they think is good. In my old life, when, when I wrote just for myself, I was always doing that. And so, you know, if, you know, somebody listening gets to give a. The same speech over and over, you have the advantage of trying something out and realizing it worked or it didn't work. I was just listening last week to an interview Tim Ferriss did with Jerry Seinfeld, which is great. It's from, I think, a couple years ago, but it's great. But Jerry's talking about, you know, when he is doing new material, he's showing up every night at the comedy clubs, just work his material, and the audience gets to decide what's good and what's not good, you know, and so if you're somebody who gives the same speech over and over, you can do that. You know, you find some research. I'm going to put that in and see how it feels and how the audience responds to it. What I would do, because I spoke every Sunday, is if I had a story, I would just start telling it to anybody who would listen throughout the week and seeing does it get a reaction. And as you tell it, you start to realize, oh, that sentence is unnecessary. And, oh, that word was funnier when I said it that way. And so, yes, I used to do that a lot, but not. And now I just give tons of stuff and let them decide what's best.

Sweet. Well, I respect the time that you guys are giving us. I want to wind it down and let you get back to normal life. But sincerely love this conversation. And if you're listening to this, look, it is some extra work. But like we're saying, if you have that one subject you talk about all the time, this is value. This helps differentiate you. And then there's also the fact that you may be speaking in a different city. How could you do a little research on that city or that group and then connect it to your subject?

Yeah.

You might only use it one time, but it will help you be unique, unforgettable.

Vince, just real quick, just to show the power of that, there's a band called Barenaked Ladies. They're not actually Bare Naked or Ladies. I've gone to I don't know how many concerts in my life. Hundreds. And they're by far my favorite concert. And one of the reasons is every show they do, they write a song that day about that city. Wow. And so, you know, I used to live in Virginia beach, and they would do a song that was his, their, they could be professional comedians themselves but they would write this hysterical song about like if you walk the main drag on in Virginia beach, they have T shirts that are like three for $10. You know, just cheap touristy Virginia Beach T shirts. And they wrote this song about three for ten dollar T shirts that was hysterical. And but you just appreciate it so much. You're like, man, you guys wrote that for us. There's nowhere else that that's going to work. And so every, every city they write a new song that day for it and just yeah, I tell everybody if you can see them a concert, you have to. And part of the reason is that song. So just, just confirming what you're saying, Darren.

Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. And I'll say like you do something like that, it looks like a magic trick. So if you like pull something out, like a little comment if you can in delivery, if you can make it seem very light, like off the cuff kind of like whatever, it looks like a magic trick and your credibility goes through the roof. It's an audience. So yeah, it's, it's a great tool to have in your toolbox.

So my best I'm hearing here is that research really helps with customization as well because as you say, you, we all know speakers who are on leadership, customer service, sales, communication and much of the material. There's much is a lot of overlap. But what can you find, craft, incorporate and deliver that's going to make you unique but more importantly unforgettable. So that last bit of information is wisdom and gold. I hope you're all hearing this, my friends.

Yeah, my favorite bit of research is going what I call the registration desk principle where if you think about it, what's top of mind? So there's the city that you're in, but then there's also the cost conference that you're in. So I always sneak aside when no one's at the registration desk and the people who are working it. I say, hey, what are people complaining about? What's that top of mind idea? And I talk about this in the humor camp. But one of the things I don't often talk about is I found out I was speaking in San Antonio, Texas and I found out that they had all the breakout rooms in one section of the hotel, but they had an extra breakout room that was on the other side of the hotel and no one could find it. So I just walked on stage and I said, hey, you know, good morning, da da da. And then I said, hey, anyone looking for Hacienda G. I didn't even say another word. They all roared in laughter. And then of course, since that worked, I said, okay, just go out this door through the kitchen. Gotta laugh down Crockett Avenue, Gotta laugh. When you get to the Alamo, take a left. And that got a laugh. But that was. I'd never be able to do that joke again. Unless you know that situation. But then I'll have to adapt it. But it's taken that time to ask questions. So, guys, final question for both of you. Any other advice that you would give either the value of doing research or technique or something you do? One piece of advice. If you were sitting down with a speaker that said, hey, I, I really want to be unforgettable this research thing. I don't know. Chris, we'll start with you.

I would just say I'm going to make a do a technique suggestion, which is I, I probably start with the AIs first, like Chat GBT. So I'll hit them. You, you need to, if you, you can tell them what your audience is. So like Vince, I don't know if you do this, but if you say, please give me blah, blah, blah, exam case examples for X for a faith based audience, you'll get better responses. Okay, so one thing is to tell the AI what your what. Who your audience is. You'll get stuff back a lot of time. You're absolutely right. A lot of time. It might be garbage, it's too specific. But sometimes you'll get a ton of stuff back. Then you need to ask it if it's true because it will. If you do ask it. I have noticed it will say, oh, I'm sorry, I thought, blah blah blah. These were generated from blankety blank. So ask it if it's true. Then when the thing sort of tickles your fancy or sets off your detector, your humor detector, your irony detector or whatever, then definitely google it to make sure it's true. The other thing I would say is if you get this much output back from using an AI, ask it to summarize it. You could say, please summarize that in 100 words.

Yeah, I'm literally taking notes. That's. That was really good.

Yeah. Hit me up after. Hit me up. Darren's got my contact. Hit me up afterwards. Vince, I'll tell you what I know.

Wow, thanks. That's awesome. I did not know that.

Nice. Vince, your thoughts. Last bit of advice.

The only thing I can, only thing I think of is, you know, if you're. When, if you're in your presentation, sharing opinions, experiences, things that are personal to you. When you can back that up with a study that was done, it's so powerful. I. Our church, we called it church where people don't like church. And so we got lots of people who didn't necessarily believe anything I was telling them. And so partly because of my personality, partly because it's my audience, I would just regularly look for those things like, hey, prayer, change your brain science, or, you know, whatever. And just, you know, there's. I can't even, you know, countless people over the years who are like, man, like, I went home and googled that to make sure you were being, you know, telling the truth. And like, that really made me think. I didn't know that there was, you know, actually evidence for something like that. And so I would just say, you know, that's one kind of research that you can do is just like, what? And it's amazing. The, the, the studies that have been done, you know, usually I can find multiples for that. I spoke recently on serving other people makes you happier than serving yourself. There are dozens of studies that have proven it, you know, that, that it doesn't. The Bible says it. Yes, I'm saying it. Yes. But it doesn't matter if you believe that because here's all these studies that prove it. So if you want to be happy, serve other people instead of yourself. And those studies, I had people come up after I spoke and said, man, I've never heard anybody actually, you know, kind of prove what they're talking about in church. So it's just really powerful.

It raises credibility.

Yeah.

So, Vince, if anyone was interested in having you help them with a speech or write a book, how would they find you?

Vinceantenucci.com V I N C E Antonucci is a N T O N u c c I.com and it's got some of the books I've worked on and there's a contact me page and that kind of thing. Cool.

Thanks, Vince. Chris, how would they reach out for you for coaching or writing or.

My landing page is laughwithchris.com and my substack is letstalkfunny.substack.com Sweet.

Mark. Any other questions?

No, I just, I'm just enjoying the, the knowledge being poured out into my Jamaican brain today, which I appreciate, including some AI, additional AI content, which is something, I confess, I don't use that much. So I was really thrilled. And I got some keepers, some ideas. Bring it from, from the first one is look, research is necessary. Dig deeper. Ask what are the commonalities? Be it with a location, with a character or a circumstance. What can I find that's unique? Comedy connects unrelated things. Always make a connection. Put the extra work in. Read both online and physical books. Maybe 60 books a year like Vincent. We don't know. Use AI as well as old fashioned searches to get as much information as possible. Choose the most unique and compelling contact tidbits and information and ask what generates a strong emotional response. Chances are it'll resonate with your audience. The more you learn are the better your chances of finding critical content. Test your research results and to gauge emotional reaction and response. Learn from the Bare Naked Ladies. An exercise in research can create wonderful customization. Use the Registration desk principle. Find out what annoys everyone and use that to reach your common audience. As far as AI, it's current but use specific prompts. Then ask if it's true. If necessary, also ask to summarize the 50 words. But always go back to researching online by reading books and other online information. To me that's wisdom and that's my thought for the day.

Nice. All right, so guys, thanks for joining us. We appreciate it. We just love the conversation with the people who do it best. Always, always walk out better. So a comedian and a pastor walk into a bar and we're better because of it. If you want to join Chris and me, we're going to do Find the Funny Workshop coming up again in March. Check out stagetimeworkshops.com you can use the discount code POD P O D25. Guys, thanks for joining us. Thanks for your extra time. We love what we do, but you guys make us better. Thanks man. We'll see you next week.

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