Robert Klamm - Get More Laughs from Your Laughs: How to Be Funny

How to Be Funny

by R. W. Klamm

Copyright 2005 by R.W. Klamm

All Rights Reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without the permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-0595373734

Printed in the United States of America

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

KEYNOTE: For all who would create laughter, here are five simple steps. This little book is a gem that even professionals will treasure!

Get More Laughs From Your Laughs is worth more than all of the 30 other comedy books in my library. Great innovations, all very usable and adaptable! Barron Stringfellow

Your little book contains more practical information than the excellent books I already have by Eastman and Vorhaus. Thanks! Bill Ligon

I was a basket case when it came to doing comedy, until I discovered these techniques and put them together in Get More Laughs From YourLaughs. R W Klamm

World-famous comedy magician, Aldo Colombini says: Every topic has been analyzed and explained. You'll find comedy contradiction, exaggeration, rules of physical action, punch-line sentence structure, dual reality, innocence and believability, timing and the pause, how to build your own comedy characterization, plus comic devices with funny examples. You'll have fun with the game-like exercises included with each chapter.

Whether you become a comic star or not, humor can help you light the darkest corners of your life, heal the spirit, makes friends of enemies, and clear out the cobwebs that clutter.

Get More Laughs From Your Laughs is fun to read, fun to use. Youll keep it as a reference manual. It is a gem that even professionals will treasure.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Bob Klamm, 60 year performer/award-winning writer; BS in radio/TV/dramaNorthwestern University; MA EducationUMKC; high school drama coach, producing over 40

Broadway plays with student talent in Kansas City. His book, Fly Likea Bumblebee, offers humorous and inspirational recollections of himself as a blind magician.

DEDICATION: To my wife, Berniece, who has taken on my own hopes and dreams, and made them a part of hers. She has dealt patiently with the tedium that goes with putting any book together, dealing with the details and drudgery that I have been unable or unwilling to do for myself. She is the Gracie Allen to my George Burns.

Art Work by Theo Boyd

They say that comedy is a serious business. And my good friend Bob (R. W. Klamm) is really serious about comedy. The book that you have in your hand, dear reader was written for those who want to create laughter; no matter if you are a professional or not.

The contents of this book show you how deeply and passionately Bob studied the subject. Every topic has been analyzed and explained with accuracy and precision. You'll find: Comedy Contradiction, Exaggeration, Rules of Physical Action, Punch-line Sentence Structure, Dual Reality, Innocence and Believability, Timing and the Pause, Building Your Own Comedy Characterization, plus much more. More than that, you will find comic devices with funny examples and you'll have fun with the game-like exercises included with each chapter.

In a few words, you'll be the lucky one if you study the material assembled between these two covers. You'll learn how to use humor to light up the shadows in your life, heal the spirit, lower your blood pressure, fight the traffic and face every day problems with a smile.

Whether you become a stand-up comedian with an HBO special of your own or not, you'll be richer and a better performer for the effort.

Thanks Boblaughter is the best medicine. With this book youll create a lot of smiles and you will heal a lot of people.

Aldo Colombini

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

It is a truism that there are none so sad as those who cannot laugh at themselves. Bob Klamm has been laughing at himself for the last 75 years.

No one knew he was nearly blind-not even himself-until he was eight years old. He just kept on making jokes about his bum-bling ways. He tells the whole story in his humorous and inspirational memoir, Fly Like a Bumblebee. He has recently written a stage play version of this prize-winning memoir.

R. W. (Bob) Klamm grew up in Kansas City, Kansas, where he was born nearly blind. In second grade, they gave him eyeglasses thick as Coke bottle bottoms-so heavy that Bob quips, "It was like the bottles were still attached."

In junior high school, he did his first big magic show for a student body of 500. At last! He was no longer an outcast. He was hooked on magic, and has been performing ever since.

The State Services for the Blind sent him to Northwestern University, where he graduated with honors, and a Bachelor's degree in drama, radio and TV.

At the age of 22 he returned to Kansas City, where he had the good fortune to stumble into what was probably the most creative advertising agency in the nation.

There, he pioneered the comedy radio commercial. It was in the early 50's, years before Garrison Keeler and the Smothers Brothers latched onto the idea. Some of Bob's original comedy radio writings are still available, now digitally enhanced and pre-served on CD. The CD and his books are available on his web site.

Wanting to do more than just sell product, Bob went back to school for a Master's degree in Education, so that he could teach speech and drama in secondary schools. After earning his degree, he settled in for a twenty-year off-off-Broadway run of producing the best of professionally written Broadway comedies and dramas, as well as Shakespeare. It was at Van Horn High School, part of the Kansas City Missouri school system, located in Independence, Missouri.

During this time he developed the techniques found in Get More Laughs from Your Laughs.

Bob is a master teacher, having shepherded numerous college students through their practice teaching. He teaches a comedy class for the University of Missouri at Kansas City in their Continuing Education division.

Operating Kansas City's oldest magic shop, Bob Klamm also sells his own magical inventions and other magic props to professional magicians and hobbyists, worldwide, on his web site at www.klammmagic.com. Bob started a Kansas City assembly of the national Society of Young Magicians, and produced their annual magic show for 17 years. The Greater Kansas City Assembly #38 of the International Society of American Magicians bears his name.

Currently he is working on a book called How To Out-Fox TheKids. These are little "Pearls from the Klamm," sparkling little stories, fables, fractured fairy tales and sometimes humorous parables-little gems of wisdom designed to help your little gems of joy.

Bob and his wife, Berniece, live in Independence, Missouri, with a magic shop in the basement. They have two grown sons and four granddaughters. There eldest, Dale, is Head Carpenter at Kansas City's Starlight Theater, a giant outdoor theater complex, where he is in charge of all that goes on back stage. Scott is a Chemical engi-neer, and does classified environmental studies for Midwest Re-search Institute. He plays a wide variety of musical instruments; and a major love of his is presenting folk music programs for local schools.