The year was 1991. Like now, America was mired in a recession. I was airborne for New York to tape some more shows at Comedy Central and ply my stand-up act, but clubs around the country were closing faster than a Bruce Lee spin move. My mother would urge me to get “back up,” meaning a regular job or a wealthy sugar mama. I would assure her that I still had my newspaper route from when I was 12 years old.

Sitting next to me on the flight was the head of a collections agency. He looked like a man tied to a railroad track. I listened to his tales of woe and frustration over the pile of outstanding accounts confronting him. I asked him if he would show me a copy of the letter his company sends out for collections. It was typically heavy-handed in substance. I suggested he try sending letters with funny relevant quotes or cartoons. He thought I was crazy, but we had plenty of flight time left so we brainstormed a few ideas. I thought of one cartoon with a caption that said, “You’re twelve months past due. This means we’ve carried you three months longer than your mother did.” As we parted company I doubted he would use any of the ideas, but three months later I received a surprise call from him, and he was excited. He used some of the quotes and cartoons. Amazingly, his collections increased by 15%! Yes, there is life after debt.

This was the humble genesis of my career as a professional speaker, corporate trainer, and “edutainer.” My next client was a paying one. It was a local department store that always suffered downtime and loss of revenue from changing company policies and guidelines. When I discovered that one of the clerks was an aspiring singer, we formed a “compliance choir,” which sang new guidelines over the store’s sound system just prior to opening the store in the morning. We also recorded it on audiotapes so employees could listen to it on their way to and from work. The tune was catchy, and the employees caught the message as well–fewer mistakes were made, and the contagious enthusiasm from hearing the choir spilled over to the customers, creating more sales.

Much resistance can show up when implementing new company guidelines and policies, blocking retention of information. My next client hired me to announce a company’s new safety regulations as some of the celebrity characters that I do. This not only entertained and disarmed the disgruntled staff, but it proved to be effective in helping employees retain new information because they connected it to what my characters (Jack Nicholson, Arnold Schwarzenegger, George Burns, et al) said about it.

I can’t say that I miss the drunks, hecklers, and flying beer bottles of the comedy clubs of yesteryear. The goal was always to get my audience laughing; now, it’s to get my clients succeeding AND laughing, all the way to the bank.