NADEheader.jpg (20727 bytes)

Articles from prior issues of The Advocate

November/December, 1999


Tim Gard

 “Developing a Comic Vision”
by Glenda Croom, Texas DDS


IF THE NADE CONFERENCE ATTENDEES in Denver came away from the annual meeting with nothing else that would stick forever in their memories, it would be those two infamous words -- “BUMMER” AND “WOO HOO”.

Tim Gard, a nationally recognized humorist and authority on stress reduction through humor, gave an outstanding presentation which literally had his audience in tears of laughter! During the days following this session, the meeting rooms and hotel hallways, not to mention the bus rides, were echoing these two phrases throughout the conference especially when a power failure necessitated moving more than two hundred persons and equipment to a different ballroom. You could hear many “Bummers” and “Woo Hoos!” (depending upon your point of view) coming out of the darkness.

Tim advised the attendees that, in developing their own comic vision, everyone should keep these four steps in mind and follow them religiously:

1) Choose to see and appreciate the humorous side of potentially stressful situations. How we use humor and when we choose to use it is very critical. Many times, instead of getting angry and upset, we can turn a stressful situation around and highlight the more humorous aspects. Managers should be aware of being proactive with their employees and attempt to waylay any fears by injecting humor into the situation when at all possible.

2) Use humor as a balance to the stress we cannot avoid. Stress and change in today’s fast-paced world is inevitable, but we don’t have to succumb to that trap. We can use humor to minimize our problems and share our comic vision with those around us.

3) Accept that using your comic vision is not limited to telling jokes. Tim used many props to “wake up” the attendees especially those who were taking a snooze after lunch. He roamed through the audience in what he called his “punishment mode”, wearing plastic glasses with a pig’s snout that squirted water on anyone who wasn’t giving Tim their full attention. In addition, Tim noted that he uses rewards for attentiveness such as freebies he distributed throughout the audience (he actually threw out “B’s” made out of foam--thus the term “free B’s”. He also used a prop made of rubber tubing and string called “mental floss”, to urge the audience to clean out their minds and accept change. He used many amusing stories to teach his listeners how and why they should choose to harness laughter to avoid stress.

4) Understand that good humor and laughter unite us. Let’s face it--laughter is contagious! Very few people can resist laughter when it is all around them and an ordinary part of their lives. As a group, we should remember that we should laugh not with ridicule but with objectivity. We all need to realize that we shouldn’t beat ourselves up but should look upon our self esteem as a definite strength and also realize that our own self esteem is tied up in other people’s opinions of us.

Working together can be both fun and productive, and each person can learn to take work seriously but each other lightly. Everyone, even executives, can appreciate laughter and learn from their mistakes. Any group can learn to grow closer as they laugh and learn together. If there are “toxic” people around us, we must learn to “pull” the lightness out of them. Lily Tomlin once stated that whining is “anger coming through a very small opening!”

Frequently throughout the presentation, Tim reminded his attentive listeners that failure should not be an option and that having pride in what you do and being the best that you can be should be what every person should strive for every day. Are you going to go through life with a “WOO HOO!” attitude? If not, what a BUMMER! Think about it!!

NADElogoSMALL.jpg (8324 bytes)