We are basking in the afterglow of all of the positive feedback that we received from our June 20-22 international conference on “The Positive Power of Humor and Creativity.” Here is a taste to “wit” your appetite:

* It was the best conference I’ve ever attended (and I’ve gone to MANY!). Great site, well-organized, perfect! (Dar Stone, Henderson, Nevada)

* The conference was extremely well thought-out and executed. What a terrific time we had! (Ethel Thomas, Moriches, New York)

* The most enjoyable part of the conference was the interaction with the conference attendees as well as the presenters in such a vibrant, beautiful, serene, comfortable location. (Lou Danner, Oxnard, California)

* This is my fifth time at The HUMOR Project conference. I feel as if I’ve come back home. I love this conference! (Carol Holton, Toledo, Ohio)

* I appreciate all the hard work, time, intelligence, and enthusiasm Margie and Joel have put into The HUMOR Project– the earth needs you. (Eric Ruby, Taunton, Massachusetts)

* I need to boost my skills. This is my fourth conference and each year brings new treasures for my life. Attending the humor conference keeps on giving and giving. A must for all who live on our planet… or elsewhere. It’s jest a 48-hour hoot! (Nancy Moskowitz, New York, New York)

* I loved seeing my mother enjoy this conference as a first-time attendee at age 91. The workshops and keynote events were excellent! I am always amazed at the high level of speakers and presenters each time I attend. It’s a very much-needed “shot in the arm.” (Sue Pearlman, Morris Plains, New Jersey)

* What a stimulating, rejuvenating experience which enabled me to reflect, play, and heal with a community of caring, giving people. This conference renews hope and trust. (Lora Stern, RN, Annapolis, Maryland)

* The most useful part of the conference was laughing, laughing, laughing! Each session gave me gems to use in my personal life. I laughed ’til I cried at the keynotes– all of them! I was especially touched by Lucie Arnaz– she sparkled and so did everyone else! (Sharon Alley, Loudonville, New York)

* This is an INCREDIBLY well-run conference. I am so inspired with how much you fit in while maintaining a relaxed atmosphere. This conference was just what the doctor ordered at the end of my school year! (Alice Leeds, Bristol, Vermont)

* Goodness! I had the time to laugh, relax, and learn more here than other workshops ever! (Anne Marie Snell, Potsdam, New York)

* This conference is the best attitude-builder and the most personal-and-professional-growth-producing conference one can attend! (Kathie Allen, Grand Rapids, Minnesota)
You’ve done such a great job. Thanks for a super weekend!! (Maria Harris, Dobbs Ferry, New York)

* The conference was energizing– a refreshing way to get the creative juices to flow. Great to see and hear what other people are doing around the world. (Margaret Ferguson, Barre, Vermont)

* The most enjoyable part of the conference was meeting so many upbeat people! (JoAnn Binz, Swiftwater, Pennsylvania)

* Thank you so much for providing the space/place where so many who value humor can meet and be exposed to humor masters such as Brett Leake. (Carole Ireland, Pittsfield, Massachusetts)

* I came alone but no one is alone at this conference… I met so many wonderful people. It is easy and fun! (Anna Welfley, Schuylerville, New York)

* Of all the many conferences I’ve attended in 20+ years as an occupational therapist, this ranks as one of the best on a professional and especially personal level at the same time. Very refreshing! (Janet Doody, Redford, Michigan)

* The humor conference always fulfills my need for spending time with wonderful, happy people and obtaining a fresh, more positive look at life. (Don Cassiday, Aurora, Illinois)

* The location and topic were both just what I needed. Everything ran so smoothly. There was SO much to do– so many great options. Presenters, staff, and participants were all fabulous! Thank you again for the wonderful, recharging, relaxing, renewing weekend. I have told everyone I know that they need to come with me next year– no matter what they are doing or planning to do in life. (Mary Jane Price, Jamestown, New York)

* My expectations for this year were quite high after last year’s phenomenal conference. This year, the conference far exceeded my expectations. Kudos to Joel and Margie! (Pat Crilly, Perth Amboy, New Jersey)

* I’ve never laughed so hard in my life!!! This conference is great! (Stephanie Grigsby, Grand Rapids, Minnesota)

* What a magnificent conference you put on at Silver Bay! We loved every minute of it. Your speakers were awesome and the entertainment was fantastic. I can’t wait until we attend next year. (Michael Delaney, Henderson, Nevada)

* A fabulous battery charge to renew spirit, hope, and hilarity in your life. It jump-started my joy quotient. (Lucie Arnaz)

For more info on this positive, playful, productive program, visit www.HumorProject.com/conference or see pages 11-23 at http://www.humorproject.com/conference/sourcebook-conference.pdf.

Our 52nd international conference took place on June 20-22, 2008… we had a full house (or fool house) and a great time! On Saturday evening, we had a random drawing for a variety of prizes– e.g., free conference CD’s, free bookstore purchases, Smiles on a Stick, and having your name appear in John McPherson’s internationally-syndicated Close to Home cartoon, which reaches 40 million people in over 700 newspapers (John was also a presenter at our conference).

Cindy Zirkin was the lucky winner of this last prize. Check out Close to Home.

In the meantime, here is the true laugh-at-yourself anecdote that Cindy submitted:

While driving home to New Jersey after visiting friends in Connecticut, I was reveling in the fun we had. My friend and his two young sons and I had tossed water balloons, hiked, and played a spirited game of Monopoly. At 52 years of age, I was feeling young at heart.

After exiting the highway, I needed directions and stopped in front of a house where a few pre-teens were playing. They pleasantly gave me directions. As I started my car to leave, I heard their father shout to them from a large window, “Never talk to strangers!”

One of the girls called out, “Oh, don’t worry, Dad– it was just an old lady!”

I was delighted to be interviewed recently by Eve Tahmincioglu for MSNBC. See her article on “No Joke!: The Workplace Needs a Good Laugh” that appears today. As Eve suggests, “A little humor can help your career– and a company’s bottom line.” In these challenging economic times, we all need to come to our senses… of humor!

For more than 25 years, I have respected the pioneering work of Dr. Don Nilsen… and have appreciated his personal warmth and support of people interested in the study of humor. Over the decades, I have referred hundreds of people to Don– including people doing dissertations and conducting research on humor in a variety of academic disciplines, students writing class papers on humor, as well as folks who are just curious about humor.

As noted at 25 Years of Developing a Community of Humor Scholars , Don and his wife Alleen’s work with humor has three main phases:
(1)They launched six WHIM (Western Humor and Irony Membership) academic humor conferences at Arizona State University from 1982 through 1987.
(2)They helped organize and run the International Society for Humor Studies. ISHS sponsors annual humor research conferences and publishes a highly refereed quarterly: Humor: International Journal of Humor Research.
(3)They co-authored the award-winning Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor.

Over the decades, I have enjoyed our complementary partnership– with Don providing the scholarly and research foundation and The HUMOR Project focusing on the practical, powerful applications of humor in everyday life and work. For many years, we have included a session entitled “Search for Humor Research” at our annual conference. At our 52nd international conference on “The Positive Power of Humor and Creativity” on June 20-22, 2008, Dr. Ann Neilson will convene this research session again.

Whether or not you can attend our 2008 conference, I encourage you to get in touch with Don if you need humor bibliographies or leads on humor research in a wide variety of disciplines. In addition to his 150 research bibliographies, Don also has available many different Power Point presentations on humor.

To get in touch with Don, you can e-mail him at don.nilsen@asu.edu. Feel free to say a big HELLO from The HUMOR Project.

Blogger’s Note: We jest received this press release from the Pat Paulsen for President campaign headquarters. Our hope is that this release will provide some (comic) relief in the midst of otherwise serious presidential politicking. Of course, timing is everything in politics, life, and humor… April Fool’s Day is definitely perfect timing for this announcement! For additional insight and chuckles, check out an interview I did with Pat Paulsen for our LAUGHING MATTERS magazine. Enjoy…

LOS ANGELES, CA– APRIL 1, 2008– A tense election year. A volatile atmosphere. America at war. Unrest and cynicism. Racial tension. A nation in turmoil cries out for hope and change. One man answers the call. The year was 1968… and the year is 2008. The man was and is Pat Paulsen.

Perennial presidential candidate Pat Paulsen, who allegedly passed away in April 1997, is celebrating April as National Humor Month by officially tossing his hat into the presidential ring again. Paulsen has been there and done that as a candidate in presidential campaigns in 1968, 1972, 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992 (when he beat Ross Perot in the North Dakota primary), and 1996 (finishing second to Bill Clinton in the New Hampshire primary).

In 2008, even while campaigning as a deceased, dead pan candidate with a “down-to-earth, up-to-mirth” attitude, Paulsen garnered enough write-in votes to beat Dennis Kucinich in several precincts in the Michigan primary.

Paulsen has fertilized his “grass roots” movement by sponsoring a contest for his 2008 campaign slogan. This builds on his many past off-beat campaigns, which had tongue-in-cheek slogans like “We Can Not Stand Pat” and “I’ve Upped My Standards, Now Up Yours.”

His widow and campaign manager, Noma Paulsen, has been keeping her ear to the ground as Pat Paulsen’s spiritual advisor. In consultation with the candidate himself (who believes in change from the ground up), she is delighted to announce the winners of the Pat Paulsen for President 2008 Campaign Slogan Contest. Showing that indecision is the key to flexibility, Paulsen declares a four-way tie for first place in the contest.

Lou Warne from Green Lane, PA, in time for the Pennsylvania primary, suggested “Pat Paulsen ‘08: Resurrect and Elect!” Bill Martin from Bainbridge Island, WA, offered “Pat Paulsen ‘08: Dead Man Running.” Bill McClellan from points unknown recommended “Pat Paulsen ‘08: Thinking Inside the Box.” Joel Goodman from Saratoga Springs, NY proclaimed “Pat Paulsen ‘08: Never Say Die!” These winners will each receive a first edition signed 1968 Pat Paulsen for President book.

As a result of his involvement in the Slogan Contest, Dr. Joel Goodman, founder and director of The HUMOR Project, Inc. , has agreed to become New York State campaign manager for Pat Paulsen. Goodman notes that he is dead set and dead serious in supporting Paulsen as a ground-breaking candidate that the country gravely needs today. Goodman wryly observes that “I am delighted to join Pat’s camp pain and to help start a dead pan-demic.” Goodman will also be honoring Paulsen post-humorously at The HUMOR Project’s 52nd international conference on “The Positive Power of Humor and Creativity” on June 20-22 at majestic Silver Bay on Lake George.

The Paulsen-for-President groundswell seems to be well underway, as witnessed by the enthusiastic response to the Slogan Contest and by the steady activity on the www.Paulsen.com Web site. In fact, the site has just added a five-minute, fast-paced video tribute to this ex-Pat that is backed up by Mason Williams’ Classical Gas tune. The Paulsen campaign is also pleased that a television mockumentary on the gone-but-not-forgotten presidential candidate is in the works for the Fall.

And that’s not all. There is a just-hatched National Humor Month contest to help select Pat Paulsen’s funning mate. This is your chance to name someone (dead or alive… Pat is not picky, picky, picky) who will complement him on the ticket. Entries are being accepted now and the winner will receive an original 1968 campaign poster signed by Pat. More information can be found at www.Paulsen.com.

Blogger’s Note: There has been an accelerating amount of media coverage of our work and shenanigans at The HUMOR Project… especially about our upcoming international humor conference on June 20-22! Recently, I had the great pleasure of talking with Jackie Domin at the Spotlight Newspapers. Her article entitled “Laughter Is the Best Medicine” appeared last week in dozens of newspapers. Here it is for you to enjoy…

Dr. Joel Goodman is serious about his mission to help people get more “smileage” out of work and life.

In 1977, Goodman founded the Humor Project in Saratoga Springs. It’s the first organization in the world to focus full time on the power of humor, he said.

The Humor Project sponsors workshops and boasts a speakers bureau with more than 100 speakers who can give talks on such topics as humor and health, laughter and learning and humor in parenting. It has a bookshop that offers books, videos and props, and each year, it sponsors an international humor conference. This year’s edition is slated for June 20 to 22 at the Silver Bay Conference Center on Lake George.

“The conference really is an oasis of sorts,” Goodman said. “It’s a way to literally and figuratively get away from it all.” (more…)

In the Fall of 1990, Dan attended a Humor Project presentation given by Margie Ingram. Afterwards, he wrote and introduced himself and his cartoon-eye view of the world: “My reason for this letter is to become involved, in some little way, in your mission to make people who wear frowns stand on their heads.” (more…)

Blogger’s Note: This entry was written on the day of Governor Paterson’s speech that generated lots of laughter and ample applause. This was the day before some of his not-so-comedic confessions about affairs garnered groans. Perchance the PMS acronym should be Politician Marital Syndrome.

With the shock and aw-ful news about Governor Eliot Spitzer this week, all New Yorkers have been rocking and reeling with the raunchy revelations. It reminded me of one of my favorite playful and political mantras– the words of John F. Kennedy:

“There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third.”

Given the backdrop of the human folly furnished by Spitzer, Governor David Paterson’s inaugural address certainly did a lot with the third. In fact, the first half of his speech was a mirthful medley of one fun-liner after another.

After Paterson’s speech, I was tickled to receive a call from James Barron from The New York Times. James had attended our international humor conference in 1991, had done an article on the pioneering work and shenanigans of The HUMOR Project, and had obviously kept me in his rolling-in-the-aisles rolodex.

Check out the last paragraph in James’ article in today’s edition of The New York Times.

To sum it up, it’s clear that Governor Paterson has a good case of PMS: Political Mirth Syndrome. Even and especially in the toughest of times, his sense of humor added a human touch. Once again, he proved to me that in the midst of inhumane and insane situations, humor can help us to be humane and sane.

For more information on The HUMOR Project’s 52nd international conference on “The Positive Power of Humor and Creativity” on June 20-22 at majestic Silver Bay on Lake George, visit our conference Web site.

Copyright © 2001 by Margie Ingram. All Rights Reserved.

Blogger’s Note: Margie wrote this shortly after September 11, 2001. This article is still a timely way to reframe our “brave new world” and provides perspective and a process for responding to challenging, world-changing, and/or crisis situations.

Several weeks now have passed since September 11th. We will undoubtedly always recall when we first heard of the tragedy, who we were with, where we were. In one form or another, we, along with our fellow Americans, have been grieving since then. We have checked in with family and friends who are either in NYC, Washington, DC or Pennsylvania or who may have known people involved. We’ve sent money and given blood. We’ve been participating in one or more of the hundreds – perhaps thousands – of candlelight vigils held in communities around America and hanging flags in our offices and homes in an effort to unite further with our fellow citizens, and, yes, with ourselves.

And now, we’re told that the best thing to do is to return to “normal,” to continue our lives as before. Yet some of us are wondering what that concept means: what’s “normal”? How do I begin to live what I knew as a “normal” life again? Even Daniel Shorr reflected on National Public Radio on September 24, “How can we return to normal when life is not normal at all?” (more…)

Pat Paulsen was the perennial presidential candidate who brought playful perspective, tongue-in-cheek satire, and lots of laughs to many otherwise serious campaigns. With Super Tuesday upon us, I thought it would be good timing to bring Pat back with his timely and timeless views. With dead-pan pundit Pat by our side, EVERY day will be a SUPER one… and funny one, too! This interview first appeared in our Laughing Matters magazine, Volume 10, #3.
Copyright The HUMOR Project, Inc. 1993 — All rights reserved
——————————————————————————–

Pat Paulsen has never stopped being funny. I had the pleasure of meeting with him and his wife, Noma, at the Hotel Roosevelt, an art deco hotel in the middle of Hollywood. With an election year almost upon us, we need his humor now more than ever.

Pat Paulsen was born in a small fishing village in Washington State. Pat doesn’t remember much about his early childhood– “I was too young,” he explains. He does remember heading down to California when he was ten– the whole family riding in a 1929 Hu pmobile with a mattress on top and pots and pans hanging out the windows. “We weren’t exactly homeless but we may as well have been.”

Graduating from Ft. Barry Grade School, Pat ranked second in his class. A somewhat misleading statement since Ward Foster was the only other one in the class.

In 1967, the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour premiered. Pat was hired because he sold them cheap songs and would run errands. At first he was cast as their editorialist and his comedic comments on the issues of the day propelled him into the national cons ciousness.

Pat was later approached by the Smothers Brothers with the idea of running for President. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, his dry-witted, dead-pan parody of presidential campaigns gave the American people a new cultural hero as Pat created the most elaborate political satire in history.

Pat’s campaign was based in comedy and he ran it using outright lies, doubletalk, and unfounded attacks on his challengers. Who would have thought that this style would be the method of campaigns in the future? Even though he didn’t win the election, hi s work on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour earned Pat an Emmy in 1968.

Pat currently appears in nightclubs, theaters and conventions throughout the country. He also owns a summer theater in Muskegon, Michigan called the Cherry County Playhouse where he has produced and starred in some twenty different plays.

Pat recently received the International Platform Association’s prestigious “Mark Twain Award” for his outstanding work in the field of comedy, joining the likes of Art Buchwald, Mark Russell and Steve Allen, to name a few.

INCREDIBLE COINCIDENCES LINKING PAT PAULSEN TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The names Paulsen and Lincoln both contain 7 letters.
Lincoln was killed in Ford Theater. Pat once owned a Ford.
Lincoln was slain in the presence of his wife. Paulsen’s wife nearly killed him one night (in their Lincoln!)
John Wilkes Booth had 15 letters in his name. Patrick L. Paulsen has 15 letters in his name.
John Wilkes Booth hid in a warehouse. Paulsen once lived in a warehouse.
Lincoln’s secretary warned him not to go to the theater. Paulsen has been warned many times to stay away from the theater.
Coincidence? Maybe. Destiny? Perhaps. You decide.

Joel Goodman: You and I first crossed paths in 1986 at the Gerald Ford “Humor and the Presidency” Symposium. In fact, I’ve taken your name in vain and quoted some of your lines from back then: “Attending the Gerald R. Ford Symposium on Humor in the Presidency is like attending an Ayatollah Khomeini symposium on the sexual revolution”. At one point Ford said that providing comic relief in the midst of political campaigning is almost a humanitarian undertaking.

Patrick L. Paulsen: Ford said that? Well, he was the one that did it!

JG: So, this interview starts by acknowledging that you’re a great humanitarian, because what you’ve been doing is adding a lot of humor in the midst of political campaigns. You’ve run three times!

PLP: I started in ‘68 as a write-in candidate. Ken Kragen, who organized Hands Across America and We Are the World, quotes me in his book when we arrived in a town with hundreds of people waiting for me. I said to him, “You know, Ken, I think maybe we could win this thing!” Then he went on to say something about “reality checks.”

JG: In the materials I’ve read about you, you talk about being around before comedy routines were invented…

PLP: I’ve been doing comedy since before mud was invented. Kids ask me things such as, “What was comedy like before electricity” and “Do you have any Civil War jokes?” I started in the 50’s (Pat changes chairs at this point while muttering, “Too much sex, all the time day and night sex… my back is killing me!”). I started college doing plays. Then I got in a little theater group called the Hobby Playhouse which was run by a blind guy, Mr. Reeves, who used to be part of the Charlie Chaplin tour across country. He’d hear me trying to tap dance and do impressions, and tell me that that’s how they all started.

Later, I joined another theater group called the Ric-y-tic Players, which was dedicated to doing funny revues. We performed in a barn in Santa Rosa. We were funny but nobody showed up to watch us being funny. So we disbanded. I’ve come a long way… tonight, I’ll be at the Roosevelt, and no one will come to see it.

Then I went into a trio with my brother and a gal named Joan Murray, and then I went to a single doing folk clubs and strip joints. There weren’t as many places to work then as there are now.

JG: Jay Leno (Laughing Matters, Volume 5, #4) talked about how he used to work some of those joints, too. Did you have any early models or mentors?

PLP: I liked a lot the early radio guys– like Jack Benny, W.C. Fields, Buster Keaton, Edgar Bergen. I loved Bob and Ray. I really liked Victor Borge, because he used music and I use music in my act. He was a genuine idol. I loved him. In fact, when I was really young, I think I did one of his pieces, Phonetic Punctuation… not knowing that you shouldn’t do that.

JG: The whole music-comedy connection is very interesting. You, the Smothers Brothers, Victor Borge, Steve Allen, Mark Russell… there are some interesting connections between music and comedy in terms of the rhythm, the timing.

PLP: I like to vary my performances so that I’m not just talking. Now I have a multi-media show with film in it, do the political stuff for about 20 minutes, and then do bad impressions, funny songs. I try to make sure that it flows.

JG: Your performing style is a paradox, an oxymoron. You have charisma, but it’s an understated charisma involving dry wit and tongue-in-cheek humor. You help us to see the forest and the trees!

PLP: I was a forestry major at City College.

JG: A forestry major at City College??!!

PLP: I got to New York eventually… but this City College was the one in San Francisco! I had gone to watch a rehearsal of a play called “Night Must Fall”… and there were girls there. There weren’t any girls in forestry at the time, so the play look ed like a lot more fun to me. I was just out of the Marine Corps and full of hormones… so I changed my major to drama. I never did graduate.

JG: Did your Marine Corps training help you in your comedic career at all? I know it helped Mark Russell.

PLP: I don’t remember any of those guys being funny! Although looking back at it, funny things did happen. I remember being on the parade ground and the little guy next to me couldn’t open the bolt on his rifle. The Drill Instructor came over and said , “You like to wrestle with that, don’t you? Why don’t you get down on the ground and wrestle with it!” So, here’s this little guy next to me wrestling with his rifle on the ground, and if I laugh, I’m going to be down there, too. I brought blood to my lip trying not to laugh.

After boot camp, I ended up in Beijing, China guarding Japanese prisoners of war with the First Marine Division, Fifth Regiment, Second Battalion. There, I distinguished myself by not falling asleep on Guard Duty. We were surrounded by the communists bu t never attacked. Many people think I was captured by their troops who installed a metal plate in my head which keeps commanding me to run for President. I talk about how I killed ten men in World War II. See, I was smoking out behind the ammo dump one day…

JG: So, you didn’t get a Purple Heart… but you did show up at the Purple Onion.

PLP: The Purple Onion was responsible for the Smothers Brothers. They were very funny. I went to see them there once (there were three then) and I went back stage and told them, “You guys ought to put a little comedy in your act.” Tom remembers to thi s day my saying that. Eventually, they used a song called “Chocolate” and found out it was mine, so they came to me, and I sold it to them. I didn’t want to, but I sold it to them. I wrote some other songs for them… and when they got the show on television, they brought me on board.

Tommy and Dick are very loyal to people who were part of their entourage. I go back to places that gave me a start. Even when I was hot, I would go back to the Ice House in Pasadena to perform. Agents would say, “You can’t do that”, but I said, “They gave me a break, so I’m going back there to help them make some money.”

JG: From your years with the Smothers Brothers on TV, do you have any highlights that jump out at you?

PLP: There were two writers with the Smothers Brothers from the beginning, who were originally Jack Benny writers. They were the guys I worked with primarily on the editorials. I’d take these editorials over to the Ice House and try them out. That’s what made them successful at that time.

The first editorial I ever did I did all in double-talk, and they got a lot of inquiries requesting copies. Government-speak– that’s what it is. They got such a good reaction that I did about 15– I talked about the war, litter, gun control.

JG: Your “picky, picky, picky…” routine has become part of our language now.

PLP: I started calling people “Hamburgers”. I’d get letters from people named Hamburger resenting it when I’d say, “Why you Hamburger!” Pretty soon, that went to “Hot Dog,” which eventually became “hot dogging it.” I started it.

JG: Now I understand that you’ve been served with some paternity suits– you’re the comedic father of Steve Martin and Steven Wright.

PLP: Steve Martin is a great talent. He was a writer on the show as was Bob Einstein (who is now television star Super Dave). I’m sure those guys back then were writing “one for Pat, one for me, one for Pat, one for me….” Steven Wright is like a sophisticated Henny Youngman, doing one good one-liner after another.

Then there are the people who opened for me in the past who went on to become stars– Don Novello (long before he did Saturday Night Live), Harry Anderson, Howie Mandell, Jim Carrey (who was 17 when he opened for me in Ottawa), Kenny Rogers, Jenny Jones, Paula Poundstone.

JG: So, the key to success is to be the opening act for Pat Paulsen.

PLP: If I had known they were going to be so successful, they never would have been on the bill with me. Climb over my back, will they! (laughs)

JG: In looking back and walking down memory lane, do you have any highlights from your political campaigns?

PLP: Being out at Bobby Kennedy’s place… Kennedy had Tommy Smothers up against the wall saying, “You-you-you do support me, don’t you?!” Another time, Kennedy was out in Oregon and saw a “Paulsen for President” sign in the audience. He stopped his speech and looked out and said, “I-I-I know this fellow Paulsen, and he’s ruthless.” I was at the Ambassador with a camera crew the night he was shot.

JG: There’s a quote I’ve used from JFK over the years: “There are three things which are real: God, human folly, and laughter. The first two are beyond our comprehension, so we must do what we can with the third.” I know you’re no Jack Kennedy… but you both did a lot with the third! As for future campaigns, do you have any plans for ‘96 at this time?

PLP: I did the best I ever did in ‘92. I got in four primaries. I didn’t get into more, because they hold them on Tuesdays, and that’s my bowling night. In New Hampshire, I got 800 votes; in Louisiana, I got 1500 votes; I went to Kansas and campaigned two days and got 5000 votes– twice as many as David Duke, and then he dropped out; then I went to North Dakota and got more votes than Ross Perot– 10% of the vote– a delegate and a half. Of course, the Republicans took that away from me when the party made a last-minute change to a winner-take-all format.

JG: Why have you lost in the past?

PLP: I have made a complete assessment of the situation. It appears that I didn’t get enough votes.

JG: Discuss your platforms.

PLP: Well, they’re about yea big, and I don’t wear them much anymore since they’re out of style.

JG: Would you consider a third party candidacy with Ross Perot?

PLP: I’m glad to see that he’s back at his old job– modeling for MAD Magazine. Guys like him are great for comedians. Ross Perot is fun because he worships the very people he walks on. The Clinton administration is also a wealth of material.

JG: Do you have any advice for the President at this point?

PLP: Everybody says that Clinton lies a lot, that the President is incapable of telling the truth… and that the press is incapable of printing the truth. So what’s the problem? They were thinking of putting Clinton on Mount Rushmore, but there wasn’t room for two more faces.

As for other campaign issues… People shouldn’t do drugs. There should be no pollution, no war, no hunger, and no poverty. There should be no crime. All of these things are very bad.

JG: Speaking of bad, what about the national deficit?

PLP: Just pay the whole thing off with a check. The check, of course, would bounce, but no one would get mad about it, since that’s the one thing Americans understand– bounced checks. Also, to deal with our weak economy, I hope to lower the unemployment rate by finding myself a job… and getting that pension!

I would do very well as President. I would not be meddling in the affairs of state. I’d be off golfing in Bermuda. The trouble with these guys that get in as President– they think they have to do something. A President is just a figurehead, someone t o go to funerals. Let the Vice President disappear. I’d do the funerals. I’m more suited to be President than those other guys because I’ve been through it. I know what it’s like– bankruptcy. I’m more of an American.

If elected, I will keep the “In God We Trust” sign on the dollar bill, but I would add a list of people’s names that I don’t trust, like certain congressmen and a few others.

JG: In addition to “In God We Trust,” do you have any other campaign slogans to sling around?

PLP: My slogan used to be “I’ll lead America into the past” and “I’ve Upped My Standards, Now Up Yours.” Now I’ve got a new slogan: “Dump the Hicks in ‘96.” Here’s a guy who smoked grass, chased after women, played the saxophone. You know, I had a so n who did all that, and I threw him out of the house.

JG: Going beyond slogans, let’s see if you have any answers to other challenges…

PLP: As Richard Nixon once said, “Solutions are not the answer.” Some of you may remember me as a bona fide presidential candidate in 1972. That was the year the majority of you decided that Richard Nixon would make a better President than I would.

JG: What about the cost of campaigning these days?

PLP: Running for President is pretty expensive, but I think I know some suckers, er, I mean, backers who might finance me.

JG: What about the middle class…

PLP: What middle class? There’s only seven people left in the middle class… who cares about them?

JG: Foreign aid…

PLP: We should ask every country in the world to send us whatever they can.

JG: How about population control…

PLP: Each person has 2 parents, 4 grandparents, 16 great-grandparents, and so on– clear proof that the population is shrinking.

JG: Health care…

PLP: I don’t think we need to care for healthy people.

JG: War…

PLP: We should attack Canada. They haven’t sent us a dime for all the chemicals we’ve given them over the years. Besides if we attack Canada, we’re in the same time zone– you don’t have to stay up late to watch it on CNN.

JG: Crime in the streets…

PLP: We can solve this by eliminating a lot of streets– we have too many already.

JG: Gun control…

PLP: Guns are not the problem. I think we should lock up all the bullets.

JG: The future…

PLP: Worrying about the future is a thing of the past. I don’t think about it.

JG: I will ask you to think about the future now… I feel like I’m posing similar questions to those being asked of Colin Powell these days. Do you have a particular date that you’ll be launching your campaign?

PLP: We’re thinking about starting now! We did so well in ‘92 that I think we could actually win in ‘96. You know, you don’t really need a President. To tell you the truth, the President just comes in and he’s tinkering. When I win, I’ll just go to Bermuda for 3 years, and then I’ll come back… of course, I’ll leave it in good hands. I’ll be a decisive president– probably….

We’ll run a little bit to get on more ballots in smaller states. We tried to get on the ballot in California, but we were too late. We had to go to court. The judge was looking at our stuff, and he said, “Wait a minute! This man wants to attack Canada !” And I said, “Well, you know they’ve got two of our baseball teams now! And where do you think our geese go for the Summer?” He threw it out.

JG: In closing, let me throw this at you: Gerald Ford at the “Humor and the Presidency” Symposium also talked about the notion that “humor helps you to disagree without being disagreeable.” Just like Norman Cousins talked about how humor could help heal the body, I think your humor has helped heal the body politic.

Pat Paulsen’s Constitution

I, the President of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish my unique brand of justice, insure against domestic violence, provide for the common defense and more so for the state-run prosecution, promote employment over welfa re, and secure the blessing of liberty to myself and my posterior, do ordain and enforce in any way I can this Constitution for Paulsen’s United States of America.

Article 1

Section 1. All legislative powers therein granted shall be rested in a Congress of my United States, which shall consist of a Senate, of Representatives, and of favored relatives.

Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of members chosen every few years or so from the states, except maybe not from some of those little eastern states that don’t really have enough people to be worth the bother.

No person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained the age that he is too young to remember the sixties, nor is so old as he thinks he can boss me around.

Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several states according to who deserves any say in the matter and who is willing to pay me enough.

When vacancies happen in the Representatives from any state, the Executive Authority (that’s my mother-in-law, folks), shall decide whoever she thinks ought to fill that spot.

The House of Representatives shall choose a speaker, and that speaker had better be me or there’s going to be heck to pay, and if there’s any talk about impeachment, I’ll be doing the talking, so you just get that idea out of your head right now, buster.

Section 3. The Senate of my United States shall be composed of two Senators from each state, except from certain midwestern states that always have those loud-mouthed boisterous Senators; they shall be entitled to one Senator until they learn to act like grown-ups in public.

No person shall be a Senator who publicly admits to enjoying opera, who wears bow ties to Senate meetings or who drives Korean automobiles.

The Vice President of my United States shall be Vice President of the Senate, but shall have no vote, unless I am sleeping or am fed up with all that filibustering.

Article 2

Section 1. The executive power shall be vested in the President of my United States. He (I) shall hold office for the period of, say, four or five years, or for a period deemed “long enough yet not too long.”

Section 2. Successors to the Presidency shall be elected as follows:

Each state shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature allows, a number of electors equal to the number of Senators and Representatives presiding in said states, who shall hold general elections in their respective states for the purpose of determini ng the number of persons voting for candidates of the office, afterwhich said electors shall gather at a polling location chosen by Congress and then I will just tell them who’s gonna be next in line.

Section 3. The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard, National Guard and the Shriners. In addition, the President shall be head of the FBI, CIA, PTA, SPCA; he shall be King of Comedy, Captain of the Tea m, Emperor of Ice Cream, Grand Marshall of the Macy’s Parade; he shall be empowered to appoint relatives to high places, to cut in line at the bank, to take more than ten (10) grocery items through the express line, to demand an end to elevator muzak.

Article 3

Section 1. Judicial power of my United States shall be vested in the People’s Court, under the guidance of one Judge Wapner, who shall ordain such lower courts as Divorce Court as is deemed necessary.

Article 4

Section 1. Amendments to the Constitution shall be submitted, in writing, three (3) weeks in advance, in triplicate, to the office, department or specific dumpster appointed by the President.

Done, in convention by the unanimous consent of all persons present, this fourth (4th) day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand nine hundred and ninety-five and of the Independence of Paulsen’s United States.

Copyright 2004 Margie Ingram. All rights reserved.
Blogger’s Note: This article was written in the Spring of 2004. Since the only constant in life is change, we wanted to share this timely and timeless article with you.

Transitions: they’re a part of nature. They are all about us. Seasons change, and this time of year, children are graduating, young couples are marrying and people are selling their homes and moving.

Transition is also a natural part of our human world and is a topic that I have been leading programs on for the last 24 years. Along the way, I have realized that “learning about,” “teaching about,” and “living through” these experiences can go hand-in-hand-in-hand.

“The years go by so quickly; it’s the days that can pass slowly,” I once heard. This has certainly been true for me since our two children were born, Adam in 1981 and Alyssa in 1985. It was hard to believe, in 2004, Alyssa was already a senior in high school contemplating which college she would attend. Having already been through Adam’s senior year, complete with college search, last school concert, and last high school basketball game and tennis match, I thought I knew what to expect.

It wasn’t long, however, before I began to realize that this time was indeed going to be different. With Alyssa’s leaving for college, there would be no other child still at home. My husband, Joel, and I would be facing an “Empty Nest” for the first time. Now we would have a chance to fully practice what I had been teaching about transitions: “the only way out is through.”

ADMITTING AN END

Facing an “Empty Nest,” we needed to acknowledge the ending of life as we had known it for the past 21 years since children had entered our lives. Every parent facing an Empty Nest with whom I have talked has been aware of a pending doom.

At the same time, each has said that the worst part was anticipating it…. imagining the house empty, wondering what it would be like to not have kids in the house each night for dinner or homework, knowing that getting kids off to school in the morning would no longer be part of their daily lives.

And it doesn’t end when kids head out for the first time. One friend and her husband have had to go through this loss several times. Both of their children went away to college, then her daughter returned home temporarily and just recently moved overseas to teach for a year. I had a chance to talk with her the day after her daughter left.

“How’d it go?” I asked.

“Well, I was a mess yesterday, but I’m better today,” she confided. Ah, the need to say good-bye once again.

I found talking with friends who had already been through having their kids leave home or who were in the midst of it at the same time as me so helpful; confirming that I wasn’t alone and that what I was feeling/anticipating was normal was helpful in itself.

FINDING ANCHORS

Identifying what anchors exist for us in our lives help, too. What are the things in our lives that keep us centered, focused, grounded? For me it was continuing to do puzzles (Oh, thank those of you who brought Sudoku to our lives!), walking and talking with close friends, and digging in my garden. These all helped me to ground myself as I anticipated Alyssa’s leaving in the fall.

Books were my friends as well. While reading The Launching Years during Alyssa’s senior year, I first came across the concept of reframing an “Empty Nest” to one of creating a “Roomier Nest.”

I liked this more positive focus for the coming year! It reminded me of the television commercial where parents are upstairs rearranging their son’s bedroom as he is just getting in the car to drive off to college for the first time. Maybe there are opportunities here.

Shortly after Alyssa left for college, I was reading a newsletter from a good (and very wise) friend of ours, Sam Horn. Sam’s youngest son was leaving for college that fall as well and she had reframed the seemingly negative concept of “Empty Nest” to an “Open Nest” where each person in the family is free to come and go as their lives led them.

As I contemplated these new perspectives, I began to notice that my perceptions were starting to shift. Joel and I both began to catch glimpses of possibilities that would indeed be part of this transition in our lives. We no longer just had to “trust” that opportunities would emerge, we now “knew” they were awaiting us.

We began to be intentional about writing this next chapter of our lives. What didn’t we have time for before that we can now do? What have we been longing to get back to but just couldn’t find the time? Where had we dreamed of traveling? We began to do Purpose-full Planning. We took control of that extra energy and time in our lives, not letting it slip away into routine dailyness. We wanted something positive to look forward to while Alyssa was experiencing her new life adventures at college.

CHANGING OPPORTUNITIES

We decided to change our paradigms. At work, for example, we decided to create a new event, “Humor Cruise 2006” to the Bahamas in March with Carol Channing, to celebrate The HUMOR Project’s 30th annual programs.

At home, we began to incorporate more fun travel into our lives and to take time after dinner to do crossword puzzles together. We have created opportunities and experiences that we couldn’t have done with our daily responsibilities when our kids were still home.

Several of my friends found themselves being intentional about creating this newfound time for themselves as well. When my friend Gail’s daughter left for school, she quickly signed up for exercise and yoga classes. Finally she felt enough space in her life to commit to being involved with a particular committee at her church that she’d been wanting to join for quite awhile.

Another friend and her husband looked at the space in their lives before them and realized that it would be really easy to continue to each get immersed in their work lives even more than they were and lead basically parallel yet separate lives. They committed to “date night” every Wednesday, going out to dinner and often to a movie they wanted to see. This became the sacred time they created for themselves to reconnect and continue growing together as a couple.

During a program I recently led on creating a fulfilling life after retirement, one of the students in the class declared that she didn’t want to continue doing what she had been doing for much of the last 30 years. She really wanted to break free of all of the restrictions she had put on herself while she was working and raising her children. She was ready to go back to her childhood and plan on doing things that she used to love to do “way back then.”

As she spoke I was taken back to “playing at” the piano when I was young. I could pick that up again…. when Alyssa leaves to study overseas next fall. I anticipate that I will be a bit uneasy with her so far away, so playing the piano again can be something that I have to look forward to.

Ah, so many opportunities in this one life transition. Now I relish this new-found freedom—where shall we go to eat tonight, honey?

——————————————————————————————

Margie Ingram and her husband, Joel Goodman, are directors of The HUMOR Project in Saratoga Springs, NY. Margie facilitates workshops on “Managing Stress,” “HUMOResilience,” “Creating Effective Transitions in Our Lives,” and “Graceful Aging.” She is also a Life Coach helping people facing transitions to create gratifying lives for themselves.

For more information on her Life Coaching services, call 518-587-8770.

The Launching Years: Strategies for Parenting from Senior Year to College Life by Laura S. Kastner and Jennifer Wyatt, page 138.

By E. J. Haley for SPICE magazine, January 2006

We’ve all heard it before, but where personal wellness is concerned, laughter really is the best medicine. And it’s that kind of medicine that Margie Ingram and her partner, Dr. Joel Goodman of the Humor Project, Inc., are prescribing to affect a positive difference in the world.

Based in Saratoga Springs, The Humor Project, Inc., was founded in 1977 “as the first organization in the world to focus full-time on the positive power of humor.” Recently, Ingram turned her 30 years of expertise into a focus on a growing trend in social and professional transformative counseling – life coaching. The aim of life coaching is helping people to make life-changing transitions and gain successes in their personal and professional lives.

Having trained with Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, Ingram says, “For over 30 years I’ve been giving counseling in stress management. Now I’m simply taking all that experience and applying it to helping people set and achieve goals one-on-one.” She goes on: “One of the reasons I started coaching is because I am so often out talking to groups as part of The Humor Project’s speakers bureau, and I was asked so many times by people individually, ‘what’s next, where can I go for more?’ Life coaching meets that need.” Ingram’s outreach focuses on building upon an individual’s personal strengths, by working to identify those strengths and put them to better use.

“The emphasis is on setting goals,” says Ingram. “The clients I’m working with are really leading the way – they are setting the goals. What I do is develop methods to help clarify those goals and then help a person find ways to achieve them.”

So just where does the concept of “life coaching” come from? Life coaching seems to have emerged as a recognized practice around 1992, with the opening of the first training institute founded to equip counselors with the ability to effect positive change in the workforce of Fortune 500 companies. Since then, this human relations niche has broadened in application to include focus on personal growth and enrichment both within and outside of professional environments.

Many if not most life coaches today, like Margie Ingram, work closely with individuals now on a more personal level, helping people to identify their strengths and use them to effect a positive change of life. Ingram’s program is called Growing Through Transitions, and works with both professional staffs – in developing their individual strengths to improve the overall strength of the company – and with individuals by helping to achieve personal growth, which is where life coaching comes in. Her coaching sessions are conducted one-on-one and generally over the phone, although she does extend her practice to in-person meetings as well. The length and frequency of the sessions is determined by the individual and the coach together.

“In general when I’m working with someone, I ask them questions relating to where they’re at in their journey, how had people helped them in the past, how can I help them, and what would they like me not to do,” she says. “My goal is to work with their learning style.

“It’s important to understand that life coaching is not therapy. It’s for people who aren’t clear where they want to go, but who know that they want to go somewhere. Life coaching helps a person identify their personal and professional goals and then helps them develop a way to get there.”

The effectiveness of Ingram’s approach is really quite tangible, owing to the presence of an accountability factor in her work with individuals. “One person called me an ‘accountability mirror’,” she says, “just knowing that they would be reporting back the progress they had made on the goals they had set for themselves is what seemed to make the difference.”

And how does the humor come into play? Ingram brings to her coaching sessions that she calls “The humor-resilience connection.” Research shows there are some things that can effectively help us be resilient to the stress we feel. One key factor I s to have perspective through humor. “In the sessions we conduct,” says Ingram, “we actually give training on how to bring humor into reaching our goals. We suggest people find a few things each day that ‘tickle’ them or bring humor into their lives. This brings balance. We teach people to look at the ‘humor of reality.’”

Ingram continues: “I see humor helping with any personal growth situation because we get so serious about what we’re doing. We’re only seeing the serious side of what we’re doing and that causes us to be less creative. I use optimism, hope and humor as ways to see our situation, which opens us up to creativity clarity – helps us out of that ‘tunnel vision’ of the stress of the transition. Humor can help bring perspective.”

For The Humor Project, Inc., laughter is the key to “touching the lives of individuals, organizations and nations.” Its goal is to make a difference by bringing more “smileage” to people’s lives, to promote hope and optimism both personally and on the job. “Part of our goal in that is not to help people to tell jokes – it’s fun but it’s not for fun – to help reduce stress, build connections between people, and increase morale in workplace, which research shows increases productivity and influences the ‘bottom line,’” she says.

While dealing with transition as part of its outreach, The Humor Project is also going through a transition of its own. For 20 years the Humor Project has conducted a “humor conference” in Saratoga Springs. This year, however, they are organizing a “humor cruise” and are beginning a teleseminars program, which is expected to expand their outreach.

Of the power of humor, Ingram and her partner, Dr. Goodman, write, “Humor prevents a hardening of attitudes. Indeed and in deed, humor adds years to your life… and life to your years.”

For more information, call 518-587-8770 or visit The Humor Project and Margie Ingram’s life coaching.

Grant Van Patten will be attending our June 20-22, 2008 international humor conference for the 8th time. Grant is a wonderful human being who was involved in the early, pioneering days of television. He passes along a timely and timeless quote from Eric Sevareid, the renowned CBS journalist:

“Next to power without honor, the most dangerous thing in the world is power without humor.”

As we plunge ahead on the primary campaign trail, it is important to remember the primary connection between honor and humor– they can go hand-in-hand.

Check out John McPherson’s December 30, 2007 Close to Home cartoon. This cartoon includes Jenny Holmes’ name. Jenny attended and won the drawing prize at our 2007 international conference to have her name included in John’s cartoon, which reaches 40 million people in over 700 newspapers around the world. John will be offering this prize again in a drawing at our June 20-22, 2008 conference on “The Positive Power of Humor and Creativity” (John will also be presenting a delightful session on “The Lighter Side of Work: Laughing Your Way Through Your Work Daze”).

We love getting mail– especially because we receive so much joke mail! Thanks to all the readers who add to our humor repertoire.

“Readers’ Di-Jest” is a chance for you to do some networking and nutworking with other subscribers. Feel free to send in your own humorous gems and examples of how you’ve used humor in your life and work. Once we receive ‘em, we’ll spread the positive contagion of laughter through “Readers’ Di-Jest.” Elliott Blauvelt, Sr. from Horseheads, New York has been horsing around with humor for quite a while. He passes along some words of wit and wisdom for our readers: Everyone would like to live a long life, but no one wants to be old.

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