1 hour Humour Workshop with Sonia 16 Mars 2017

Sonia Aste, has become Comedian, MC and Standup Comedy Producer also.
She offered us a workshop in our Witty Storytellers Online, toastmaster club.
We invited also members from other Online Clubs participating actively in it.

Julie Superhero, 2 minutes online story

Beginnings, comedy

My 1st standup comedy workshop in 2011 begun with a round robin, the others telling how they see me between others. I was stunned to hear how they see "old" how all the young men with me at the workshop perceived me!

At first, I tried to TELL them how I feel "There is a young kid inside me" showing them at my first 2' even a picture of me as 5 years old standing up on a cube. They stared at me with stunned eyes. Without even a small smile. I understood then what it meant "I died", in comedy terms.

To accept and change their perception, I learned to DEMONSTRATE instead of telling.
At Saint Patricks day the bus did not work I had to walk and my knee begun to hurt.
I decided also to use the language I just learned in the workshop (some of it at least):

"My name is Julie and I am 77
Standup comedy after 77 ?
I can barely stand on my feet!
What the fuck I am doing in this shit?"

Top this with dialogue told in the moment:

My daughter called this morning.
"Mamie, you can't use this language, not you!"
"What language?"
"Those 4 letter words."

Top top: after looking around.
"But she is not here."

Even using words I never used before the f.. S. word.

Many asked themselves sometimes : what am I doing here? So I did voice what they had in their head, and at the same time showed I do not take myself seriously.

Then added what happened indeed, at that time, as I send my daughter my text to correct my English. She called me indeed. All of us had occasions when they did things, after being sure, the one telling them not to do it was not there.

But if I used her call in my first public Standup, we had 120 participants, later on, I used the same as if it happened "this morning". Bringing stories in present is important and allowed even when you tell True Stories from your life, not only in Comedy.

---
1. Setup. Begin by acknowledging how the others SEE you. Fill in necessary information for the rest to be understood, no more. Instead of telling the truth: that you are a lot more complex and different then they think, pretend at the beginning you are as they imagine using the stereotype in their head.

2. Add to it first even a bit of exaggeration, letting them believe "yes, that is what I thought",
this is called a Misdirection.

3. Then, surprise them, not by telling but by showing: you are just like them. Punch line.

Top it with a second punchline that builds on what you just told: it makes gives your routine an impromptu feel. As if you just invented it in that moment, only for them, there.

Keep all in present as much as possible "in the moment". If needed change time to make it seem it just happened to you, even if it was true the first time told but repeated after a month or years.
----

Nowadays, it's enough for me to begin with:
"My name is Julie.
I am single (looking around)
Ready to mingle. (With open arms)"

Top
"Never too late!"
Top top
"There is always yet another chance in life!"

For me this works, most of the time, because it seems funny to them for an old woman to declare herself "single" and "ready to" even if she does indeed live alone.

---
In a new toastmaster club I visit, I sometimes tell :

"Do you remember why you come to your first TM meeting?
Well, at age 44, three years after I become single again, I did go to my first club
To find a man."

Top
"Still looking."

They see I am an old woman, mostly do not have to tell them any more my age.
And why should I tell them in fact I am now already 82, no more 77 as I was when I begun!
Well a few years here or there, is 'detail".

---
Of course, each has to find his/her beginning starting with others' perceptions, acknowledging the stereotype, embracing it and using it, before showing (not telling) that there is a lot more to us than they thought.

Merci ! For all of you, in French and English

Thanks ! For all who loved me

For all who had loved me

For a day or for years

All who had desired me, and I desired,

For years, month or a few hours 

Or imagining that he loved or wanted me

A day,  months,  or many years;

Or even for a wonderful night:

I have not forgotten

I have not regretted

I have not forgotten

Neither my years long teenage flame

Disappeared even before we touched;

Nor my first kisses on the street or a bench

In the almost closed park;

Or swimming midnight naked into the lake

And the tender chaste cuddling near a wood fire

I have not forgotten

I have not regretted

I have not forgotten.

Becoming woman at 25: it was not too late!

Our children were conceived with fervent kisses

I have not forgotten!

Deceptions, betrayal and sorrow followed,

Bitter ashes covered too often the great times

But I learned, even if later : one evening

Can make me happy for a whole year

I have not forgotten any of you !

Betrayed or neglected: I have not regretted.

I cried, then later told myself "it is I who imagined"

"It was me who lured myself he loved as I loved

That he wanted as I wanted and desired "

Yes, I desired, I loved

And even it not for all life

Was desired, was loved

I have not regretted

I have not forgotten

I loved some  and strongly desired others
I have loved and lived, and I do remember.

Thank you all for those moments, 

Those years  or moments of happiness:

I do not forget!

And here is the French original

Merci 
A tous qui m'ont aimée ou désirée

Pour tous  qui m’ont aimée

Pour un jour ou des années

Pour tous qui m’ont désirée et j’ai désiré,

Ne serait-ce que des heures

Ou imaginant qu’il m’aimaient ou désiraient

Pendant des mois, des années; 

Ou une merveilleuse soirée.

Je n’ai pas oubliée

Je n’ai pas regrettée

Je n’ai pas oubliée!

Ni mon flamme d’adolescente

Disparue dans la fumée;

Ni mes premiers baisais

Dans le park presque fermée;

Ni la plongée deminuit nu dans le lac 

Ou la tendresse davant un feu de bois

Je n’ai pas oubliée

Je n’ai pas regrettée

Je ne vous ai oubliée!

Femme, tard dans la vie: jamais trop tard

Nos enfants conçus de nos fervents baisers

Je n’ai pas oubliée!

Deceptions , trahisons et blessures entassés

Cendres amères ont couvert nos bon moments

J’ai apprise alors, qu’une seule soirée

Peut apporter de la joie pour toute une année

Je n'ai pas oubliée!

Deçue ou délaissée, je n’ai pas regerttée

J’en ai pleurée,et puis dit “c’est toi qui a imaginée”

"C”est toi qui t’est leurrée qu’il t’aimais comme tu aimais

Qu’il te désirait comme tu le désirais"

J’ai désirée, j’ai aimée

Je n’ai pas regrettée

Je ne vous ai oubliée

J’ai aimée ou je vous ai fortement désirée: j’ai vécu

Merci pour ces moments, ces années de bonheur:

Je ne vous est oubilée!

Better laugh of whatever arrives in life

15 auto-portraits from my album "some selfies" taken from 2004, when I become 70 years old through the years showing my "kid playing" side and daring to show different sides of myself.

First row
The first time I dared an auto-portrait playing with an old wig and dusty hat.
The first time I was happy how I looked with swimming pool hair in the wind.
The day I dared to tell "it is exactly 52 years that I..." dot dot dot.
The day I took the first photo of myself in the bain: the small camera could do it.
The bad hair day, last in the first row, is my most popular photo on Flickr: and at that time, I still did not believe I have funny bones! "Julie, what did you do?!!!"

Second row
My face in bubble bath and
the face preparing already stories in London,
I like showing an expression "I still hope",
followed by preparation of the story of my nose, that was not cut,
and laughing of how much the hairdresser did cut my hair a day.

The last row are disasters mostly. Better show and laugh of them.
Shaving? so what!
After cataract intervention.
In middle of Effedrine treatment of my all burned front.
When I lost my three front teeth.

"Loosing three front teeth? So cute! When one is 7. Not at 77."
This photo was taken to prove myself it is not a complete catastrophe!
So true. Now I tell myself "at least you do not have to walk on it".
And I have a denture instead them...

Last pic is prepared to go again to standup comedy, yes, I will go again and again, some time yet.

Looking back to what happened is easier then trembling "how it will go tomorrow". But of course, I also have to stop, and prepare, prepare. "Practice, practice practice, and never give up even after 70"

Never Too Late, Never Too Old, from Toastmasters Magazine, June 2016

Never Too Late, Never Too Old

Stand-up comedian and storyteller proves 

that adventures can start at any age.

BY SHANNON DEWEY TM Magazine June 2016

In 1944, an unassuming girl from Transylvania began the simple task of recording her thoughts in a diary while hiding in Budapest after fleeing the Nazis during World War II.

Julie Kertesz’s diary entries as a 10-year-old have served as a roadmap for her storytelling 70 years later. Kertesz, DTM, is an efervescent Toastmaster who uses her intriguing past and honest humor to engage audiences all over Europe, especially in London. Kertesz initially found Toastmasters in 1977 while living in the United States, and with typical candor she admits her reason for joining.

“Should I confess? I was just divorced and working in America, and I wanted to  find a place with more men than women!” Kertesz says. “Did I  find ‘my man’ at a Toastmasters club? No, I’m still looking. But I found my voice!”

She performs stand-up comedy, teaches a storytelling workshop, attends meetings at the Lewisham Speakers Club in London and writes blogs. Every few decades she’s encountered major changes in her life, but she’s learned to make the best out of any situation and  nds humor in everything.

Crossing Cultures

For 35 years, Kertesz called Paris, France, her home. During that time she worked as a chemist and later as a researcher while studying for a doctorate in chemistry. Life had thrown her a curveball, however, and after her marriage ended, she took her two children and her Ph.D. to the U.S.

“For a long time I asked myself who am I? I felt like a  fish out of water,” Kertesz admits. But then, a er living near Washington, D.C., for three years, she felt welcomed, especially a er discovering her  rst club, Monument Toastmasters in Silver Springs, Maryland.

Kertesz worked as a visiting fellow at  e National Institute of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. But without U.S. citizenship, she could only stay for a limited time under her work contract, so she packed up her life again and returned to France. But  finding a research chemist position at that point in her life proved impossible. After being told that she was too old, she was forced to change professions.

In 1981, at the humble beginnings of personal computers, Kertesz developed an interest and started a company that distributed American computer products in France. She even had the privilege of meeting computer industry pioneers Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Bill Atkinson.

“I liked being a chemist, but I loved working with personal computers,” Kertesz says. “I never even dreamed I’d be a computer company founder and buyer/seller, but I discovered with delight when approaching age 46 that I had it in me.”

60 is the New 30

When Kertesz turned 60, she retired from her computer career and began to read through her 50 years’ worth of diary entries. She started saving them as  digital files to share with her children, but in doing so she realized that others may be interested in her stories, so she published them. Soon, her blog julie2004.blogspot.co.uk was up and running.

Photo in front, courtesy of The Guardian newspaper. This one taken in Tallinn by fellow TM. 

Julie Kertesz (center) stands with Toastmasters Oscar Santolalla, left, and Asta Pipiraite, after presenting her Funny Bones workshop in Tallinn, Estonia, for two Nordic European Toastmasters divisions last November. Bottom, Kertesz poses for a newspaper photographer while in Budapest where she participated in the Continental Europe Toastmasters Laugh and Learn conference in 2013.

Written in French, the diaries reveal her authenticity starting with entries from 1944. During that time, Kertesz and her family, who were Christian but of Jewish origin, were living in hiding under the steps of a coal cellar in Budapest. 

Here  is is an entry from December 25, 1944:

“Yesterday we celebrated Christmas. I am filled with happiness! Yet there is a war. We have fir branches hanging from the ceiling, we decorated them and added candy. I received so many gifts! ... For two days we hear the roar of guns so strong that even mom heard them, at least the most violent ... A small bomb fell outside the church of St. Apostles (but no one died).”

While she enjoyed writing and sharing her stories, Kertesz also discovered photography at age 70 and joined the popular website Flickr, where she posts images for public viewing (www.flickr. com/people/joyoflife). Her photography consists of nature shots, portraits of strangers, places where she travels and more. Sixty thou- sand photos later, Kertesz is still posting every day. Her photos have surpassed 10 million views from people all over the world.

In another change of events, in 2008 Kertesz moved to London, England. Although linked to millions of people through her blog and photography, she again felt disconnected in her new city. But a er a short time she found her way back to Toastmasters and joined two clubs, as well as participated in Spark London events (Britain’s  rst true storytelling initiative), where she performed be- fore a paying audience. After earning her Competent Communicator, she started a blog in English competentcommunicator. blogspot.co.uk/ where she offers advice and videos.

“Coming to London, I wanted to  find like-minded people and tell my stories,” Kertesz says. “I had  nally found my tribe at Toastmasters.”

Branching Out

In her late 70s, Kertesz stepped out of her comfort zone and dipped her toe into the pool of stand-up comedy.

Sporting short white hair and well-earned wrinkles, Kertesz admits she may give off  a “grandma” vibe when strolling onto a stage at the comedy clubs. But audiences learn quickly not to judge her by appearance alone. Her stand-up act includes allusive jokes about her love life and some self-deprecating humor about her age, with four-letter words sprinkled in, despite her daughter’s advice. In this case, the grandmother uses her geriatric status as an advantage to conjure laughter.

“I had never even heard of stand-up comedy until age 77, and it was only then that I learned we all have funny bones—we just have to cultivate them,” Kertesz says.

“I believed for so long that I was not funny. But we develop, with time, a ‘comedian’s eye,’ looking at all our problems and learning how to present them so others will laugh with us.”

Kertesz now incorporates elements of what she’s learned onstage back at her Toastmasters clubs, or while giving speeches as an Ambassador for Toastmasters’ revitalized education program (REP). She also saw the fruits of her labor recently when she was invited to Tallinn, Estonia, to give a workshop on “Funny Bones” to two Nordic Toastmasters divisions.

“Speaking from the inside connects us to any audience,” Kertesz says. “I learned to connect with a young audience as a stand-up comedian and with a middle-aged crowd as a personal storyteller.”

She especially bonds with her audience when she performs her personal story titled “When I was 10, the War Caught Up With Me.” Watch a video of it here: bit.ly/1RCNBKM.

What’s Next?

These days Kertesz, who turns 82 in July, spends time on her Kindle reading romance novels, scrolling through Facebook and adding to her Flickr photo account. Since she is tech savvy, she was an early adopter to meeting online with a group of advanced Toastmasters from around the world. That group chartered in March as the Firebirds Collective club.

“I learned through my online meetings that we can get to know each other even better through the web, and in a fun environment like that we learn a lot from one another.”

So what’s Kertesz’s next adventure?

“I hope to give more workshops, visit my clubs o en as an REP Ambassador and create a storytelling club for Toastmasters of different continents,” she says.

Kertesz has come a long way since fleeing her home in the midst of the Second World War.  A young girl, quietly writing in her diary, would have been surprised to know how those entries would impact people in other countries 70 years later. 

SHANNON DEWEY is the editorial coordinator for the Toastmaster magazine.

-------------

What is next? was asked in February, the article was published in June.

While continuing to offer Storytelling and Funny Bones, workshops, in various clubs and online too, Julie Kertesz continued to work as Pathway Ambassador also. 

In July 2016, she found a team as enthusiast as her and together they created Witty Storytellers Online, chartered in September, with members from 11 countries, many continents. She is VPE of the first speciality online toastmasters club. 

Her adventure continues. 

Julie at Cavendish Arms, end June 2016

Between 24 young great comedians, I was elected best at the end of evening.

In plus, for of my grown up grand-children assisted to this comedy night!