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| II. On this web page: |
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| Both USA Political Parties Endorse Jim: |
Republican: Letter of Reference
Dan Stockemer
Founder of the Sonoma County Pachyderm Club,
boldly states "I wholeheartedly recommend . . ." |
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Democrat: Letter of "appreciation"
Lynn Woolsey
Jim's Representative from the United States Congress,
writes that she finds Jim "insightful . . . useful" |
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Audio Clips from Jim's Talks
April 25, 1997, Jim spoke at the Sonoma County Pachyderm Club at Los Robles
Lodge in Santa Rosa, California. Although the examples are slanted to
the interests of this GOP audience, Jim would say much the same to any political
group or club, only the cast of characters used as examples would vary. In
other words, all political candidates have the same writing and
performing problems to address. Their success or failure to do so determines
whether they win or lose their election. This is a new field for Jim,
so some notes to supplement each audio clip may help the reader to better follow
Jim's argument:
"How Humor WINS Elections"
- Audio clip begins in mid-discussion, Jim explaining how he believes an election can be won by addressing the same "invisible" categories by which audiences subconsciously judge comedy competitions. The problem posed is: Bob Dole did not> campaign with any of this in mind.
A member of the audience asks if Dole should have changed his character to beat Bill Clinton.
Jim is explaining that it is unnecessary to change your character if you understand how to score points yourself while also taking points away from your opponent.
Jim suggests it is a mistake to put down the other party, especially if you are the minority party.
Instead, confine your target area to the candidate.
Historical use of humor by Republican Presidential candidates:
Bob Dole in 1996--dumb vs. George Bush in 1988--smart
(audio 511 K ".wave" file, playing time: 2 minutes, 8 seconds)
Technical note: you may need to turn the VOLUME down a couple of notches on Netscape or Jim's voice will sound distorted.
- Dan Stockemer, founder of the Sonoma County Pachyderm Club and a lay minister, states he is "glad" Jim came to address the group.
Then, Dan decries the money wasted on political campaigns.
Dan likes the "positive spin" humor gives the candidate's "personality."
Another club member thinks the GOP lacks humor, other members side with Jim: it is more image than fact.
The member starts to challenge Jim as to when a Republican ever won an election using humor.
This sets Jim into motion, describing how George Bush beat Michael Dukakis, that Bush is still funny.
EXAMPLE: President Bush today goes over big at Peter Lowe's Success Seminars,
doing an act/speech unlike anything ever shown on TV;
i.e., very funny with many standing ovations.
George Bush: last successful GOP Presidential candidate won with jokes in 1988 and
now does success talks which are very funny
(audio 472 K ".wave" file, playing time: 1 minute, 58 seconds)
- Jim explains that candidates need more than just a few jokes:
they need character development, delivery and material which takes time
to create.
Jim interviews the candidate for hours to
dig for the gold nuggets everyone has buried inside their life story.
However, if the candidate can get laughs already, sometimes they are the worse ones to coach
as they may think they know more about audience reactions than they really do.
The funny candidate has to take coaching more on faith, and may tend to resist it since they are getting laughs without any help.
Jim's problem will be to prove to such a person that he can make them undefeatable.
Jim repeats: the basic misconception is that a few jokes can win an election;
i.e., innocent candidates try to cut corners,
and end up walking into a wall they
didn't know was there.
Listen to Coach Jim, or get killed by election day
(audio 179 K ".wave" file, playing time: 45 seconds)
- President of club, Paul Erickson, asks why consultants who charge hundreds of thousands of dollars avoid training candidates in humor.
Jim figures consultants do not want to frighten candidates,
that they may even
have a witty strategy in mind to win the election.
But may not chose
to admit same to the candidate.
Why consultants (to date) have avoided training candidates in humor techniques
(audio 200 K ".wave" file, playing time: 48 seconds)
- Paul wonders what humor training has to do with the occasions when you are not confronting your opponent.
Jim points out that you can defeat yourself,
even if the opponent is not present.
Unless you begin preparing months in advance,
doing your bits 50-100 times in front of audiences to get them down cold.
Just like comics and speakers work their material.
Politicians are terrible amateur speakers who don't take speaking seriously.
Jim gives an example of a recent candidate who did not "come to play".
You have to take the time required to get your speech ready!
Work your material, or get clocked!
(audio 192 K ".wave" file, playing time: 59 seconds)
- Have a monthly stump night, invite people from other political parties.
Can't repeat material next month, force candidates to create new material under the same pressures put on stand-up comics at open mike nights or monthly contests.
Deadlines: reasons to create a body of material long before the election campaign gets underway!
This was the additional letterhead-in-small-print I suggested the Pachyderm Club add to their monthly FAX-to-members:
Dorothy Erickson:
Nice meeting you guys last night.
You can easily fit all this information onto your masthead
every week if you print it in small type.
Below please find suggested bullets for your FAX logo, as we
discussed:
Sonoma County Pachyderm Club
"PHUN Politics!"
- Global Village: satellite dish, Internet,
fax--WE are community!
- This weekly fax: YOUR clearing house for ALL
local political events: GOP, Democrat, Reform, Peace & Freedom,
Libertarian, Natural Law, etc.
- Meet us at YOUR monthly "Stump Night": ANYONE
can speak for 3 minutes!
Then, this footer:
Why not photocopy me and snail-mail, e-mail
or fax me to your friends
today?
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History of both parties trying to knock off the other one's best speaker, examples:
- Jim Wright of Texas
- Newt Gingrich of Georgia.
Need to budget training: Jim's figures here are conservative--he estimates that campaign treasure chests are $125,000-250,000 for House of Representative races, jobs that pay $130,000/year.
In fact, candidates in these races locally feel they have to raise $1,000,000
if they are running against an incumbent "just to be taken seriously!"
Jim can't believe the parties
won't set aside a few thousand
to get their candidates some decent coaching.
Dan Stockemer, founder of the Sonoma County Pachyderm Club, thinks it would "really
be a service to the candidate" to require him to get coached by Jim.
- Dan advises Jim to present the same pitch he has just given in his speech to the State GOP Chairman, "I think they'd be very receptive."
- Up until 2/12/98, Jim hadn't watched the video
tape (you are listening to highlights of the audio) since last year when he gave this 45 minute talk.
Jim forgot Dan had said that.
- Oooops!
The Pachyderms catch fire, enthusiastic finish to Jim's talk, much discussion
(audio 447 K ".wave" file, playing time: 1 minute, 52 seconds)
Back to Jim's "Politicians" menu
Frequently Asked
Questions
Q: "Jim, why don't you just write me some jokes, and let it go at that?"
A: A few weeks before the Dukakis/Bush debate referred to above, a political wannabe
from the Dukakis camp called Jim and asked for a few jokes,
admitting: "The way
things are going, we'll try anything."
Jim turned down the gig, advising the
inquiring citizen that one joke or even a string of jokes wouldn't help.
Why?
Simple: Dukakis hadn't respected the process enough to first learn how to sell said
joke/jokes to any audience.
Q: "In recent history, when has humor WON an election?" [Jim answers while continuing his Dukakis rant.]
A: Sure enough, Jim's advice was ignored, Michael Dukakis tried that
fool's errand in his 1988 debate with George Bush.
Bush answered Dukakis' one
joke with, "Oh, is this where we do our one-liners?"
Bush then told 20 jokes in
a row.
When the camera next panned over to Dukakis,
his head was visibly reeling
from 20 psychological blows to the head.
- Giving a candidate a "What," a joke . . . is nothing.
- Giving the candidate the "How":
- the over all approach coupled with
- multiple follow-up critiques speech-after-speech-after-speech
is EVERYTHING.
- January 30, 1996, Jim saw ex-President George Bush speak live for the
first time at Peter Lowe's Success Seminar which was sold out at the San Jose Ice
Arena in northern California.
Unlike his TV appearances over the years (even including GOP Conventions), President Bush continually rocked the stadium with laughter and had repeated
standing ovations--a real star-performer!!!
Q: So, who is this Jim Richardson to talk to us politicians like this?
A: Glad you asked.
Jim Richardson has been coaching comics since 1977 (over 42 years) and
his clients have WON every
major comedy contest in the USA, including the Ed McMahon "Star Search"
$100,000.
Jim sees fundamental parallels between:
- training stand-up comics to compete for comedy contest prize money and
- training politicians to WIN successful campaigns that compete for votes.
(Come on, now: competing for votes has to be a lot easier than competing for money!)
Further, since 1988, Jim has been working with top business
keynote speakers, training them to speak at the
World Class Level
Please see:"What
Jim's Students and Clients say"
And in the past few years, Jim has been working very successfully with:
- politicians locally, and
- long distance, as far away as "down under" in Melbourne, Australia.
Q: What's this going to cost our campaign?
A: Jim believes in treating all citizens alike. After all, this is America.
Jim can work with folks locally and long distance--even internationally via Internet
video conferencing, etc.: one-on-one, in small groups or Jim can present to large
gatherings.
For one-one-one fees, please refer to:
Jim's
One-On-One Private "Coaching and Speech Writing"
Are you raising over 1 million dollars just to be taken seriously,
running against an incumbent?
Take at least $20,000-40,000 of that to hire Jim; it's like
"paying for a landslide"!
Q: So, Jim: what are your politics?
A: Jim has coached both Republicans and Democrats in communications skills. But Jim belongs to his own party-of-one: Jim calls himself a "Radical-Aristocratic-Reactionary." Which means Jim is an "Independent," who votes issue-by-issue.
Disillusioned with both major political parties,
Uncle Sam still wants you,
if you have integrity.
Well? |
Jim is looking for candidates with integrity:
- Who believe they deserve to WIN.
- Who are willing to take an hour or more/week over the next few
months to get the training to WIN.
- Who during the last week of the campaign, will have enough common sense to
keep their head, and accept a Big WIN!
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Back to Jim's "Politicians" menu
Updated 11/28/00
