Together they have shared with us how comedy can help you connect with crowds and how humour can build resilience. While our two guests may not agree on a number of things, I know that they can definitely agree that humour can bring humanity together and teach everyone how to deal with their issues.
Communicating Humour
Alastair Campbell, former Spokesman, Press Secretary and Director of Communications and Strategy for Tony Blair, returned to The Humourology Podcast to discuss his new book, But What Can I Do? In his new book Alastair explains how everyone can get involved in the political process and turn their passion into action. During his discussion, Alastair shared the power of ‘persivilience’ or the combination of perseverance and resilience when times get tough.
“Perseverance is about keeping going when things are tough. And resilience is how you deal with failure and setback and how you build back from it.”
Whether in his captivating keynote lectures or his previous work with Tony Blair, Alastair has learned that humour is a valuable tool to help communicate with people. Alastair taught us that humour can break down the barriers of political disagreements and build a sense of togetherness through laughter.
“There has to be a deeper energy to it, there has to be a deeper sense of connection with the audience. A lot of that is technique that can be learned.”
In addition to bringing people together, Alastair knows that humour can help humanity through the hard times. As someone who has experienced hardships in the world of politics and has worked to make things better, he knows that a punchline can help people persevere.
“Humour is important in perseverance. Getting through bad moments. With dark humour, the number of times you see people are in real mess, but they somehow make a joke of it.”
Mark Thomas, stand-up comic and political activist, may not agree with Campbell on much (except a disdain for Boris Johnson) but they are both proponents of people getting involved in politics and using punchlines to pull people together. In addition to acting as the glue between people, Thomas says that laughter can help people through the hardest of times.
“There’s something brilliant about being able to see that you can laugh at yourself, that you can create laughter for you, and that you can create a story and then that story will be taken seriously.”
Mark Thomas joined The Humourology Podcast for a two-part discussion on the power of comedy in communication. Whether on the stage or on the political battleground, Mark Thomas knows that humour is a key tool for communicating with others.
“Laughter is about sharing. An audience is all about a shared experience. Look at what laughter does, it brings us together and it challenges people in power”
Speaking of sharing, Thomas shared with us just how intertwined comedy and communication are. For Thomas, a stand-up set or a political rally is all about the two-way street of communication between a performer and their audience.
“I think if you communicate well, you have to listen well. And all good comics listen.”
Tune in to the last three episodes of The Humourology Podcast to listen for yourself how comedy and communication go hand in hand. Learn how passion can be turned into both a political action and a punchline. Hear just how valuable humour can be in bringing people from both sides of the aisle together. Learn how leaders in politics and comedy use laughter to connect with others, only on The Humourology Podcast.
There are many more magnificent guests who have huge amounts of humour in their heads and hearts coming up very soon only on The Humourology Podcast.
See you next Tuesday.
Warmest,
Paul
Want to learn more about how to conquer your public speaking nerves?
Alastair and I discussed the ways in which we can overcome our nerves when speaking in public, find out more Here
