Plus+

Advertising+Improvisation

Writing copy and performing improvisation are remarkably similar. They
both ask for suggestions for topics and stakes. They both have rules
which a player or writer must follow. Events and reasoning must follow
in a thematic order. Both have space and time constraints. There needs
to be a big finish.

Writing+Distance

There are limitless analogies for writing. Writing copy for a thirty
second television ad is akin to sprinting. After some sort of warm-up,
the writer blasts out of the writer's blocks and runs the 40-word dash
in under forty minutes. Novels are like marathons, putting one word in
front of the other, writing chapter after chapter, downing a cup of
fresh inspiration every so often, never stopping, wondering how you got
involved in such a grueling activity.

Writing+

Writers write, eh? (That's my Canadian coming out.) Writers strive for
poetry even when writing a short commercial:

Here is the message
Remember it forever
Do what I say now.

But there's no prose like promotional prose:

Gates Assisted Living (Pearly Gates Nursing Home) lies nestled in a
time-worn arroyo (in a dry riverbed) deep in the heart of the Sonoron
Desert (somewhere far out of town, where land was cheap). Once you
discover the diversity (snakes) of this unique climate (it's hot),
you'll know you are home (because you can't be trusted to live alone
anymore and you ain't living with your kids, that's for sure).

M+M+C+C

M+M+C+C

Meetings + Marketing + Communications + Comedy

Because I have a big-fat opinion about just about everything.

Meetings:

LaughingStock Comedy Company - of which I am a founding member and performing partner - has performed well over 1000 shows for corporate and association special events. We have worked closely with meeting producers, destination management firms, speakers bureaus and the CEO's administrative assistants to create successful meetings. We've seen them from the inside out and the outside in. We've seen what works and we've seen plenty of disasters, er, teachable moments. Now I want to share.

Marketing:

A&A&DS Advertising Communications Consultants was created the same month I started in comedy because, frankly, comedy was paying $35 a gig at the time and the rent was more. My experience in radio and advertising agencies — combined with the comedic force I was working with — allowed us to work with a select group of clients to create fun and effective marketing campaigns. It also functioned as the in-house marketing arm of our comedy company. We had symbiosis before it was even in Webster's.

Communications:

That's what it's all about: This blog, advertising, marketing, public relations, training, sales, social media, email, cereal boxes, you name it; it's all about communications and finding creative ways to capture people's time and imagination.

Comedy:

Comedy makes messages memorable. Comedy makes the bitter pill easier to swallow. Comedy is healing. Everyone likes a fart joke.

So here it is: M+M+C+C. Let's see where it goes.