Blog

These posts are meant for anyone not naturally hee-larious who wants to learn how “the funny” works.

Why?

Maybe you want to laugh more and start crackin’ up your friends.

Maybe you’re a serious copywriter who wants to add some levity to your content.

Maybe you’ve been asked, “Why so serious?” and had to answer, “Because I have no clue how to be funnier.”

Even if you already ‘think funny,’ this blog will break down some proven tactics and tools that can help take your silly to the next level.

My name is Mike Lukas, retired comedian and improvisor turned full-time writer.

Since birth my brain has been wired to think funny – I could always make my friends laugh and as a grade schooler I was cracking up adults.

For two-and-a-half decades I used my humor to make a living as a standup comedian and improvisor.

During that time I noticed that what I thought was “natural” about my humor was simply me being able to mentally execute some basic laugh-causing tactics.

Turns out anyone can learn these same humor strategies and can train themselves to ‘Think Funny.’  

My aim here is not to teach standup wannabes the craft of writing jokes. 

There are plenty of excellent joke-writing gurus out there (the one I recommend is Jerry Corley and his Comedy Clinic) whose entire goal is to teach you how to write and perform funny, professional jokes.

That’s not me – that’s not this blog.

My goal with Thinkin’ Funny is to help all you serious laypeople who struggle to find and express your humor.

You want to be learn how to be funnier in your conversations, your writing, and your thoughts.

Maybe you’ve tried to be funny and you’re tired of hearting “ba dump bump” after every one of your attempts.

Often, linear, left-brained people want to bring levity into their serious world…

…but they struggle at being silly and finding the funny. 

Why?

Serious people battle with humor for various reasons.

They:

• Are too busy kicking ass to waste time crackin’ wise
• Were raised by serious folk and come from genetically serious stock
• Are too shy or awkward to be funny
• Were taught that humor was a waste of time that only blow-offs engage in
• Are highly admired and paid for looking at life straight on and being silly might ruin their reputation

Except those are all just excuses to cover up the main reason most serious people aren’t funny:

Fear!

It can be scary as hell to say, “I’m about to be funny – watch!”

Why?

‘Cause what if nobody laughs?

Worse – what if they mock you for even trying???

Being funny not only takes a sense of humor, it also takes guts.

That fear of looking foolish, of swinging and missing, of laying a huge comedy turd, keeps a lot of people from ever expressing their funny.

And unless you’re a natural, your comedy confidence won’t get any stronger until you start figuring out how laughs are gotten.

This blog is to help you serious people understand how creating laughter works.

That way your subconscious mind can be better prepared for those golden moments when you can crack up the room.

I want to break down why people laugh and help explain how you can begin to condition your serious brain into thinkin’ funnier.

I’ll share invaluable tactics and devices I learned and practiced during my successful career as a pro comic and explain them in a way that non-comedians can understand.

I’ll also use comedy bits from famous jokesters to reverse-engineer how they manufactured those laughs.

Then I’ll show you how you can use those same tactics at home, the office, in your writing, or wherever more laughs are needed.

You’ll learn insider techniques that will help turn your funny-bone-flexes into solid muscle memory.

Why me?

For two-and-a-half decades I earned a comfortable living as a comedian and improviser making audiences laugh until they cried and ruined clothing.

During that time I created a workshop called (you guessed it!) Thinkin’ Funny, where I taught comedy newbies how to train their brains for humor.

I want to share those technical lessons in a fun, simple way that gives lay people some easy to understand humor creating advice.

Laughter heals all wounds and funny people are sexy, just ask us.

My hope is that you’ll begin to see how fun and essential it is to prioritize your daily Joy and to occasionally think outside the serious box.

I’ll also use these pages to help update and self-publish my Thinkin’ Funny Workbook in order to make it available to the serious world.

In the next post, I’ll go over the basics of how a laugh is created.

I’ll also give you a trio of ‘secret weapons’ you can practice to begin flexin’ that funny bone daily. 

Lookin’ forward to Thinkin’ Funny with you.

Until then,

Mike