The first thing Johnny Carson taught his new writers was to end their jokes on the laugh.

Beginning-Intermediate-Advanced- Graduate school level speakers and comics all have major problems grasping this seemingly simple concept. Even Jim finds himself forgetting this fundamental in the heat of creating a new joke or premise routine. Therefore, Jim has found it helpful to break things down a little more precisely: To sell a joke, there is one particular word that the idea turns on. Jim has named this word the "punch word". The punch word is the word after which the audience gets the joke, and laughs. Tag lines Avoid We will usually want to place the punch word at the end of the punch line so audience laughter will not drown out the rest of our sentence. As George Burns once said, "If I'm talking when they're laughing, I should be taken away!" Also, speaking words after the punch line gives the audience a false cue that a joke has not really been told, that they were mistaken. Often, they will shut up in mid-laugh. They are eager to hear what punch line they imagine will follow. They conclude that our actual punch line must have been "just a set up line" that they foolishly found funny. A fun game you can play today, And come back to often: When writing serious speeches containing no jokes, see how many of our sentences can be improved by putting what at the end of the line? The key word. When we watch movies, notice how dramatic scenes often turn on such key words which are invariably placed at what part of the sentence? The end. Better yet: try to end on words of one syllable. Better still: end on a single grunt.

When we are trying out jokes for the first time, we will often find that the audience laughs before we get to the end of the punch line. They got ahead of us. Like the friends interrupting our sentences, they understood the joke earlier than we thought they would.

Usually, we just mistakenly placed the punch word in the middle of the line. Probably because it made grammatical sense to do so. But people neither speak nor think in strict accordance to the rules of grammar. So, we must edit and re-write for the logic of the laugh alone.

You will find yourself developing a poetic sense for re- arranging your words. A renewed study and appreciation of prosody, the art of versification which includes the study of metrical structures, rhyme, etc., would serve all speakers and comics well. In any case, put in simple terms, you will definitely have fun making sure the punch word comes at the end of the punch line.

When writing, do something to consistently draw our attention to the punch word:

• If we are handwriting our jokes or typing them up, always circle the punch word.
• If we are using a computer, always boldface that punch word so it leaps out at us on the video monitor.

We are also forcing ourselves to end on a punch.

If we find we have circled a word in the middle of the sentence and we are sure it is the punch word, what must we do?

That's correct: re-write!

A topper is a second joke that:

• feeds off the previous punch line and needs no new set up line.
• It gets more laughter than the punch line.

A second topper is a third joke which:

• feeds off the first topper and in turn needs no new set up line.
• It is funnier than the first topper.

Both toppers create the illusion of improvisation for the audience. In his interview with Larry Wilde, Jack Douglas winks, then says, "The two toppers sound like ad-libs. It's the greatest thing for an audience to think you haven't got a routine, that you're doing it all off the top of your head." (Larry Wilde's How the Great Comedians Create Laughter, p. 151.)

Basically, the audience might feel they could have come up with our one-liner. But, just sitting there listening to us, even the most arrogant among them will admit they wouldn't have had enough time to take it further by coming up with the two toppers.

The speaker or comic has worked six months to a year getting his act together, and testing it in front of live audiences. Our next audience does not know, nor does it want to know this behind- the-scenes information. They are looking for magic, not facts. Since the speaker-comedian-magician appears to have just invented the toppers, the audience is stunned. They assume he is a genius at thinking on his feet.

Jim will often use the conventional boxing metaphor for stand-up comedy to reinforce teaching points. Angelo Dundee, famous boxing coach to Mohammed Ali and Sugar Ray Leonard, in his biography I Only Talk Winning, reveals the first note he gives a boxer new to his training camp: "double-up your punches."

Jim wondered what that meant.