ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 2, 1997 TAG: 9704020039
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JEFF STURGEON THE ROANOKE TIMES
Managers who can poke fun of themselves can put others at ease when bad news is coming, a laugh master explains.
Jerry King is a humor specialist who teaches how to relax an edgy boss or extract a smile from a sour-faced secretary.
Among his heroes: authority figures with funny bones. He tells of an executive who handed out scissors and photocopies of the executive's face at a meeting. The executive then gave his employees some bad news - health benefits were shrinking.
"Go ahead, cut me up," he said, or words to that effect.
The antic expressed the boss's anguish over the benefit reduction and made employees feel a little better, King told a Roanoke audience Tuesday.
``Humor is not about telling jokes," King said. "It's a positive outlook on life and looking for things in life on the lighter side that will help us get through the heavy stuff."
King appeared at the New Century Venture Center, an 8-month-old business incubator. The event was co-sponsored by First American Federal Savings Bank.
He wore gray slacks, a shirt and bright yellow sneakers as he spoke to about 60 people with jobs in government, health care, real estate, finance and other businesses. A small Roanoke tax office attended for a breather from processing IRS returns.
King, of Hillsville, is a former high school accounting teacher, former corporate officer, humor consultant and author who wrote "Help, I'm Talking and I Can't Shut Up." He advocates laughing at life as often as possible.
"Is everything in life funny? No," he said. But, "we need to stop walking around like we've been weaned on a dill pickle."
While on a crowded elevator, he noticed fellow passengers staring mutely at the little lights for each floor. King turned and said: "I guess you're wondering why I called you all together?"
He received weird looks, he said, but does stuff like that all the time. - like paying other people's traffic tolls. People think he's crazy, he said, adding: "That's okay."
Want to cultivate your humor? King advises laughing mainly at yourself. He berated his high school class for poor marks, and the students laughed back. His fly was open.
Businesses have found that a friendly, humorous approach keeps customers coming back, King said. Workers who enjoy a laugh together are more productive. Couples who laugh find it easier to stay together.
To King, one of the greatest examples of using humor came from a basketball team that needed a basket to win in a last-second play. As the ball was put in motion, most of the team's players hit the floor and barked like dogs. The ball handler used the distraction to score.
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