Me funny?

We all have funny bones, just have to realise it.

My mother convinced me at age 7 I had no humour. And of course, also that some kind of humour is “not for ladies”.

I believed her. Never tried again. For many years.

When I tried to retell some of my father jokes at 27, I begun with the punchline and killed it. That convinced me : I just do not have it in me. No funny bones. Yes, I have other qualities, but no humour.

“I can not make others laugh”.

I was telling a personal story I wrote in a grange in middle of France, one night to a mix English French audience. They begun to laugh. And laugh and laugh. It felt so good! I was past 67.

But it took ten more years to make audience laugh again. I was telling on stage a serious personal story, and added to it something borrowed from a humorous speaker: it worked. After the first laugh, whatever I said, was accompanied with laughter after laughter and I played with it, exagerating a bit more then planned.

They did laugh! How can I make them laugh when I want it?

At age 77 I went to Standup Comedy workshop to learn about humour. To experiment first with the young boys surrounding me and yes, it was not easy to make them laugh. Once I begin to understand, I did not stop.

I have funny bones! Well, I had to use them and learn how. Train them. Then discover my comic eye, after my first cataract operation. Look at what happens to me with comic eye, changed my life, made it easier.

Now, after 77 successful performances in Standup Comedy clubs in London, I know I can connect to audiences of different ages and they laugh with me, not at me, as I talk with them not at them.

Yes, we can learn new things at any age.