How to Punch-Up your writing, even if you’re not terribly funny
What if I told you that even if you’re not terribly funny, you can still effectively punch-up whatever you’ve just written? In the film and television industry, they pay humorous…
Humor writer Mike Lukas blogs on multiple topics.
Making tough choices based on character over fear
At one point during my old job voice-writing news captions, I had to choose whether to sign a pro-union email. My employer wasn’t treating the employees right, and when a…
Transmuting frustration-based anger into laughter
On a recent trip with my kids to the Walmart to buy my wife’s birthday gifts, I got angry. Furious, really. And as much as it pissed me off to…
Attention social wallflowers – here are five surefire ways to schmooze easier
Every game day since he was a high school football player, NFL slot receiver Cole Beasley has gotten so nervous about what he’s about to do that he literally throws…
Hecklers and Haters are Harmless and Helpful
For twenty-four years, I toured the world as a comedy entertainer, and every night of it, there was a decent chance I’d get heckled. Hecklers are some comics’ worst nightmare,…
The Day Job / Freelancer Endless Loop (and how to escape it!)
Quitting your day job to become a full-time freelancer is rarely a smooth transition. A lot of brand new freelancers get trapped in something called the Day Job / Freelancer Endless…
5 critical things I did before quitting my day job forever
Worse thing you can do as a potential freelancer is quit your day job before you’re ready. For a lot of people in this modern economy, the dream of being…
Do you know ‘The Muffler Men’?
One interesting thing about Bud and Ben Mufflers in Oak Cliff is that there is no Ben. It’s not that he’s dead – Ben was never alive in the first…
America sadly still doing the ‘car’ thing.
In 1890, wealthy American travelers used extravagant horse carriages to get around. When the first ‘horseless carriage’ appeared in the U.S. in 1893, most folks initially saw them as more…
Change your mindset, change your words.
There are two different ways to look at six ounces of water in a 12-ounce cup. That glass is either half-empty or half-full, as the saying (roughly) goes. Those who…
How to watch my kids properly.
I’m reading a book about the art of watching American football called Take Your Eye Off the Ball. The author, Pat Kirwan, says that if you’re watching football by following…
The art of handling criticism poorly.
Amy is absolutely horrible at taking criticism. Amy Bouzaglo was the co-owner (with her fire-tempered, enabling husband Samy) and head chef of (the now closed) Amy’s Baking Company in Scottsdale,…
Snowman or gingerbread man? A nice story about death.
An eight-year-old daughter and her father accidentally talked about death the other day. She and he were walking their dog Vincent around the neighborhood together. At one point, they…
NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen’s inspirational combine 40-yard-dash
If you think the 40-yard-dash at the NFL combine is challenging, try running it in a business suit. That’s what 48-year-old NFL Network anchor Rich Eisen has done for the…
What’s YOUR Impossible?
https://youtu.be/sefscV3GvWM The opening shot of Lauren Woolstencroft’s Super Bowl Commercial shows her as an infant born with two half legs and one and a half arms. My first thought was,…
Wise Words from the Dead
The situation is the boss. That’s a concept I just learned from watching the Grateful Dead documentary ‘Long Strange Trip’ on Amazon Prime. It was the philosophy adopted by the…
Don’t Fret…Dance Dance Dance!
Let’s all just take a big online breath here…and dance. Just a suggestion: click off the never-ending battle between the political left and right for a sec and pop on…
This is What Democracy Looks Like
Gentlemen, the Women’s Marches tomorrow aren’t just for women. At least the one I went to last year in Dallas wasn’t. Don’t get me wrong, it was ALL about empowering…
Wonderland Tropicals – Your Friends in the Pet Business
My children got to watch Butchy, an Oak Cliff ‘sugar glider’, fly. Well, technically a petite gliding possum that’d been hiding in what looked like a light brown sock in…
Some Americans Unhappy with the Stew in our Melting Pot.
In the early seventies, my great-aunt Myrtle would say the N-word at restaurants. She’d always treat my family to a big meal at one of the Lithuanian joints near her…