Now THIS is an enjoyable, useful, entertaining, and completely on-target thread!!!

I think that "canned" jokes can work, I've seen them work pretty well, and other times, not at all; depends on the "delivery"...

I think that humor tailored to the situation, the room, and the people in it works more often.

The rare success story for me in this context happened at an open mic; I got up on front of the microphone, looked out right in front of me, and there was a yound kid at one of the tables who was a dead ringer for the actor in the Harry Potter movies. I said "before I get started, I just wanted to acknowledge that we have a big celebrity in the audience tonight... right down here in front, we have Harry Potter!"... The kid, of course, loved it, and the crowd reacted positively to the kids enjoyment. I at least had their attention for my two songs...

[This message has been edited by Bob McKillop (edited 03-12-2003).]