Ep. 73 Being Funny Isn't About Trying To Be Funny With Judy Carter

Hey there, Mark Brown. You have no idea. Well, maybe you do, how unbelievably pumped I am. We have been asking Judy for like a year. She is my hero. As you know, she changed the trajectory. She made being funny possible to a guy who couldn't even speak up and is dyslexic and had no hope. So, Mark Brown, what do you think of Judy Carter?

Well, all I know is when I got to work with you, you, you were all so enthusiastic. You said, when I first got started, I had to learn one thing. And someone told me, darren, if you're serious about comedy, you have to get the book. You have to get the book. And the first time you said the book, you said the book by Judy Carter. So now, everybody, you got to meet the author of not only the book, but the comedy bible. Let's meet Judy Carter.

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.

I'm like, speechless. We get to talk to the legend of Judy Carter. Judy Carter, welcome. Thanks for joining us.

Hi. Oh my God, so great to be here, you guys. You look great. Mark and Darren. Woo.

Even my gray eyebrows, I still look good with these gray eyebrows.

Judy, there's so much we wanna cover, but we're just thrilled, thrilled, thrilled to have you. And I gotta just start off though, this is for me. This is my own little ego. I remember the day that you called me and said, are you Darren Lacroix? Who the heck are you? Because I have been selling so many of your books, just part of my story, and you're like, what are you doing? Who are you?

Oh, my God. No, I didn't say like, oh, who the hell are you? You're giving it a terrible. And I taught you better than that. I didn't go like, who the hell are you, you plebeian? No, not at all. I remember I met you at nsa. Is that the guy who's been recommending my first book, which was written, I think, at the turn of the century. I think Ford has just invented an assembly line and they were discovering Alaska. Who is telling people to buy this old book and keeping it alive? Why am I still getting these royalty check. And it's like, Darren Lecroy. Apparently this book changed his life and he's telling everybody buy it. So I came up to you and I remember you got on your knees. It was very embarrassing. And anyway, but you make me laugh, Darren. We've been buddies since and I've been doing guest period on some of your comedy weekends where I've met some wonderful of your people.

Here I am, Judy Carter. When, if you won't mind sharing the story of when you went from magician to comedian or where did your comedy start?

Well, here it is, people. If you're listening to this, if you're really a confident person and totally together, chances are you're not that funny. So I found as a magician, because I was a child and I wanted to do magic because, wow, it's such a great industry and profession for women, right? No discrimination. There are so many female famous female magicians, right? What a good choice that was for me. But anyway, what I found was when I did this magic that when you forget something, like I was doing birthday parties for kids and let's say you're doing sugar to goldfish. And then like, I'm so forgetful, you know, you forget to put the water in with the goldfish. You produce dead goldfish. The kids are screaming, you know they're going to therapy for life. But they were laughing. And I realized that, you know, as a magician, when you make mistakes, they're funny. And that's why all the books I've written on comedy are really about all the things that go wrong with your life deserve focus because, you know, they're funny with the right turn on them. And I became a. I was a magician until one day my tricks didn't show up. It was a gig in Chicago, some mafia based place. And I go, I'm sorry, United Airlines, you know, made my tricks disappear and I can't go on. And oh, yo, you think you're not going on? Well, listen, little lady, you're going on. Cause the man Hef, you know, Hugh Hefner is going to be here tonight. So you get your ass down to the Bunny locker room and get your shit together. Because you are going. And there I am in the Bunny locker room crying into the breasts of some Playboy bunny. And she says, well, just go out there and, you know, be yourself. What the hell does that mean? Anyway? And that's when I went out there and I found, like, not having the tricks. I still got laughs. I told them what I would have done for Them. What tricks were here? They were laughing. I think my first joke I ever told was, by the way, a lot of these Playboy bunnies are feminists. They're like, don't call us bunnies, we're rabbits. I thought of it as I first walked on stage. I got a laugh and I went, oh, my God, I don't have to schlep all these tricks. I can have, carry on and have a career. So that's what happened to me.

Wow.

You know what's funny for me today? Real quickly, what I found very funny, very subtle, was the voice. Don't hurry, honeycomb. That bunny voice come from with the soft, soothing Marilyn Monroe, Happy birthday. Did they all talk like that, Judy?

No, certainly not. As well, we know Gloria Steinem was a bunny, but she did sing a song I'll never forget. She sat me down, said, I will survive as long as I know I can love, I know I'll stay alive. I mean, really? That's your advice? Okay, so, yeah, that's my. Which is true of my whole life. Things go wrong, and that's the good news.

And where did you start teaching? Because you are one of the greatest teachers. You've taught people like Seth Rogen, Saturday Night Live cast members. Every comedian probably in LA has been through your comedy workshops. Where did the teaching start?

Yeah, it's so funny you mentioned Seth. I actually had a dream about him last night where I was at a party smoking pot with him. So that's weird that you mentioned him. I really did. I think it's just been. I've been quarantined. I'm just, like, dying to go to a party and pass a joint with someone. That would be good. Anyway, when did I start teaching? Oh, well, you know, I was. Sometimes I was writing that. The Gravy Train days of comedy clubs in the 80s and 90s. And sometimes I was on the road for 40. I think the most I've been on the road was 46 weeks. Wow. Out of the year. And I see so many comics now, and they go, oh, I stayed at your house while you were on the road. I stayed. Some of them I didn't even know. But my house became a thing. Like, oh, yeah, stay at Judy's house. She's not there. I was living in a little cottage in Santa Monica and I just. It just got so hard on the road. And I remember there was a gig at Governors on Long Island. I live in la. I was born in la, but I was in Long Island. And I'm not really used To. I mean, I know a lot of people think I sound like New Yorky, but I'm like, New York light, right? And I don't know. Mark, have you ever played Long island? And as well.

You mean Long Island?

Long Island. Long island, yeah. So they're going like, yes, you effing suc. You effing suck. You're not funny. You think you're funny. And that's while I was walking up to the stage.

Wow, tough crowd.

Yeah. I haven't even done a joke yet. It's like, oh, geez. You know? And in the middle of that act, I quit. I walked off stage, I walked home. It was a bad day. During that day, my dog had been attacked, and I just went, I can't deal with this anymore. I need a life. And I just went, you know, what am I going to do? So I started to teach at Comedy. Nobody was teaching. I also wrote a book about it that 59 agents rejected. But I just wanted to do something different because I had done. I've traveled. I traveled with Prince, I traveled with Kenny Loggins. I had opened for so many people. And I just went, you know, I gotta. I wonder what it's like to have a normal life and go to work. So I rent an office. I went to work every day pretending I had a job. And then I started to write. And then I. There was a club in LA called Igbees. Jan Smith ran it. Nicest guy in showbiz. And he said, oh, use my club. Teach a class there. And next thing I know, my book's on Oprah, has me on corporations now. Want me to speak on humor. Like, I'm a humor expert. Classes. Everybody wants to take this class because I developed a certain methodology that I've continued to use. It definitely works, and it's so great. My students who have, like, Maz Jobrani, I mean, I always teach people to really be who you are and your most authentic self. And I think my former student, who's the best example of this is Hannah Gatsby. I don't know if you guys. Did you see her Netflix special? Oh, my God. I mean, she was an art major, and she's very brilliant, and she just jokes about Picasso. She won a Emmy for it. Genius, Genius comedy. And this is definitely the case where the student teaches the teacher, because I could only aspire to that. That's what I'm aspiring to. Because I think in life and in our art and in our speaking and whatever you do, the secret sauce is your authenticity. That's A long journey to find that, you know, when you stop trying to please people and start. Stop trying to make people like you and just tell the. Tell the t, as the millennials say, tell the truth, that that is where I continue to try and strive for myself.

I've got a question for you, Judy, because you go from magician to unintended humorist, and then you becoming a speaker at Corporation, wanting to speak, and you're teaching, that seems like several transitions in your career there. Was it difficult to transition from being funny, to make people laugh on stage, but being humorous, to teach, to educate, to inspire, to move a corporate audience? What was that change like for you?

Well, that's a really, really good question. First of all, I learned very quickly that in a corporate gig, you cannot use the word nipples. Just don't do it. There's a lot you just can't do. I learned a lot. I did a gig for Genentech last year when we all could do gigs. And at the end, I told a powerful story. I had to do, like, four gigs. So I was running out of material. And I first came out, I'm trying to be funny, trying to be funny. And then the last one, I went, you know what? I'm just going to tell the story. Not that funny. And the CEO took me outside and says, I want you to tell you that that was your best day. I go, really? But I wasn't very funny. I didn't do a lot of material. She goes, you moved us. You truly moved us. And you don't have to try and be funny. You are funny. And you were so present with that story and so with us, and that's what we will remember. And I gotta tell you, it's like just a CEO, a business person knowing nothing about showbiz, who gave me the best showbiz advice ever. And that is that we don't try to be funny. We, again, express our natural funniness without trying. It's just like trying to be funny is, like, uncomfortable for an audience. It's like going on a date with someone who's trying to get them, you know, get you to love them. It's. It's uncomfortable. So when we are just naturally ourselves, you'll find that we are funny. And of course, there's places that you can carve and punch and head to a joke. But I think more important than jokes right now is that you are very real, that you're real with whatever you're doing.

And, Judy, I have to tell you a story that you may never have heard before. That involves you indirectly. You know, I'm one of your biggest fans ever. However, when I was working on my championship speech. Ouch. I went to work with mark. I drove 2 1/2 hours to work with him. You might have heard this. This story. I showed him.

Where did you live, Mark?

In a house. I mean, sorry, I live. I lived in Mount Vernon, New York, and he was up in Auburn, Mass. Two and a half hours drive from him to me each way. So I went for our listeners as well. Yeah.

So I showed Mark the first version of the speech. You've heard this story before. He said, oh, dad, and we have some work to do. And I was like, what? I did everything you told me to do. I wrote the greatest speech I could write from the level I was at. And so we actually almost. We almost went fisticuffs. Seriously, how stupid is that? I want to punch my coach like Mark Brown, one of the biggest hearts in the world. And then he looked at the speech and he said, there's something missing. We need a failure. And I sat back and I'm like, I don't know. And then I remembered back to the book that you wrote and the jokes that I wrote from the book. And so I said, well, I used to do this little subway joke back when I was doing standup. And he said, try it out. And so I just told the joke and he's like, that's perfect. And it came right from your teaching, and it was right there in front of me. And so you helped me write my championship speech from you taking the time to write that book.

So do I get a cut of everything? You've changed since then?

I'm gonna. There's the trophy. I will send it to you and you can get it for one month out of the year.

Darren was doing a live stream last week, and somebody asked him, so, Darren, what do you win when you win the championship? He says, you win a trophy. That's it. So there's no royalties to give to you on that, unfortunately. All kidding aside, though, I gotta go back to one thing you said. Darren and I have been approached for 20 years by speakers who want to become world champion speakers. They want to rock the house and they say, look, my speech is good, but I got to add this humor. I gotta add this humor. I gotta add this humor.

Yes, yes, yes.

I can see you already beginning to respond, so I'll let you just follow through. What are you thinking, Judy, to that phrase, I gotta add humor?

Well, very often, because I have worked With Toastmaster people. And very often it's like rearranging the deck chairs in the Titanic.

Mark, write that one down.

Mark. It's like this speech. The speech that doesn't make any sense, has nothing real in it, is just a lot of bs. Now we're gonna punch it up with humor, and that'll be perfect. And yeah, it's going down, baby. It's going down. I'm just remembering this story about teaching for Darren. We were doing it in Vegas. The Queens Hotel.

Four queens. Four queens.

What? Four queens. Four queens, right?

Downtown Vegas. Yep.

And there was a woman, Lynette Charity, in the class. And Lynette was telling a story in which she kind of mentioned, like, well, my father was angry or some abuse or whatever, suggested that. And she kind of just threw it away because she was making a joke about something else. And then afterwards, I gave her a note that was, oh, can you tell me more about what happened in your childhood? And then she got so angry, she stormed out of the class. Okay, just none of your business. How dare you. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Anyway, I came home back after that day of teaching. Darren, you said, I don't know, Judy, can you kind of cool it with this? Kind of, you know, it's like, you know, because of course they're your babies. You know, you care about their well being. And she was distraught. And so in the morning, Lynette and I met, and she and I were both crying. I would say, I'm really sorry if I was too hard on you. She said, no, I'm sorry that I was so defensive. We went down that path together. And she created a speech that ended up going to finals and ended up, I think she came in third place. She placed, you know, and she had a time issue she went over because she was getting so many laughs. And now Lynette and I have become very dear friends. She now is making a lot of money as a keynote speaker, and she is now talking about preventing suicide for doctors and talking about her own suicide attempt. So now you would think, oh, well, this is going to be a really sad speech. No, it is very funny and full of levity. And that just shows you she had that. First of all, number one from the story, we could tell that it's not easy to tell the truth about your life. It's not easy. I want to be funny. I want to be entertaining. What will people think? What will my parents think? I don't want to reveal this. It doesn't make me look good. We have a saying Bad for life, good for comedy. So there has to be a willingness. And it's not going to be easy. It's scary, it's frightening, it's taking a chance. But the people who take a chance become winners. Number two, about what happened was that she. I had this all numbered in my head and now I've just lost it all. But I guess what I'm saying is she worked on her speech in terms of what her message was. And number three, the very last step is polish the humor. Polish the humor. Pass. Because it can only work if your speech has a very truthful essence and makes sense and is well structured. That's where you at. Because a lot of people go, no, I just want you to read the speech and punch it up. No, no, we got to start from the beginning here.

You gotta be good message, clear structure, good story, follow it. And then we uncover the hum. And Judy, I have to. You knew I was gonna ask you this because it was one of the most unforgettable presentations I've seen in my life. And when we think about that, we think about 10,000 people in a stadium. But you had given a present, you were given a presentation at a VA hospital or something. And I drove out there to California just to be in the audience and watch you.

Oh, that's right.

And it was because what you did for those guys and gals and the nurses, oh my goodness, I'll never forget that.

It was such a moving experience for me that I had forgotten that you were there. Now I. There was a. Oh, Judy was the. Judy, the nurse who organized it.

Okay, got it all.

Now I understand. So I'm very interested for you to tell me how you remember it. I'll start the story and you fill in, please. I remember, I think we met there, but I was driving in the car thinking of my speech and going over, you know, laughing your way out of stress. And this is a lighthearted keynote where I talk about stress in the workplace. You know, staplers that don't work, that kind of stress, and just woohoo, you know. So this is the theme, but I get there and I find out it's a spinal injury unit at the VA hospital in Long beach where they wheel these people in in beds and these people are hooked up to ventilators and they've just been injured in the war in Afghanistan and just. Right. Do you remember that?

Oh, absolutely. I was like, I don't know how I would handle this.

Oh my God, it was so depressing. People just, you know, sitting there and staring at the floor. And those were the nurses, you know, Right? Yeah. So it shows you I'm telling you a serious story, but you can always have laughs. Right? So do you remember this where they had all these balloons and they kind of floated up to the air ducts and started popping, giving people ptsd?

Like I didn't remember that.

These are people who just have been injured by exploding bombs and they had these balloons. It was a nightmare. And then I'm thinking, you know, my speech is not going to cut it. Woo hoo, lighten up. So you can't walk anymore. Whatever. You know, it's like, make a joke and everything's better. It's going like, I can't, I have nothing to. Oh. And then a man walked over to me and said, Ms. Carter, that's my son over there, Nick. And he was injured by a bomb in Afghanistan. He's 21 years old. And they say he'll never walk, never move his hands again, never arms. Total quadriplegic. They say unless he does his therapy, he's going to die. And he's refused to do therapy. So I hope you have an inspiring message, Judy. It's like, oh my God, I'm going to die. I'm going to die. And then they introduce me and I'm walking up and I'm going, I'm out of my league here. And then I remembered something, someone from my life. You know, you think, boy, there's no way I can build a bridge here. How can I relate? How can I connect? And all of a sudden this story comes, comes to me because sometimes, and I'm sure everybody in the audience who's listening has had this experience like you have absolutely nothing and just out of the blue something comes to you and it's perfect. And what came to me was that something I've never talked about, deeply personal, that my sister Marcia had severe cerebral palsy and she was a quadriplegic. She could not control her body. And I just remembered her funeral. She died when she was 58. Here's a woman who can't speak, can't communicate with just facial expressions, incontinent, can't walk. And yet why were 100 people at her funeral talking about the purpose that Marcia gave to them? And I went up to Nick and I said, nick, you have purpose in your life, just like my sister had purpose. And I want to give you my book. And I had just written the book, the message of you. And could you read this because you might not feel like your life has meaning, but it does and you need to find it. And I think I told some joke and then I started to make fun of people, I guess. I don't know what I did. One guy was a burn victim who was dressed in a weird thing. I went, oh look, Lady Gaga's with. Everybody laughed. It was some stupid joke, broke the ice. Is that how you remember it?

Yeah, and I remember something about he, he wanted to flip somebody else.

Yeah. So. Well, anyway, I went back to see him like six weeks later and he was doing his therapy and I said to him, nick, what happened? He says, well, you, Judy, you really made me believe that I have a message, a purpose in life. What is it, Nick? Never give up. Because there was a doctor in Afghanistan and he told me I'll never walk and I'll never move my hands again. And look at me, Judy. And then he brings us, his hand brings up his. Look at me. He moves his hands up with great effort he goes, I can almost give that doctor the finger. And then he said, I am going to speak to the in people, the soldiers coming into this unit. And the title of my speech is Never give up. So here's a case where once you know your message and your message is always based on pain. It's not based on a bumper sticker you just read or a self help book you just read. It's based on you and your journey from mess to success. Now we all obsess with our successes and want everybody to know how successful we are. But truly it's, you have to see where you came from. Probably forgot about it. Most people that I work with have to, we do a deep dive into their life to find what was that inciting incident or time in their life that propelled them. So in this case was very dramatic. I mean, he's lost his entire body, you know. And I remember these are the people who have the most powerful messages.

And I remember at, during that event too, you, you started teasing them and it's almost like most people are afraid to tease them about what's going on with them, but you realized they need to feel like one of the, they wanted to laugh at themselves, but everyone else gets too freaked out so they don't dare tease them. And you were teasing them about their situation and they loved you because there was also a charm about you.

It was, it was, it was a norm. First, I think you have to. When we're, when we speak, we're always an outsider, you know, and it's like, ah, who are you? You know, Louder than us with the mic, telling us what to do. You know, are you smarter? No. Know it all. So I always think at the beginning, you have to reveal something of yourself to show that you're coming from your heart, and that's why you're there.

You know, Judy, we aren't all humorists. We have a range of listeners from new speakers, emerging speakers, to pastors, to pros. And I'm hearing and visualizing this scene where you're bridging a very fine line. You're walking a fine line between being a offensive and being genuinely, warmly humorous. And I've seen humorists who are just that offensive. You know, we can't all be Don Rickles, but how do you. And how do our listeners kind of find that space between going over the top and being offensive, but at the same time being genuinely humorous? What goes on in your head and your heart to find that place?

Oh, I really. Nothing goes on in my head. First of all, nothing up there.

Just totally empty. Nothing up there.

Well, sometimes it helps me find my keys, but it's pretty useless. And I do mean that. I think that your body and your being and the way and who you are knows when you're pushing it and you're trying to be something you're not. I'm going to be a Don Rickles. But more lighthearted. No, it doesn't work that way. It really is who you are. And, you know, and Darren has a wonderful saying. Stage time, stage time, stage time. Now, every time you get in front of people, you find that line. Sometimes you cross it too much, and that's really good, because then you find you bring it back. Well, that was too little. I mean, I did a gig in, I think it was Canada. It was for like 2,500 people. Something. The power of something. I don't know, convention. And I had never done it before, and I didn't know that I was doing stuff on mammograms and this. And the audience went frigging crazy because I was totally out there. The next gig I did, I did in North Carolina, where they walked out of the room and called me offensive. The next gig I had was from the people who saw me perform in Canada at this one place. And by this time, I went like, oh, my God, I better hold it all back. I better be careful. And. And it was for a bank. And I went, this is a bank. And they're going to be really conservative, so I better like, not do. The show I did bombed in North Carolina. And they. Afterwards they told me they were really disappointed. They said we wanted the talk that you did that we saw in Calgary because you were so out there. What happened? I went, well, I was trying to be more corporate. The thing here is trying to. If you're trying to be something other than you, you're playing a game called you lose, you lose, you just lose. So as Darren says, stage time, stage time, stage time, get it? Because you're going to get in your body. This sense of this feels good, this feels bad. Let me do more of what feels good. And when you keep doing what feels good and the audience responds and that's one of the reasons you feel good, because the audience responds, it feels good in you. It feels getting a good reaction from them. Well, I'll keep more of that, I'll do more of that. And maybe you do something a little outrageous and the audience is still with you. Go, okay. I could push it more, I could push it more. And we can't please everybody. I mean, I don't know, it's very difficult in these times of such great division, you know, in this country and the cancel culture and people being careful of what, what they're saying. So I'm, I'm redefining my career right now. I'm actually. Because Mark, you asked about redesigning your career. I'm now getting away from keynoting, getting away from everything. I've just written a solo show about my life that. And I'm really happy to say this because it was maybe five, six years ago, Darren's thing where I told a story about myself and Darren said you should do this as a one person play. I finally wrote it, it's been optioned. I'm talking to New York producers about it. It's very exciting. And that was like six years ago Darren. I think it was at least and it took me. I started to seriously write it two years ago. It sucked. It sucked. It sucked. And then it got a little better. I did some zoom readings, I got some help. I got it to the place where I have a lot of interest in it once the quarantine is over. And then I also got interest on the book version of it from a publisher. So the thing that I did in Darren while teaching Darren's and just shared a story and people said wow, that should be a. Took me what, six years. So be patient with yourself people. Creativity is a little frail thing and you just gotta tend to it, nurture it, walk away from it, let it sit, come back to it takes time.

Everyone wants that Here, just here. Make it funny. And then. It doesn't work that way.

Sometimes it does. I mean, sometimes. I wrote a TED Talk for Dalia Mogahed, who was the most unfunny person you can meet. She was a Muslim analyst for the Obama administration. Dealt in charts and graphs. Brilliant woman. No sense of humor, but she was brilliant. So we had that to work with, and I ended up getting her so frigging funny. She did a TED Talk, got over 7 million hits, was voted one of the best ted talks in 2017, and got her on the Trevor Noah show, where she was hilarious. So you can. I mean, you know, she also really worked at it because comedy delivery is. You screw up, one little word here or there, emphasize something a little different, it's not going to work. But, boy, did she. She do a great job and was willing to take that risk for a serious person. I thought she was.

That's great. That's great.

She said, like, oh, I'm worried about. I told my comedy coach Judy that I was worried about bombing. And she said, well, this isn't the first time they've seen a Muslim bomb.

Oh, boy.

But you see what she did? She attributed the joke to me because it was an edgy joke. She was Muslim, so she could say that, but she attributed to me to take the onus on her. So it was, like, brilliant the way we did it. And working with her became an NPR piece on All Things Considered about a Jew and a Muslim, you know, Jew working to make a Muslim funnier. And then I went on to work with Muslim thought leaders in Washington, D.C. who talked to the press to teach him how to talk with more humor.

And, Judy, you just reminded me of something. My stage time, stage time, stage time line. And talking about being authentic, that was a pain point for me. I never even thought of that, that it was so hard to go up there because I was so unfunny, that that was part of my pain and struggle. It was a habit handed to me from Dave Fitzgerald and Vinnie Favorito, but I followed through. But that was such unbelievably painful, especially at the beginning. So you just made me realize that's why that resonates with who I am.

There's nothing more funny to me than a guy who's really serious actually admitting that he's not funny. It's very vulnerable to me, I think. I mean, we talk about vulnerability. People think, oh, I gotta tell, like, these horrible stories from life. No, it's just like a simple honesty. Like that is always when People go, oh. I'm like, not funny. I clear a room, I try and tell a joke, it's like, boom, three, two, one, gone. And I find that so funny.

That was one of my other jokes in my championship speech. I said the first time my brother ever laughed at me was when I told him I wanted to be a comedian. Comedian. And Judy, we gotta brag on you because I'm so pumped for you. Your new comedy Bible as of today is like, number one new release. The New Comedy Bible on Audible by Judy Carter. Judy, congratulations.

Yes, that was today. I've been so upset about all the news and the politics and everything. And then I went, ah, my. Oh, my book, not only on Audible, is released, but it's number one in new releases and comedy. Oh, my God.

Nice. And if somebody was interested in learning more from you or what does that book do for them? Like, if I'm going to read the comedy Bible, I'm a presenter. Our audience is presenters from pastor to corporate to professional. What are some of the secrets inside?

Oh, okay. Well, it's the New Comedy Bible. The old comedy Bible is written on quite a long time ago, and this.

Was the Old Testament and the New Testament this year.

So this is the New Testament. Consider it that the New Testament of comedy. So it has 48 exercises. And this. I'm very pragmatic about this. This is how you create 60 minutes of comedy material. This is like your Netflix special. You need 60 minutes and of course, you need a lot more because most of it won't work and you have to cut it down. So. But this gives you 48 exercises that you simply do and you get material that works because comedy at its core is formulaic. There's a list of three. There's the half and half, you know, there's the comparison jokes, the dialogue jokes. And when you get a comedy idea, a lot of people will tell a story that does not work. You know, there I was, da, da, da, da. So there's some really basic rules to learn about how to set up a joke, deliver it and do an act out, then do a mix. If you don't know what the terms I'm using are, you need to get this book because it'll take. When you get a funny idea, it'll show you how you could write it. So it is. It has a pow at the end. It has a setup that leads someone in one direction and then turns it. So it's 48 exercises. And matter of fact, it also has. If you think you're not funny, A funny test, Take it, see, see how you do on it. And also if people want to email me free@judy carter.com I'm going to. I have an online comedy module that has self guided video lessons and usually costs $770. To join this during the pandemic and the quarantine, I'm giving it to people totally free so they can sign up free@the judycarter.com and sign up and there's actually no like, oh, I'm gonna take your email and do an upsell. No, no upsell. I'm too busy for that junk. So email freeudycarter.com and matter of fact, every now and then we have these free Zoom comedy jam sessions that are super fun. So I won't say I'm having one this Friday, although I am because I don't know when this podcast is released. But you sign up, I'll tell you when I'm doing them.

Awesome. Judy Carter, thank you so much for being here. I am just forever grateful for you taking the time to teach and you've made so many presenters and brought so much humor to the presentation world through so many people. It's ridiculous. And Mark Brown, what do we have for keepers today from Judy Carter's episode?

Well, I might call it my top 10, but I'll list 10 things. One, things go wrong and that's the good news. I love that line. Be your most authentic self no matter what happens. Number three, the secret sauce is your authenticity. Number four, please, for me, talk to me first. Don't try to be funny, just be real. Wow. Don't try to be funny, just be real. It's not easy to tell the truth about your life, but that's where the message comes from. It says, apply the humor polish, don't add humor. Apply humor polish. Don't add humor with every audience you get. And some may surprise you. Here's a good one for you. Always ask, how can I connect? Always ask, how can I connect? A gem for me is this one. Your message is based on your journey from mess to success. Your message is based on your journey from mess to success. If you're trying to be anything other than yourself, you're playing a game called you lose. You're playing a game called you lose. And for me, my absolute favorite is this one. Be patient with yourself. Creativity is a frail thing. It takes time, but you'll get it. I love that. Thank you so much, Judy Carter. Darren.

Thank you guys.

Judy Carter, if a presenter wanted to be funnier and you were having coffee with them. What's that one bit of advice that you would tell them over coffee?

Read my book. That's it.

All right. Perfect. Well said. Join us next week. We're not even sure what we're gonna talk about next week, but Judy Carter, thank you for being amazing and that huge heart that you have. You truly are unforgettable.

Thank you, Judy.

Thank you.

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