Archive for month: December, 2006

Proof! Humor can make you healthy.

I had the lucky pleasure of meeting a kind woman named Sandi at Pure Romance training event in Ohio (where I was doing my motivational speakers thing.) Sandy shared with me that she had been going through some tough times; her dad is dying of cancer.

We’ve been in touch with an ongoing discussion about her dad’s amazing sense of humor; and how he has kept up the smiles, laughter, and practical jokes throughout this ordeal.

This latest email from Sandi just blew me away. Check it out…

I am just writing you today to give you an update on my dad and to ask you a question. first the update. My dad is still hanging in there. He is terminal and his time is getting closer. I took a temporary leave of absence from work to help him in his final days.

My dad still has his humor. Today when the hospice nurse was over, she was new and has not been warned about my dad. while doing the regular blood pressure check and things went to look at his tonsils because he said his throat hurt. When he opened his mouth, out came your fake tounge with a nut and bolt in it.

I thought the nurse was going to have a heart attack! She screamed and jumped back. It was hilarus. but the moral to my story is that his blood pressure was a little high before his joke, and after she re took it after and it was normal. Laughter really does help to heal.

I can not thank you enough for doing what you do. You bring laughter to so many people. and I am seeing first hand just how much it really helps. My dad should have been gone a long time ago, but with his “practical jokes” that he plays on everyone, me included, it keeps our spirits up and help us not to loom over what we all know is coming.

There it is! The smoking gun. Proof that humor makes you better.

My point? This brave man would surely advise the rest of us NOT to wait until we are dying to start to access more humor, laughter and a sense of lightness. If laughter can improve and inspire this man, couldn’t it help us with our (comparitively lame) problems?

CHeck out my Motivational Speakers website about humor in the workplace keynotes and humor and healthcare trainings and seminars here.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humorist, Humor and Healthcare Speaker

Technorati Tags: cancer, humor, health, laughter, motivational speakers, keynotes, nurses Del.icio.us Tags: cancer, humor, health, laughter, motivational speakers, keynotes, nurses, Pure Romance, Ohio

In this episode, I interview corporate comedian and inspirational / motivational speaker Steve Rizzo. Based out of New York, Steve uses his skills learned as a stand up comedian in his current job as a motivational speaker to teach people how to find their inner Humor Being.

Steve has been a friend for a long time, when we met in Kansas City at a speakers bureau showcase, and I’ve always thought he was funny.
But in this conversation, you’ll hear the serious part of Steve. I always think that it is fascinating to hear people who are professionally funny step OUT of their humorist shoes and talk about the impact of humor and laughter.

Steve Rizzo talks about enjoying the process of living, and enabling ourselves to have and better use our senses of humor.

One of the many points he makes is that although most successful corporate employees will have definable goals and to do lists, very few of them include “enjoying ourselves along the way” on their lists of goals. And that if we want to learn from them, we need to systematically choose to use humor in our lives, and to enjoy ourselves, our families and our jobs.

Steve believes that the ability to use our senses of humor is available to all of us; to everybody on the planet. And that although we might not be always able to teach all people how to be funny, we can teach everybody how to laugh at funny things.

We need to know that there is a difference between laughing at something that is very serious and laughing at the fear that the serious situation creates. For example, Steve reminds us that the successful TV comedy M*A*S*H* used a ton of black humor. And that Hawkeye was one of the most successful doctors not only due to his skills in the operating room, but also because he was most able to keep his life (and sanity) in the balance through his use of humor.

Want to hear a comedian talk in a serious way about humor? Then this episode is for you.

Want to learn about my work as a motivational comedian speaker? Click here.

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Comedian, Humorist, Fan of Steve Rizzo

Technorati Tags: how to become a comedian, comedians, steve rizzo, sense of humor, humor, podcasts, motivational speakers. humorists Del.icio.us Tags: how to become a comedian, comedians, steve rizzo, sense of humor, humor, podcasts, motivational speakers. humorists

There is more and more scientific evidence for about the healing power of humor. (Check out the American Association of Theraputic Humor for more on this weird and cool connection between humor and health.) If I worked in health care, there is no way I wouldn’t order me up a buschul full of these bad boys!

Check out these sterile face-masks with printed animal faces.

These “Get Well Soon Masks” are sterile hospital masks intended to evince a smile from sick people — less creepy and mouthless than the traditional mime-white version. Link

(Thanks, Boing Boing!)

Your patient (and customer!) would have to be asleep to not react to you when you wear one of these goofy medical face masks. Not only would that be good for the patient (because, as I said before, humor heals.) But it would be good for business.

My point: humor in the workplace is fun. But it can create tangible and measurable benefits for you and your customers; it can change your bottom line. Take a chance; play!

Need a motivational speaker to speak to your hospital or health care group? Just need a laugh? Call me.

Brad Montgomery
Health Care Motivational Speaker, Humor & the Workplace Speaker and Consultant, Fan of Cat Faces

Ok, I’m not even sure what to say about his photo of a public toilet in Vienna. Except that — in spite of the fact that it is totally inappropriate for a public restroom — it makes me laugh.

An urinal shaped like the mouth of a woman are seen at a public toilet near Vienna’s national opera, on Thursday, Oct. 19, 2006. The businessman who runs the toilet announced Thursday that he would get rid of the urinals, after facing pressure from politicians who demanded their removal.

Can you imagine having this thing in your company’s bathroom? Wouldn’t this create a stir if it was in a government building?

Although it makes me laugh, it would be sure to piss off a few people. (Pun intended.) ButI think that the effort this artist took to make even the most mundane of our human activies fun is absolutely right on.

My point? That life is supposed to be fun, even the part of life we spend taking “bio breaks.” If I had a huge company, I’d hire this urinal-artist in a snap to create a bunch of fun even in the most boring room in the office. Nope.. this particular idea isn’t appropriate, but the concept cracks me up. A urninal shaped like a fire hydrant? Or a rock? A tree? A desk? Now we’re getting closer.
Need some humor in your workplace and can’t afford a plumber? :)

Check out my motivational keynote speeches here.

Thanks Yahoo. Yahoo! News

Brad Montgomery
Motivational Keynote Speaker, Humorist, User of Public Bathrooms

Technorati Tags: humor in the workplace, urinals, bathroom, humorists, comedy Del.icio.us Tags: humor in the workplace, urinals, bathroom, humorists, comedy