Humor and Innovation (WDF South 4th floor)

Dr. Pete Ludovice, CHBE

Performances and workshops in a variety of humor formats both fun and educational

• Presentation of the theory of humor from Plato and Aristotle to de Bono & Koestler by LLC instructor
• Stand-up comedy show by national touring comedian (Scotty K., Dan Mengi, etc.) followed by Q & A session
• Student-Run Open Mic Event

Humor has long been used to improve communication, education and innovation in predominantly non-technical areas such as business and marketing. What about us geeks?? While humor has long been recognized as valuable in presentations, it is actually not recommended for technical presentations (but that's all I make??). Improvisational comedy has helped with business innovation; it is not applied to technical innovation (that counts me out!!). Times may be a-changin' however. The journalism community recognizes the value of humor in engaging audiences given the recent popularity of comedians on news shows including D.L.Hughley on CNN (John Stewart and Stephen Colbert are Comedy Central...get it?). Even more recently, the use of humor to address technical topics is seen in television and radio programs such as "Myth Busters" on the Discovery Channel and "The Car Talk Guys" on NPR. So, there may be a role for Tech students after all!

Members of this ThinkBig community will be exposed to stand-up comedy, improvisational comedy, sketch comedy, written humor, cartoons and non-verbal humor in a manner to engage both out-going students experienced in comedy and more reserved students who are just interested in comedy. Students will explore the application of these humor formats to improve their own ability to communicate, educate and innovate.