The problem with living in the past Of course, there’s a very valid place for reviewing the past in order to learn lessons and process issues, but most of us a disproportionate amount of our time dwelling on the past in a way that: causes suffering in the present doesn’t move us …
Most of us could be a lot happier and get our lives to work a great deal better if we were just able to live in the present moment more than we currently do. It’s very common to have a somewhat dysfunctional or negative approach to the passing of time, and many popular sayings and …
People we describe as having a ‘sense of humour’ are basically people who can look at things differently from normal. Comedians are people who have trained their minds to do this routinely – not to just follow the normal interpretations and associations but to go somewhere different from the usual. And every DIY comedian can …
Building blocks of comedy: #2: Looking at things differently Read More »
Three Characteristics of Pessimistic Thinking Dr. Martin Seligman, former president of the American Psychological Association, identifies three characteristics of pessimistic thinking: The first is permanence. In other words, regarding temporary, passing events as being lasting and unchanging states. For example, your boss chews you out about something. You react by thinking, “I really hate him,” …
Great comedian Omid Djalili recently said this, in answer to the question: Q. What brings you back to stand-up after three and a half years away? It was the love of it, surely -and the opportunity to evolve as a human being. I really believe that if you tak comedy seriously, in a holistic way, …
No Going Back: a humorous diary about moving away from the bright city lights of Brighton, England Episode 1: Driving over lemmings
In this series of blogs, I take a look at the basic mechanics that are used to create comedy – the fundamental ‘building blocks’ of humour. For the purpose of understanding how comedy works, they’re presented here as separate items, but in practice they nearly always merge together and overlap; virtually every piece of humour that …