Motivational Speaking and Voice Development Workshops
 Steve
Nallon is well respected as one of Britain’s top all-rounders
with experience across a number of fields from his highly popular comedy
performance
work as an impressionist and actor to writing, directing and producing.
He also now works as a lecturer at the Department of Drama and Theatre
Arts at the University of Birmingham, creating and teaching a number
of original courses.
Combing all these inter-related skills,
Steve has recently produced two new and exciting motivational forums
for business conferences, Thinking Funny! and Voicing
Your Potential. |
Nothing energizes the human mind and body like laughter. Well, almost nothing!
Laughter engages and unites people at a social level, laughter relaxes and stimulates
us in equal measure, and laughter often makes us think and feel about life in
whole new way. Yet do we always make the most of our comic potential? Could our
funny bones occasionally do with a bit of a stretching from time to time? And
what lessons can comedy and laughter give us that relate directly to personal
motivation and business potential?
Steve Nallon’s creative and motivational talk Thinking Funny! answers
all these questions by offering the audience a sort of comedy fitness programme
to revitalize our comic capabilities. In order to make the session as clear and
as accessible as possible, Steve introduces the principles of laughter and comedy
as if they were simply a series of illustrations that could be found in any recipe
book or manual.
The Comic Engine Manual
This first guide book looks at how comedy actually works.
The Comedy Workout Fitness Programme
This second illustrative guide explains why laughter is so good for you.
The Comedy Recipe Cook Book
This sections offers a “recipe” for comedy that anyone can make at
home!
The DIY Comedy Handbook
The “tools of the comedy trade” are now presented so that every one
can be a comedy mechanic.
The Comic Character Guidebook
How-to-make your own “comic character”.
The Comedy for Business Directory
A sort of “Yellow Pages” directory suggesting the business applications
of comedy.
 The
first things to before we even begin are “what is comedy?” and “how
does it work?” Remember that famous image of the graceful swan floating serenely
on top of the water, but paddling like hell beneath? Well, Thinking Funny!
takes you under that comedy swan, giving you the chance to see how that comedy
paddle engines actually work. Comedians simply use a special way of seeing the
world that looks at an object as if it were something else. For example, a routine
from a comedian involves looking into the audience and say, “Oh, I see we
have Pamela Anderson in the audience”. Then he’ll look again in that
direction and correct himself saying, “Oh, I'm sorry it’s not Pamela
Anderson – it’s just two bald men sat together!”. One object –
or two in this case – are seen in terms of another. And understanding
how the comic mind thinks funny will hopefully not only extend the way you think
and feel about humour, but also offer real opportunities for you to develop, communicate
and explore your own personal potential to the fullest.
 Steve
begins his “comedy workout” proper by talking about our first experiences
of laughter. If you think of our first faltering steps when we were toddlers as
the start of our “physical fitness programme” then our comedy workout
obviously began when we first fell over. Because it was at this precise moment,
when our parents taught us to laugh at ourselves, that we realized what fun laughter
could be. And from that moment on we’ve never stopped laughing. But since
then laughter, like walking, has become something we very much take for granted.
However, just as a physical fitness trainer never underestimates the importance
of walking to keep you fit, so Steve, as your comedy workout instructor, doesn’t
take for granted the significance of laughter in stimulating our mental processes.
Steve not only explains why laughter is essential for our good health he also
explores why it’s so important in expanding the way we think. And once the
principles of laughter have been established he then moves on to show how an understanding
of the way laughter works can give us all confidence to delve a little deeper
into the creative comic process.
 Steve
starts to look at this process by getting members of the group to share some jokes.
Using whatever jokes are offered on the day, which in themselves provide some
light relief, Steve explains that within every gag there is
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a formula
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a comic component
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a way of telling
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and a final trigger or twist that makes us laugh.
In order to introduce these ideas in an accessible way Steve uses the comparison
of a cooking demonstration to illustrate “How to Make a Good Joke”.
You begin with a recipe (the joke’s formula), then you find the ingredients
(the comic components), mix everything together and put the mix in the oven to
cook (the way of telling), and when it’s ready to eat you give it to your
friends and hopefully they go “yum-yum” (the trigger which makes us
laugh). And in that fine tradition of “here’s-one-I-made-earlier”
Steve also offers several well-known pre-prepared examples of jokes and comedy
routines from the world of popular sit-coms and comedy film classics plus, of
course, one or two of his own famous impressions.
Once the essential creative process has been explored, Steve then takes what
he calls his comic recipe and his ingredients of comedy – such as reversals,
exaggeration, opposites or disguise – and then offers his audience opportunities
in which they too can begin to create their own recipes, so to speak.
 This
stage of the session is the “Do It Yourself” section. The emphasis is
now placed on ways in which the audience can begin to explore certain comic principles
for themselves. For example, take the principle of comic reversals. Most jokes
involve a reversal of expectation of some description. You begin in one direction
only to end up where you least expect – you’re led up the garden
path not to a front door but a mudslide or a brick wall. And sometimes this reversal
can happen in just one phrase – the one-liner, as it is known. Les Dawson
was the master of the one-liner, many of which were simple reversals. He would
mournfully say to his audience, “My wife ran off with the man next door”,
pause, and then add, “and do you know, I do miss him”. An expectation
reversed. But how do you begin to think in terms of “comic reversals”?
Well, Steve suggests the easiest way to begin is to take a well-known catch phrase,
perhaps an advertising slogan or popular saying, and then try and find a way of
turning it upside down by adding some sort of contradiction. The cult American
comedian Steve Wright is a master of this art. He says things like “I bought
some batteries the other day,” adding, “but they weren’t included”
illustrating that the simplest of well-known phrases can lead to a comic reversal.
And form one simple reversal another can easily follow. Steve Wright begins one
routine by saying, “I took my dog for walk around my building –
on the ledge.” He immediately follows this with another common expression
and then adds another reversal on the end of it: “A lot of people are afraid
of heights. Not me, I’m afraid of widths.” Steve also gives the example
of several of his old Margaret Thatcher gags: “Yes, the meek shall inherit
the earth – but not until I’ve finished with it!” or “As
I said to John Major: John, please be quiet, if I want your opinion I’ll
give it to you!”
 An
important aspect of character comedy is creating comic obsession. What this means
is that it takes a special comic perspective on the world to make any comedy creation
truly unique. For Victor Meldrew in One Foot In the Grave it’s that
all the world conspires against him, for Phil Silvers as Sergeant Bilko
its that all the world offers an opportunity for him to make a quick buck, for
Hyacinth Bucket in Keeping Up Appearances its that the world would be a
better place if it knew the correct way to hold a teacup and for Seinfeld
the world would be a better place if it could see its own crazy way of living.
To help the audience get a practical hold on this idea of the comic perspective
or obsession Steve gets his audience to play a simple game called “In the
Manner of the Word”. In this game someone leaves the group and the remaining
members of the group then decide on some sort of doing word or adverb, for example,
passionately or furtively. The person who left the group then returns and proceeds
to tell the gathering to do a simple action, say brushing your teeth or shaking
someone’s hand, “in the manner of that word”. The simple aim of
the game is for the outsider to guess the adverb but the practical result from
a comedy angle is seeing a singular and potentially comic perspective repeatedly
applied to a variety of actions. Such interactive games are certainly fun for
the audience to play, and rarely do they fail to add energy and laughter to the
proceedings.
 Apart
from aiding comic creativity and understanding the importance of laughter many
aspects of Steve’s forum Thinking Funny! also have direct applications
for business. Probably the first joke we are ever told begins with the question,
“Why did the chicken cross the road?” We say we don’t know and
the other person says, “To get to the other side!” in a tone that makes
fun of our stupidity in not knowing something so obvious. This is the comedy of
the “Obvious Truth”. It cuts through all the red tape and solves the
question or problem with the obvious solution that no one else has realized. Children
are often the origin of such jokes because, unlike adults, they instinctively
ignore the complicated answer and just go for the simple on. There is a story
of the little boy who, when asked by his teacher how could milk be stopped from
going sour, said, “Keep it in the cow.” The Obvious Truth. What’s
strange is that we adults rarely think of the obvious truth or solution, but instead
too often we choose to over complicate our lives and our businesses. If you doubt
the effectiveness of obvious truth just consider the success of the recent UK
Ronseal advertising campaign: “It does what it says on the tin”. This
line is quickly becoming a national catch phrase in Britain. The simple business
message is never to underestimate the thinking behind the Obvious Truth –
whether in business or in comedy.
Steve concludes the forum by going back over the proceeding sections creating
a direct business application for each comedy principle. Seeing one thing in terms
of another – this means giving any business an entirely new way of
seeing any situation or problem. Understanding laughter – laughing
at yourself is good for you, but laughing at others is even more fun, especially
if you end up getting the better of your competitor. Reversals –
looking at things from an unusual angle can often be revealing. Creative
comic thinking – we can all do it, but knowing what we are doing
means we can do it better. Comedy perspectives on the world – what
is unique, universally recognized and new – sells!
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 In
many businesses your voice is your business. No one knows that better than Steve
Nallon, whose business is voices. Voicing Your Potential is a unique voice
workshop lead by one of Britain’s leading impressionists with the aim of
finding new areas of a person’s voice that perhaps have never been explored
before. Using simple physical exercises, the workshop expands the range of the
natural voice, hopefully finding new energies and varying rhythms so that your
voice can be enriched to its fullest potential.
Steve begins the session by looking at the rhythm of a voice. He illustrates
the main points about vocal rhythm using his own voice skills. With a series of
impressions Steve shows the range of rhythms the human voice and personality is
capable of generating. Some voices, he suggests, ‘glide’ (Bruce Forsyth,
Julian Clary), others ‘punch’ (Margaret Thatcher, David Frost), many
‘slash’ or ‘whip’ (Murray Walker, Dame Edna) and some ‘float’
(Peter Sallis in Wallace and Gromit).
Steve then shows how the energy, direction and flexibility of vocal rhythm
can be broken down into eight basic dynamic: the glide, the punch, the slash,
the float, the press, the dab, the flick and the wring. With a series of simple
series Steve shows ways in which each of these dynamics can be achieved in any
person’s voice. For example, pushing against a wall while you are speaking
naturally creates a ‘pressing’ dynamic (a strong energy, a sustained
action and a direct force), whereas speaking as you gently wave your arms and
hands around creates a ‘floating’ dynamic (a light energy, a sudden
or unsustained action and a flexible or indirect force). Again it isn’t a
matter of what is right or wrong, the aim is simply a way of finding new and possibly
unexplored rhythms and dynamics in a person’s natural speech patterns.
Next comes vocal resonance. Steve suggests the actual sound produced by the
human voice can be separated into three basic attributes: bright, dull and clear.
He illustrates these properties by doing a series of regional accents, all of
which have their own musical sound. For example, the Liverpool accent has a bright
or ‘sharp’ sound, as if it is just above the note, whereas the Leeds
accent lower, resulting in a dull or ‘flat’ sound. The Welsh accent
has a well-centred resonance and so can be said to be clear or ‘in tune’,
as it were. Steve suggests that there is no right or wrong way to speak and that
each sound, ‘sharp’, ‘flat’ and ‘in tune’, has its
own distinct advantages and characteristics. What matters is finding variety and
range of expression in the voice so that every voice has an opportunity to manifest
itself to its full potential.
A series of brief exercises early in the proceedings allow the group to find
different resonances pitches in their own voice. It may sound odd but getting
the group to ‘meow’ like a cat automatically creates a sharp sound,
the ‘baa’ of a sheep unlocks a natural, flat sound and the ‘moo’
of a cow usually gives us a sound that is hopefully in tune! The group now has
the two essential aspects of vocal technique: rhythm and resonance. They can move
on to put these new discoveries into practice.
A simple text is taken as an example, maybe an actual presentation speech,
and it is then broken down so that the appropriate dynamic, be it a punch or a
glide is applied to the right word or phrase. A sound resonance is also suggested.
With just a few new tools at the group’s disposal it is amazing how much
richness and variety can be added to the voice. It is worth noting that the forum
is not about finding ways of acting or meaning a text or speech but rather discovering
a simple and easily applied method of colouring the voice to its best potential.
The session is ideal for a small seminar group of around twenty or thereabouts.
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 Based
on his experience as a performer and his work at the University of Birmingham,
Steve Nallon’s Thinking Funny! is a practical guide showing the true
potential for comedy and laughter in all our lives. Thinking Funny! is
an ideal motivational talk for anyone looking for something that little bit different.
The talk is both thought provoking and entertaining. It also involves some fun
with energizing interactive audience participation, but not the kind meant to
embarrass or offend. Thinking Funny! makes an ideal component of any corporate
event where the focus is on Creativity, Public Relations, Team Building, Communications
or Marketing. The forum can be adapted for any size group from a small informal
seminar to a full conference audience. In the smaller group setting there is more
opportunity for creative interaction and in this environment the talk takes on
more of a workshop feel.
As with Steve’s talk Thinking Funny!, the Voicing Your Potential
interactive session would make an ideal component of any company event where the
focus is on Creativity, Public Relations, Team Building, Communications or Marketing.
Although Thinking Funny! and Voicing Your Potential are independent
forums, they would make useful companion sessions on many such themed corporate
days.
Steve has been a Visiting Lecturer at the University of Birmingham since 1995.
His work here includes lecturing, directing plays, and creating both academic
and practical courses as a part of the undergraduate programme. For further details
of Steve’s academic work, please click here.
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Contact
Motivational speaker and voice workshop bookings for Steve Nallon can be made
through the UK’s leading speaker agencies and their world wide associates.
If this web site has been recommended to you by a specific speaker agency
then please continue to use that agency as your contact for Steve Nallon.
If you have found this site on an internet search and wish to make further
enquiries then please contact info@nallon.com
for more information.
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