Smiling is infectious, You catch it like the flu. When someone smiled at me today, I started smiling too. I passed around the corner and someone saw my grin. When he smiled I realised I’d passed it on to him. I thought about that smile, then I realised its worth. A single smile, just like mine could travel round the earth. So, if you feel a smile begin, don’t leave it undetected. Let’s start an epidemic quick, and get the world infected!
by Spike Milligan(Possibly) Irish Writer, Poet, Comedian, Actor.
NOTE: Author/illustrator Jez Alborough also attributed to this poem.
I wish to thank English actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer John Cleese for this mind-expanding, succinct and humorous book ‘Creativity’ which has helped me in two ways. First, to celebrate my blog Thoughts Become Words100 Book Reviews milestone and, second, to give me an insight into the creative mind – a mind which we all have, yet use and abuse in many different ways.
Happily, I listened as Mr Cleese read his book to me. It only took an hour.
Also I am going on the assumption that you know John Cleese work because he does refer to it. Do I have to say Monty Python? The new edition is 2020 so he’s in his 80s now.
The standout for me is how our brain keeps working on things whether we are conscious of it or not, thus “sleep on it” theory. But you are the one who has to put it into practice. It works for me!
A truly delightful little book which lives up to its title!
By accident, I listened to the audio version and was so glad I did because one hour just flew by. The inimitable John Cleese, actor, comedian, screenwriter, producer, talked to me about his past, his creativity and how our brain is always working even while we sleep. It is ready to come up with great ideas and answers to questions puzzled over during daylight hours. Hence ‘I’ve got it!’ inspirational moments on waking.
Call it pseudo-science or a clever comedy skit, nuggets of truth gleam through the wise words of Mr Cleese. For example, if you are getting nowhere with your work, put it aside and look at it later, next day, next week. Nothing new but the way he describes and elaborates on the process heightened my awareness in an enjoyable way.
If you listen to this guide on the bus, you may not laugh embarrassingly out loud but you may smile and nod at the sense of it. I can recommend for all ages and talents. GBW.
Cats sleep anywhere, any table, any chair. Top of piano, window-ledge, in the middle, on the edge. Open drawer, empty shoe, anybody’s lap will do. Fitted in a cardboard box, in the cupboard with your frocks. Anywhere! They don’t care! Cats sleep anywhere.
The inspiration for this post came from Platypus Man, blogger of Now I’m 64, and the beautiful cats which sleep on, or in, many objects around his garden which aptly demonstrate feline Extreme Sleeping techniques.
Comedy gold—-I have discovered Jerry Seinfeld’s jokes, or tiny stories, are even better when read. I can fully absorb the nuances leading to a smooth punchline, being taken by surprise, and bursting into laughter. Fortunately in the comfort of my own home.
Of course, reading a Jerry Seinfeld book filled from cover to cover with his observational comedy written over five decades is best taken in small doses.
There is nothing truly personal in this book so don’t expect an autobiographical exposé of his life. The best you are going to get under the heading of About The Author is “Jerry Seinfeld is a stand-up comedian. He lives in New York City with his family.”
However, his life does subtly unfold throughout the book via his comedy routines, both on and off television. I can relate to most of his observations. Admittedly they don’t always mirror my experiences of life, but do cover a large, unavoidable portion of my existence as a human being.
It is fascinating to read through the decades from 1970s to 2010s. Small bits, longer bits like “The Chicks and the Checks”, an ordinary event turned monumental. And there’s the condensing, the immediacy of his transference, the reveal, the audience reaction he craves on stage. He couldn’t hear me laughing at the six lines of “Earthquake”.
If you’re wondering, the book title “Is This Anything?” is taken from what comedians nervously ask each other about a new bit they have written.
Seinfeld’s stand-up comedy style is a clean, straight-forward, perfectly paced delivery. Always on the funny side, in his 452 page book plus index, he goes from being a young man to a mature adult with a family. Gradually the content and tone of the jokes change, a kitchen sponge talks, technology invades and “Device Dictatorship” rules but the entertainment is always there.
It is not necessary to have watched his television series “Seinfeld” but as I read, I heard his voice in my head.
I guess maybe that’s a good thing…
♥Gretchen Bernet-Ward
It is like being in a time machine with the years being told in very short, very funny stories: great to lift the pandemic blues. GBW.
This caged pineapple asked me why he was called a pineapple when he was neither a pine nor an apple. I couldn’t answer his question but I did give him a lecture on the idiotic English language and how we take it for granted without knowing why ♥Gretchen Bernet-Ward
Read on…
“English is a crazy language.
There is no egg in eggplant nor ham in hamburger; neither apple nor pine in pineapple.
English muffins weren’t invented in England or French fries in France.
Sweetmeats are candies while sweetbreads, which aren’t sweet, are meat.
We take English for granted.
But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square and a guinea pig is neither from Guinea nor a pig.
Why do writers write but fingers don’t fing, grocers don’t groce and hammers don’t ham?
If the plural of tooth is teeth, why isn’t the plural of booth beeth?
One goose, two geese. So one moose, two meese?
If you have a pile of odds and ends and get rid of all but one of them, what is it called?
If teachers taught, why didn’t preachers praught?
If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?
Sometimes English speakers should be committed to an asylum for the verbally insane.
In what language do people recite at a play and play at a recital?
Ship by truck and send cargo by ship?
Have noses that run and feet that smell?
How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites?
Have you noticed that we talk about certain things only when they are absent?
Have you ever seen a horseful carriage or a strapful gown?
Or met an sung hero who has experienced requited love?
Have you met someone who was combobulated, gruntled, ruly or peccable?
Where are those people who are spring chickens or who would actually hurt a fly?
The lunacy of a language in which your house can burn up as it burns down.
Fill in a form by filling it out, while an alarm goes off by going on.”
English is the most widely spoken language in the world.
No language in history has dominated quite like it. English has adapted many different words to suit itself. Could this be why English is one of the hardest languages to learn?
The Guardian newspaper explains— https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jul/27/english-language-global-dominance
English is the most widely spoken language in the world.
Thoughts Become Words 