Ep 42 - Rik Roberts: Provider of Clean Comedy, Keynotes and Laughter - a podcast by Peter Margaritis, CPA & C-Suite Radio

Today I’m excited to share a conversation with the hilarious Rik Roberts, who provides clean comedy and creative keynote presentations.
Rik also provides excellent comedy education in the School of Laughs, which includes a hilarious podcast of the same name and comedy classes that will help anyone who wants to add more humor to their writing.Before Rik transitioned to the corporate speaking world, he spent years on the road as a stand up comedian. On the road, he learned many of the basics of comedy writing that he applies in presentations, and teaches to others, today.
“An artist removes things so that you can see the beauty of the art, whereas a laborious person would just use everything to show you that they can do it.”If you want to master the art of comedy, you have to understand the economy of words. Rik uses the metaphor of a sculpture to illustrate why this is so important: if you give a sculpture 30 pounds of clay, they will remove pieces of it until they reveal a piece of art. They don’t add anything but their perspective.
To communicate effectively, comedians have to cut out anything excess. This is a skill that will help with presenting in front of any group, too.In stand up comedy, the speaker usually wants to keep moving at a good pace. Laughs Per Minute are important. However, that isn’t necessarily the case in other speaking engagements.
At corporate speaking events, or when speaking to other people in a professional environment, it’s important that the speaker isn’t just talking at the audience – the speaker needs to have a conversation with the audience and listen to what they say.When you are speaking in a professional environment, you need to slow down and hear what you are saying, as if it is the first time you are saying it, because that’s how the audience is receiving it. If you speak too quickly, you may blow past the key takeaways without giving your audience the time they need to process.It takes a lot of practice, but good speakers are comfortable with silences, when they speak in professional environments.
“Listening to hear, not just to respond, is really key.”Having a conversation with your audience also helps when communicating with Millennials and the generation under them. The younger generations value experiences, so they don’t want to just sit there and listen. They want you to engage them.
Way back when, before Rik was even in stand up, he was an improvisational comedian, and he’s still teaching improv skills and using improv exercise to help his audiences. The basic elements of Improv – like trust, team building, and listening – are things that every company and every organization needs, and sometimes all they need is a facilitator to show them how to do it.If you are interested in hiring Rik to perform comedy or deliver a creative keynote, you can find more information on RikRoberts.com.
If you want to hone your own comedy writing skills, you can take Rik’s online comedy course at SchoolOfLaughs.com.While you’re there, check out his podcast! I was interviewed on episode 80, where we discussed how I fell in love with improv, how I was dubbed the “Accidental Accountant,” and a lot more.
 Resources:
Connect with Rik: Website | Facebook | TwitterTake Rik’s Online Comedy Class
Listen to Rik interview Peter on his podcast on School of Laughs Ep. 80 
 Production&Development for Improv Is No Joke by Podcast Masters
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