Arts & Entertainment

Bonus Case Study: Speeches

Lesson time 10:57 min

Featuring exclusive footage of a tribute to Tom Hanks at the Museum of Modern Art, Steve dissects some of his favorite speaking engagements and shares his process for delivering comedy gold in speeches.

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Topics include: Steve's Tribute to Tom Hanks at the Museum of Modern Art • Start With Subject, Location, and Circumstance • Test Material Inconspicuously

Preview

Usually when I write jokes now, it's for a situation. And I have kind of an accumulated file of stuff that I can go to. Like one of my favorite bits-- I can only use it every once in a while, though I used that it as Paul Simon was getting the Kennedy Center award. And this one of my favorite jokes. I said, "it would be easy"-- and we're at the Kennedy Center. There's the president. There's, you know, tuxes and everything. I said-- It would be easy for me to stand up here for the next few minutes and talk about Paul Simon's consummate skill as a songwriter and musician, but this seems to be neither the time nor place. And then I had another joke that I liked. It was in the '90s. And there was this television show that was an award show called The American Comedy Awards. And by the way, there is no American Comedy Awards. It's something a producer made up. So we can put on a show and get paid, and everybody works for free. Uh huh. [LAUGH} So I thought, if I do this, and I'm getting an American Comedy Award-- I was a little depressed. It was early '90s. I should be really funny. I'll just really work on this to try to make it really funny. So my opening joke was, when they called me to tell me I had won the prize of the American Comedy Awards, I just walked around for weeks just trying to care. But I realized, as much as I really like that joke, I can't really use it in other situations because the American Comedy Awards was kind of a low-class-- --thing. And other awards are actually kind of high class. You can't really criticize the award you're getting. So in other words, I can kind of piecemeal things together, which I like to do. I find old things. Like I think that night, I said I have so many people to thank for this. First of all, my wife, . And of course, my two lovely children, and . My agent, [? Beth Anne. ?] So I'm doing a parody of thanking people. And then of course, at the end of it, I want to thank he who is above us all, and for [? the money. ?] And then I thought it worked really well. And then I thought, ah, I'll use it again this other thing. Mm, you know, it's just OK. They were at tables. There's nothing worse than performing for people at round tables, eating. And then half of them have turned their back to you. It still happens. I did this the other day, actually. I was supposed to introduce-- Tom Hanks was getting an award at the Museum of Modern Art for his film work. And he said, would you speak? And I said, OK. So I thought, wait a minute. The thing about Tom Hanks is he's genuinely a nice, interesting, charming person. So I have to say-- I'm going to say that he's a charming, interesting-- And then I thought, OK, what if I had a huge list of his appealing qual...

About the Instructor

One of Steve’s first gigs was at the drive-in movies. When the audience liked a joke, they honked. In this comedy class, Steve shares insights from performing for cars and humans over a 50-year career spanning sold-out arenas and blockbuster films. Learn how to find your voice, gather material, develop an act, and take your comedy writing to the next level.

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Steve Martin

Steve Martin teaches you everything from finding your comedic voice to nailing your act.

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