Political Columns: Humor in Speeches

8/7/2019 Political Columns: Humor in Speeches

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H U M O R I N S P E E C H E S 89

H U M O R I N S P E E C H E S

This column actually had its origins many years before I started writing columns. As speechwriter

and full-time Executive Assistant to Mayor Mel

Lastman, I always had a speech or two on the go

for him. One day, after he’d returned from a Florida

vacation, my boss handed me a joke book.

“Try working some of these into your speeches,”

he asked.

The trouble was that the Mayor was and is as

unique a character as New York’s Ed Koch or

Chicago’s Richard Daly. Generic jokes won’t work

with such unique characters. Worse, would be jokes

in which you can hear the rhythm or style of a

polished monologist such as Letterman, Leno,

Stewart, Maher or Miller. So, I developed the simple approaches listed below

that can work with any boss. They can then be

refined as the speechwriter begins working more

regularly with the speaker, getting to know prefer-

ences and style.

This, too, has appeared in several publications,

including The Globe and Mail.

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Political Columns: Humor in Speeches

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