Let It Go, Let It Go, Let It Go By Leigh Anne Jasheway NABBW Boomer Humor Expert Of all the fairy tales women have grow up with, perhaps the Norman Rockwell/Martha Stewart holiday story causes us the most stress. No matter how hard we work to shop, bake, decorate, and mediate (or is that medicate?), there is no way our family and friends can ever measure up to the myth. If only we could wave a magic wand and let go of some of our unreasonable expectations. A wand I don’t have, but I do have some tips for lightening up with laughter and making the holidays more jolly and less stressful: Lower... Read More

Why Isn’t He Laughing? By Leigh Anne Jasheway, NABBW \’s Boomer Humor Expert It wouldn’t surprise you would it, if I said that when it comes to what makes us laugh, women and men are different? Good, because throwing my readers into a state of shock isn’t part of the plan. I’ve been performing comedy and teaching comedy classes for almost seventeen years now (I started in-utero), and I know both from the research I consume like I used to consume chocolate and from my personal experience that there really is a difference in the things each gender finds funny. My first stand-up performance... Read More

Someone once said that comedians wake up hoping something will go wrong so they will have something to write about. As someone who has written and performed comedy for sixteen years, I can truthfully say that if weren’t for my klutziness and bad luck, my career would have ended years ago. And my life would surely not have been as much fun. When writing a joke, there are two parts – the set-up (the material that gives the information and context) and the punch line (the funny part). If you think about it geometrically (I know you want to), it looks like this: ⁄ _______⁄ punch line set-up Why,... Read More

When it comes to stress, we women are funny. Studies have found that we DO indeed have more stress than men (we already knew that, thank you) and that we’re more aware of its effect on our lives. We’re also more likely than the guys to do something positive to get our stress under control. The funny part is that despite the fact that we’re not above admitting we’re stressed out and trying occasionally to meditate or de-clutter or eat enough chocolate to make us forget what it was that was causing us to freak out in the first place, we’re also just as likely to say... Read More

Its tough not be over-stressed these days. But have you ever thought about the possibility that you might actually like being stressed out? That in fact, you might get the same kind of giddy high from having too much to do that you get when you fall IN LOVE? Dr. Kathleen Hall, author of Alter Your Life: Overbooked? Overworked? Overwhelmed?, suggests that living an overly-busy life can create a natural high that affects the pleasure centers of the brain. But the negative consequences – including anxiety, sadness, insomnia, memory loss, confusion, borderline depression, and a whole host of physical... Read More