THE Humorous Keynote Speaker with the Gift of GAB

Chicago based Irishman Conor Cunneen is an Inspirational Humorous Motivational Keynote Speaker and Business Humorist who will leave your audience with a Top O’ the Mornin’ Feeling. Conor is a humorous keynote speaker with a true Gift of the Gab. He is also a Chicago Humorous Speaker of the Year.

"I have never heard a speaker with the double whammy combination of humor and substance which I heard from you today".”

CHECK THE SECRET TO MY IRISH BROGUE -- VIEW VIDEO CLIP 

Chicago based humorous keynote speaker hones his skills via competition. Listen to Conor’s Humorous Keynote Speaker of the Year speech

WHY HIRE THIS CHICAGO BASED INSPIRATIONAL IRISH HUMOROUS KEYNOTE SPEAKER? 

Do you know how expensive it is to fly back to Ireland from Chicago? It doesn’t make a difference if you are a successful inspirational, motivational business humorist and speaker (that’s a lot of hyperbole!) or not – it costs a lot of money. Just think, if you hire Conor Cunneen -“He’s like an Irish Dilbert” - as your next humorous keynote speaker, at least three things will happen:

·         You will receive great plaudits and be recognized as a person of great vision and perspicacity when it comes to booking humorous keynote inspirational business speakers.

·         Your audience will be Energized, Educated, Entertained (that is my audience Brand Promise) after which your boss will say, “Why, you truly are a person of great vision and perspicacity when it comes to booking humorous keynote speakers who also provide a great message.”

·         I will be able to fly back to Ireland more often – economy class of course. (Any attempt to fly business class would be rebuffed by my Irish friends with “Who do you think you are – Lord Muck is it? You! - A humorous keynote speaker! I remember when you only had patches on your britches." Then my Irish buddies will eventually provide some grudging credit and continue. "Of course, that was before you became a successful Chicago based inspirational and motivational business humorist and humorous keynote speaker who get comments such as ‘He’s like James Joyce meets Tom Peters,’ or ‘Excellent mix of humor and real world examples.’”) I digress. As we are flying back to Ireland, my lovely wife of many years will whisper in my ear that you, dear booker are a person of great vision and perspicacity when it comes to booking humorous, motivational Chicago based keynote speakers. I will look into her beautiful hazel green eyes that I have adored since we met in college - before the turn of the century and say simply, “I can only agree.”

“In my close to thirty years of association work, I have never seen a speaker as well received as you.” Incentive Marketing Association

CHECK THE SECRET TO MY IRISH BROGUE - VIEW VIDEO CLIP

Mark Twain may have been the first great humorous keynote speaker, business humorist or inspirational keynote humorous speaker. Twain wrote “Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand,” and there is great truth in this message. He told one audience that the best business advice he could give them was to “Not follow my advice”!

If you want to appreciate the humor of Mark Twain, click on Mark Twain Speeches where I have loaded some of this inspirational business humorist’s finest material. Here you will find humorous speaker material on, for instance, how Twain was introduced as a speaker at one event, “I don’t know anything about this man. Anyhow, I only know two things about him. One is, he has never been in jail, and the other is, I don’t know why.” By any standards that is an excellent introduction for a humorous motivational business speaker!

Some speeches on this website from the very best humorous keynote speaker include:

Audiences appreciate humor whether it is in a business or motivational setting. The humorous keynote speaker makes messages more palatable and more memorable.

The Brand Experience - VIEW VIDEO CLIP

Award winning business humor speech – Customer Service in San Quentin Jail - LISTEN TO AUDIO SAMPLE

.

WHY HUMOR WORKS

The technical answer to why humor works is because when people laugh dolphins are released in the brain – sorry, I got that wrong. When people laugh endorphins are released in the brain and they kind of go swimming around and make baby endorphins which will have you feeling funny and happy for a period of time. Some not very funny or humorous business speakers disagree with this theory. I agree. (What is he agreeing with here? – Ed.)

 The bottom line is audiences appreciate humor whether it is in a business or motivational setting. The humorous speaker makes messages more palatable and more memorable.

“Against the assault of laughter, nothing can stand” – Mark Twain

I’ll give one example as to how the humorous motivational speaker can help people. I do community work helping people in transition or job search. The main program is SHEIFGAB the World which incorporates eight building blocks to successful transition. I often ask audience members to rate their mood (on a ten point scale) at the start of the session. During the program, I throw in my regular dollop of Irish humor and blarney. Towards the end of the session, particularly after we have had some good laughter, I ask the audience “Do you feel better now - than you did at the start of the session?” Invariably, I get a very positive response. Following one program, one participant approached me and confided he was having a really tough time with the transition process. (Many, many people do.) He hadn’t felt good about himself for a long time but, “In response to your query Conor, about how I feel – I was zero, less than that when I came in here today. I now feel ten out of ten. You made me laugh a lot. Thank you.” There is zero embellishment to this anecdote. Humor does help people.

Serious offer. As indicated, I do a lot of pro bono speaking to transition groups and I am on the board of two community associations who help people in transition. If it fits with my schedule, I will happily do my SHEIFGAB the World program pro bono for your local transition support group while in town.

“James Joyce meets Tom Peters” – Substance with Humor

The Irish are blessed with a brand image of humorous story-telling, wonderful pen(wo)manship and a gift to bring humor, fun, laughter to any occasion – even a wake! When presenting as a business humorist or corporate comedian, I attempt to bring that gift to business and corporate events where the objective is to entertain and maybe even educate a little – but subtly of course. One of my favorite audience evaluations is “He’ like James Joyce meets Tom Peters.” I now position myself with that phrase providing Substance with Humor in my presentations.

“To say that you relied solely on humor and your Irish charm to make a difference with our audience would only tell part of the story. You made a difference because you cared enough about people to give them useful information they could take away with them. It was delightful working with you.” Ann Engles, Cynthia Chow & Associates

HUMOROUS KEYNOTE SPEAKER IS A SERIOUS  BUSINESS

Corporate comedy and business humor is great fun but it is a very serious business. Developing humorous keynote speaker material is hard work. It does take time to develop funny keynote speaker material that will audiences laughing and learning. The movie Comedian starring Jerry Seinfeld really brings this point home. When Seinfeld opted to finish his award winning Seinfeld show, he opted to return standup comedy. Comedian tracks one year of Seinfeld’s development of humor and comedy material. After three months, he had but twenty minutes of material he was happy with. My humorous speaker material on

* Customer Service

* Consultants

*Mission Statements

*Vision and Mission Statements

*Branding

*Motivational Speakers

has been crafted over a number of years, is continuously updated and then customized for my client and audience.

Humorous keynotes I present include:

The Brand Strategerist! Every business concept you can imagine is likely to be speared, including (with your approval) your company, association or organization.

Capturing the Guest – Listen to a selection of it here

The Motspirational Man – A spoof on Motivational / Inspirational speakers

Bio

Conor Cunneen C.A.S.H. (Consultant, Author, Speaker, Humorist) is a Chicago based business humorist, corporate comedian and humorous keynote business speaker. You may be wondering why Conor uses phrases like humorist, humorous business speaker, corporate comedian ad nauseam in this webpage.

Why you might even think that this Chicago based Irish Keynote Speaker’s use of phrases which you should now be sick of, such as

·         Inspirational business humorist

·         After-dinner humorist

·         Corporate entertainer

·         Motivational inspirational business humorist (wow, that’s a long one)

is over the top and a blatant attempt to be picked up by search engines when a potential client searches for “Humorous business speaker” or “amusing speeches” or “Funny Keynote Speaker” or “funny business speaker” or even “Humorous Irish keynote speaker for Saint Patrick’s day who can inspire and motivate while conveying our corporate message which is important but not very funny, to an audience that would much rather be somewhere else.”

Irish humorist (‘There he goes again’, as Ronald Reagan might say if he were still with us) Conor Cunneen is a former VP Marketing Unilever and has worked in Ireland, UK and USA in his career. He has worked on brands as diverse and palatable as Hellmann’s, Knorr, Lipton, Heineken and Murphy’s Irish Stout. He is happily married (honest – that’s not Hollywood PR speak) to his long suffering Irish wife of many years Pat. Conor’s sister-in-law, Linda, claims Pat will receive instant canonization as she will have suffered enough in this life! Does Linda think she is some kind of humorous speaker I wonder? Conor is blessed with two great kids (well they were once kids, but they are still great). John lives in the Emerald Isle, while Amy resides in Chicago. They both have a great sense of humor.

This Irish business humorist does his best to maintain humor in his life beyond entertaining audiences. He recently had surgery for prostate cancer - “the unkindest cut of all” he says. Before he went for surgery, he bought a pair of Monty Python pajamas bearing the legend - “It’s only a flesh wound!”

“In my close to thirty years of association work, I have never seen a speaker as well received as you” Incentive Marketing Association

The following is a selection of books that might be of interest to a Humorous Keynote Speaker or a Humorous Business Keynote Speaker. These humor books - available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders and other good bookshops  include:

Mark Twain: America’s Humorist, Dreamer, Prophet – Clinton Cox

Mark Twain was probably THE first and best humorous keynote speaker. Published in 1999, Amazon reviewers give this book a 3.5 star rating. Not a rating which Twain would have been happy with..

The Swiss Family Perelman: A Rollicking International Road Trip with America’s Greatest Humorist – S.J. Perelman

Perelman (1904-1979) was a successful humorous writer with a droll sense of humor. Credits include Marx brother films Horse Feathers and Monkey Business. His humorous writing which could provide potential ideas for a keynote speaker has been compared to 19th century humorist Mark Twain George Ade. The back cover of this book suggests this book is a hilarious and unforgettable account of the author's trip around the world with his wife, son and a cello. Now that must surely provide inspiration for a funny keynote speaker, a humorous keynote speaker or anyone seeking some interesting humorous keynote speaker material

The Rising Gorge: America’s Master Humorist Takes On Everything from Monomania to Ernest Hemingway – S.J. Perelman

As with the book mentioned above, this book should be an interesting read for a humorous keynote speaker.

Hey Ranger: True Tales of Humor and Misadventure from America’s National Parks – Jim Burnett

Humor Play and Laughter: Stress Proofing life with your Kids – Joseph A. Michelli

The Healing Power of Humor – Allen Klein

Humor Theory: Formula of Laughter – Igor Krichtafovitch

Business Humor: Jokes & How To Deliver Them – Gene Perret

Any books by Gene Perret will provide education and learning for the humlorous keynote speaker, the humorous business speaker, or anyone seeking to develop humorous keynote speaker material