Finding the Funny Fast, by Jan McInnis

How to Create Quick Humor to Connect with Clients, Coworkers and Crowds

First question; why would you want to connect with co-workers?

Good question (even if it’s mine). Now you know I’m antisocial, it’s time to move on to the book review.

It’s a quite short book, so you’ll get through it pretty quickly.

That’s a good start for getting to the funny fast, because if you’re taking time to read, filling your head with plans, and you’re not creating anything yourself, while all the time you want to get going, and are turning the pages looking for answers, finding nothing much to go on, that means… well, you get the idea.

121 pages are listed, but with numerous blank pages, it reads more like 80. With bold titles to break up text, and “note boxes” throughout, it makes an even quicker read.

You’ll likely enjoy the content, which is delivered in a pleasant writing style, with frequent funny lines from the author added for example purposes.

Not dry text book by any means.

And now a second, proper question; being on the shorter side, is there enough inside to recommend this?

After an introduction which discusses places you can use humour, the book starts with reasons why we should use it. 6 ½ pages later, that’s over.

A relief, because it leads right to the techniques (it’s like talking about how to kick a ball, and now you get to use your foot).

The first technique takes you straight to using sarcasm. Now, this isn’t the way you might think of using it, but uses a twist which you can apply to your content.

What is the twist?

Sorry, you’ll have to read the book.

What do you mean, thank you? Perhaps I misheard you. No, it’s definitely ‘something’ you.

McInnis explains her process, and how you can use it for your written pieces, live encounters or performances.

Another good chapter to follow, which looks at analogies, stereotypes and common assumptions. It’s good, because as the author goes through the process, you can see her thinking patterns which get her to the punchlines.

Particularly helpful when starting out, or if you happen to be analysing comedy.

The short and very short chapters on irony and self deprecating humour are ok. They give you a bit extra to add to the mix, for when you’re coming up with material.

The author works in the comedy industry, so has to be funny. The pressure’s really on her, like a bunch of carrots in a steam cooker with the lid glued on.

Those two chapters are followed by a quick look at joke formulas. There are 5 different angles you can adopt for your material, plus a tiny bit about songs and rapping to close.

That’s all helpful when deciding how to use your ideas. All these methods give you different format options to consider.

A barely 2 ½ page piece on tags and callbacks follows. It’s enough to give you a basic idea of how to apply these techniques to your work.

In another short chapter, some more ways to get humour from different places is looked at. Not only is Finding the Funny Fast, but the content goes fast, too.

The book continues with some more pages…

Continues with the author giving you some caution — here & there — about what you might want to avoid. This comes with some other notes and lines she’s had success with.

There’s a helpful bit on structuring your jokes, and advice on getting the flow right, tips on improving joke setup, and crafting a better punchline.

Chapter 11 gives you unspoken rules to follow if for pursuing a comedy club career. This leads onto the end of the book; two short sections on memory techniques and bombing.

But you might want to forget the bombing. Perhaps block it out. Or keep it for the pain.

The choice is yours.

Verdict

A fairly good book — if a little short — which speeds across different ways to get laughs into your writing and performing.

Recommended for:

Finding a few more ways to add humour to your content.

Help in quickly assessing targets to joke about.

Not for:

A detailed break down of any of the talked about topics.

Other thoughts:

The book is pretty short, and more depth could be provided here and there, but overall it’s fine for the content it covers.

Length

As mentioned in the review, it’s 121 pages. It really is more like 80, and even then, maybe another 5–10 less, because of formatting which reduces the amount of words to get through.

Quicker readers will get through this in a day or two.

Dedicated slower readers will be done in under a week. Maybe 5 days or so.