Punchline then hook

Mes amis,

Welcome, welcome! Please have a seat and welcome to the house 🏠

Can I get you something? A smooth hot drink? Refreshing cold beverage?

In the meantime, help yourself to this week's (and next week's) issue

"Storytelling is joke telling."

This quote comes from Andrew Stanton, a screenwriter from Pixar responsible for hits such as Finding Nemo and A Bug’s Life.

(Personal childhood favourites of mine.)

And for comedians, that is true.

Great comedians don’t just give you the hook and then the punchline.

They hook you, reel you in (tension & suspense) and then deliver the punchline.

But this one time my favourite comedian, Dave Chappelle, flipped that script

“So I kicked her. Right in the *&$@£!”.

It honestly should be illegal. I sat there with cold sweats.

Surely, the joke would just roll over flat.

How would he keep us engaged if he gave away the punchline in this order? Was this going to be the demise of my favourite comedian?

It wasn’t.

Chappelle is built different; the man is a walking legend and a phenomenal storyteller.

He started his story by setting the premise about the difference in his upbringing to his friend, Chappelle’s family being black and his friend white. He focused on foods, specifically the difference between their dinners.

Chappelle craved this stuff-crusted pudding. He knew he would only be able to eat it on a visit to this particular friend.

Chappelle made this a gleaming detail.

And went into thorough detail to describe its taste, texture, smell, colour, and even sang the jingle to the theme song.

We were right there with young Chappelle and clung to his every word.

One particular night, young Chappelle’s wish came true.

His friend’s mum came in to tell them both they were having pudding for dinner.

Hearing the excitement in a young Chappelle’s voice as he leaped with joy across the room that evening got us excited too!

Young Chappelle couldn’t even focus on the games anymore, he just wanted pudding.

Later, the friend’s mum returned to let them know dinner is ready but brought with her sad news too…

“Dave, I’m so sorry. I’ve checked everywhere, but it looks like there just wasn’t enough pudding for all of us. They were only three… I’m sorry, dear.”

Young Chappelle’s response, “There wasn’t 🥺?”

“I’m afraid not, dear…”

Older Dave to the audience, “So I kicked her. Right in the *&$@£!”

The hall bellowed with laughter.

But how did he do it? He followed these principles:

• Told the story to us like he was talking to a friend

• He set the place (Washington DC), time (young Chappelle 7-10 years) & setting (dinner) - always set the premise before you begin the journey.

• He used active verbs (use them to keep the audience engaged and involved in your story).

• Juxtapose - That punchline is juxtaposed with how you’d expect a young child to respond to bad news.

• Gleaming detail - make an object the focus of the story and expand on it. This was the pudding.

• Hand over the spark - He left us feeling energised to tell this story to others, like I’m doing with you.

• He showed vulnerability by sharing his family's lack of wealth growing up and sometimes having to rely on others.

• He focused on the primary senses, specifically, the taste of the pudding.

• He was authentic.

• He let go. Chappelle only told us the details that were important to the story and nothing more. (Remember, less is more)

Did Chappelle follow the story framework? Sure.

He revealed the punchline, but that allowed him to set a different premise, capture the audience's attention, and deliver a captivating story.

A story that was easy to follow and understand.

As long as that’s there, along with the above principles, you are guaranteed to be able to tell an amazing story.

A bientot 👋🏿

Like what you read? 👀

If you did then there's more to come next week 👇🏿

If you didn't then reply and tell me why. I promise not to be upset 🙂

Podcast of the week

In the week we filmed this episode, I met the most interesting person this year.

A startup founder, with a business in Tunisia, who was once an ordained priest in Australia. I share his rollercoaster life in this episode.

Wall of Inspiration

While researching this newsletter's topic I had come across the story of a girl called Rachel Beckwith. On her ninth birthday, she raised $220 for Charity Water.

That saddened her because she was just short of her $300 goal, but she told her parents that she'd raised more on her next birthday.

Sadly, Rachel wouldn't be alive to enjoy her next birthday or see the millions of dollars raised in honour of her selfless commitment.