How To Be Witty

Being witty is not just a gift you are born with; it is something you can develop. It's the way you look at life. In fact, a lot of the top comedians and the people you find funny and witty, who may not necessarily be professional comedians, are great observers of people, observers of life.

They listen and they watch very carefully. What they do, and how you can become witty, is by actually re-framing what you see and hear and just have a different take on it. I'll give you an example.

Years ago, I was invited to a party in South London, and I arrived quite late, and there was a woman there who was utterly quite feisty, in fact, that is an understatement; she was very feisty, was utterly fed up with some of the people who she met, who she thought were very affected and a bit pompous. And she told one of the groups she was talking to that the next person who came in, she was so fed up with tolerating the impossible people, the next person to walk into the party, she was going to give a hard time to, just for the hell of it. A bit random.

Amazingly, she is married now, to a man. I walked in and she started giving me a sort of, politely, but feisty hard time. And then one of her friends, after about a minute, remarked “Oh, I think she's playing hard to get”, to which I added, "No, I think she's actually playing hard to like".

After that, we became great friends, even though it got a big laugh from everybody there, albeit not from her, at that point. So, it is how you reframe things. So watch comedians, listen to people you like, people whose style resonates with you.

And observe life. Practice on family and friends. Now, you might be the very dry witted, ironic style of comedian, or wit.

You might be more into slapstick, which can cause sometimes cause a huge amount of physical pain as you fall flat on your face, if that works for you. Or you might be the Christmas cracker joke type. Although, if you're the Christmas cracker joke type, don't expect many bookings.

The idea is to look at life differently, colorfully and joyfully, and give it a go, but start with small steps. |Have you ever wanted to appear charming and witty? Sean Brickell gives you the tools you need to be like your favorite comedian.