Funny to You Doesn’t Mean Funny to Us

The second question I get from nearly every prospective client (after “How much do you charge?”) is “How do we know what YOU think is funny will be funny to us?”

There are several ways to ask the same question.  But almost all of them lead to this hidden question:   how do we know you won’t be offensive and inappropriate and ruin our event?

I love this question.  And unfortunately, we live in a land where anybody with a Yahoo.com account can have a website proclaiming that they are a Top Motivational Speaker! and use “comedy” and “humor.”

But in my experiences, these speakers aren’t experienced.  They aren’t genuinely funny.  And more times than you’d expect what little humor they do have is inappropriate.  And  if any of these things are true then they haven’t been working much, and they won’t be working much longer.

So…how do YOU know if your speaker is clean?  Safe?  Appropriate?   There are three ways to check.

1.  Check the videos online.  There should be MANY of them.   Are they funny?   Anything racy or edgy?  Any hints about something that would make you uncomfortable?   That’s what we call a hint.  You can bet that you see a fringe of something icky, there is MORE that has been edited out.

2.  Check with past clients.  Ask for and expect to receive as many references as you want to check.   Call them.   It’s so simple.  Just ask them if the humor was appropriate?  Was that motivational speaker actually funny?

3.  Have a conversation with your perspective motivational speaker.   Just ask them straight out, “Tell me about your theories of clean and appropriate humor?” and sit back and listen.  I could go on for HOURS on this topic.  In my over two decades speaking I have hundreds of stories.  During my years (18 plus years ago) in the comedy clubs I experimented with stuff I’d NEVER do now.  I’ve written about it.  Coached others on it.  And had to walk the walk on stage for thousands of programs.

Selected Posts from Brad’s Past

We found a few posts, videos and stories from Brad’s past, and thought it would be fun to re-publish them here.  So pour yourself a cup of coffee, put on some classic rock, and check out this classic blog post from a decade (ish) ago.  

If the speaker you are interviewing says something like, “Yeah, it’s clean,” and ends it there… perhaps that speaker doesn’t understand how important this issue is to you (and should be to them.)  Ask them a couple of more probing questions to learn more about their sense of clean comedy and then trust your gut.  (But check references and videos too!)

I’d love to be your motivational speaker.  I’m funny.  I’m experienced.  And I’m absolutely positive I understand how clean and unoffensive your professional speaker has to be.

Want to have that conversation with me?   Contact us and we’ll chat!

Looking for a funny motivational speaker?  I’d love to be your guy.   Call us today.

Brad Montgomery
Funny Motivational Speaker, Clean Comedian, Understander of Appropriate Humor

(Ok, that last one may be stretching it, but you understand.)