Don’t Walk On By The Queen of Twitter

Don’t Walk On By The Queen of Twitter

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.

‘Laugh Long and Prosper’ is shelf help with a smile, stressbusters with a smirk, and information with a wink wink. You get the point.

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.

‘Laugh Long and Prosper’ is shelf help with a smile, stressbusters with a smirk, and information with a wink wink. You get the point.

Don’t Walk On By The Queen of Twitter 

You know who’s funny? Dionne Warwick. So much so that she has been nicknamed the Queen of Twitter because of her witty comments. 

Yes 82-year-old Dionne Warwick. The woman who signed her first recording contract in 1962 and sold over 100 million copies worldwide since then.
The artist who won a Grammy lifetime achievement award in 2019.
THAT Dionne Warwick. 

Dionne Warwick has once again re-invented herself and captured a younger a generation with her funny comments on Twitter. 

Tweets like; 

I just heard about Leonardo DiCaprio’s 25-year rule. His loss. You don’t know what you’re missing

Who is Olivia Rodrigo yelling at on Good4U? I would like to know who we are angry with. 

and I will be dating Pete Davidson next. 

She obviously loves to tweet about celebrities.

When she tweeted to Chance the Rapper Hi @ChancetheRapper. If you are very obviously a rapper, why did you put in your stage name? I cannot stop thinking about this?

And then Chance the Rapper tweeted back;
Sorry, I’m still freaking out that you know who I am.

Then Dionne tweeted back to Chance;
Of course, I know you. You are THE rapper. Let’s rap together. I’ll message you. 

And then she tweeted;
I am now Dionne the Singer. 

No one is safe from Ms. Warwick. Not even The Weeknd.
She once tweeted; 

The Weekend is next. Why? It’s not even spelled correctly.

To which The Weeknd responded;
I just got roasted by Dionne Warwick and I feel honored.  You made my day! 

Now people have accused Dionne of not doing her own tweets. She told her fans that her niece showed her how Twitter worked in 2012. She said that ever since then, she said she’s has been at the helm of her own tweets. Who’s cares anyway? It’s Twitter.

On a sadder note, Ms. Warwick recently tweeted about the loss of good friend and composer extraordinaire Burt Bacharach. 

Bacharach wrote those powerhouse songs like Say a Little Prayer, Walk on By and Do You Know the Way to San Jose that catapulted Warwick’s early career.  

Ms. Warwick tweeted;
Burt’s transition is like losing a family member. These words I’ve been asked to write are being written with sadness over the loss of my Dear Friend and my Musical Partner. On the lighter side we laughed a lot and had our run ins, but always found a way to let each other know our family, like roots, were the most important part of our relationship. My heartfelt condolences go out to his family, letting them know he is now peacefully resting and I too will miss him.

On a personal note, I got an opportunity to work with Ms. Warwick twice in my career.

Many moons ago, I was her opening act in our nicknamed -40 Below Tour during the depths of winter across Calgary, Edmonton, Saskatoon, Regina and Winnipeg.

Then many years later, I got on opportunity to work with her again at Roy Thompson Hall. She loves to laugh. You can see us in the picture above yukking it up.
OBVIOUSLY, I said something hilarious.

But my favorite story about Miss Warwick is when Snoop Dogg says he got called out by her in the 90’s for his misogynistic lyrics. 

You check out the story in the CNN film entitled; Dionne Warwick, don’t make me over.

Snoop says Ms. Warwick held an intervention for him and his peers- including Tupac.
She told the group to meet at her house one morning at 7 am.
Snoop says he was so afraid, he turned up in the driveway at 652.

Snoop said, “We were kind of like scared and shook up. We’re powerful right now, but she’s been powerful forever.”

Dionne told the group that if she didn’t care about them, she wouldn’t have invited them to her house. Then she shamed them about their misogynistic lyrics. 

She said, “You guys are all going to grow up. You’re going to have families. You’re going to have children. You’re going to have little girls and one day, that little girl is going to look at you and say, ‘Daddy did you really say that?’  And what are you going to say?”

From that point, Snoop said it changed the trajectory of his writing. He said he chose to write records of joy. “Uplifting everybody and nobody dying and everybody living.”

You may not agree with some of Dionne Warwick’s tweets, you may not agree with some of her politics but when an artist chooses to re-invent themselves and they use comedy to do it…well, I for one, can’t just ‘walk on by’ without taking a look or a listen.

Until next time folks, Laugh Long and Prosper!

Judy-Croon-laugh-long-pro$per-sig-logo

Feel free to take a listen!

If you would like to catch up on any of my other Laugh Long and Prosper episodes, voted one of the best podcasts of 2021 in Canada by CTV, check me out.

Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud

Wayne Gretsky – Hockey and Humour

stand-up-in-10-steps-by-judy-croon-canadas-keynote-humorist

Today’s blog is sponsored by: TROOL Social knows that to be visible online you have to be fully committed, congruent in who you are and what you do.
YOU MUST ADOPT THE RIGHT MINDSET- Steer your ship to the SS Optimization & TROOL Social To get you Sailing On Course
Check out www.TroolSocial.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Comedy Fundraising Success!

A Comedy Fundraising Success!

A Comedy Fundraising Success!

This month’s newsletter is sponsored by: Linda McEwan at Sotheby’s International Realty
Canada. The number one most trusted brand in residential real estate.
Message Linda

I take laughing for granted.

Recently, I hosted a comedy fundraiser for City Street Outreach – a local charity that is near and
dear to my heart. I was joined by some truly amazing friends who donated their time and
efforts to the cause. I could not have done this show without them. I will forever be grateful.
Linda McEwan is one of these good friends.

She occasionally sponsors my podcasts and newsletters but she also sponsored the event.
My other good friends; Cathy Boyd, Martha Chaves and Evan Carter donated their comedic
skills that evening. We raised funds to help Toronto’s homeless and most vulnerable.
The evening was a roaring success.

Cathy was one of my stand-up comedy students at Second City a few years back.
She went on to perform on the first season of Canada’s Got Talent.

Martha Chaves is a regular on CBC Radio. She’s a veteran on the club circuit in the US, Canada
and Latin America as she speaks English, Spanish, French and Italian.

Evan Carter (also a regular on CBC Radio) has been the opening act for many stars including; the
Temptations, Gladys Knight and Dionne Warwick.Currently, he is the opening act for a cross country Motown tour.

By the way, I would also like to thank another very good friend of mine, the very talented Elaine
Lindsay from TROOL Social who put together our virtual poster. It helped us tremendously to
get the word out. Elaine is the magic behind this website and anything that I do online. I would
be lost without her!

Coincidently- Linda, Cathy, Evan, Martha and Elaine all have a quality about them that I
notice in many of my friends and family members – they love to laugh.
They love to make others laugh.
I’ll tell you something about my family.
If my nieces or nephews are dating someone – the first thing that my sisters and I say to each
other is, “Oh boy, are they funny? Please let them be funny!”
By the way, in my family, there are a couple of levels of ‘funny’ that you have to pass.

Level one – If someone can laugh at a joke or at themselves – great. This means that they’ve got
a sense of humour.

Level two– if they can TAG a joke… if they can make the joke even funnier or add another joke
then they are on their way to full club membership.

The third and final level -can they play charades?
If they can play full-contact charades in our household (and be okay with maybe losing an eye),
well then start tuning up those wedding bells!

Our family can overlook other bad characteristics or personality flaws, i.e., mass murderer,
embezzler or serial cheater. In our family, a good sense of self-deprecating humour is the true
litmus test.

My two younger sisters are very funny people. If they weren’t so shy on stage, they could both
easily do stand-up comedy. They love to make people around them laugh. They, themselves
love to laugh.

Where did we get our sense of humour?
From my parents, I think.
Both my parents were very funny people. However, they grew up in some pretty unfunny
times.

My dad was born in the Netherlands. He grew up during the war. He, along with his two sisters
and his parents spent many nights underneath the basement steps with kitchen pots over their
heads as the Nazis bombed their neighborhood. My father said that my grandparents used to
tell the kids funny jokes and stories to try and distract them from the terrible war that was
going on outside their front door. At a young age, my father learned how to use humour as a
coping mechanism.

My mother, meanwhile, grew up in Guyana, South America where there was and still is a lot of
poverty.
I always remember my mother saying that her mother never turned anybody away who came
to the door asking for food- even if she only had a cup of rice to give them.

My mother said that despite the poverty, her parents would always do things with the kids that
didn’t cost a lot of money but created a lot of fun and laughter. This included; having the
neighborhood kids over, playing games or putting on plays or make-believe circuses, just to
name to few fun examples.

My mother grew up to be a very funny person. She was the quintessential ring leader.
It’s no wonder that my sisters and I ended up being surrounded by funny people our entire
lives.

Which brings me back to the fundraiser for City Street Outreach.
My compassionate, talented and very funny friends, Linda, Cathy, Martha and Evan made the
evening so special. Again, I can’t thank them enough.
The audience was fantastic. They laughed from beginning to end.

I want to thank each and every one of them personally for buying a ticket and spending the
evening with us. I would like to thank friends and family who bought a ticket online, even
though they couldn’t make the event but still wanted to contribute to the organization.
After our ninety-minute fundraising show, Linda McEwan came up to me and said,
“Everyone that I talked to said that they had a GREAT time. Some of them said that they hadn’t
laughed in a long time and the evening was so cathartic for them because they really needed to
laugh.”

That’s when it dawned on me.
Not everyone laughs every day. Not everyone has someone who makes their world funnier and
that’s really sad because laughter is so cathartic.

Laughter creates happy chemistry in our bodies. Our immune, respiratory and circulatory
systems all reap the rewards. Researchers at the University of Maryland found that when
participants laughed over and over during a funny experiment, their circulation improved by 22
percent.

Laughter also increases our aerobic activity. While laughing, we take in more oxygen to our
body and brain. Afterwards, we feel mentally and physically invigorated.

Professor Duncan Geddes, a consultant in respiratory medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital
in London, says that laughter stimulates the body’s defense mechanism, decreases pain and
improves recovery times. Laughter releases chemicals in our brain cells called endorphins.
Endorphins are natural pain killers.

Geddes observed that laughter helps fight diseases like allergies, arthritis, asthma, backache,
bronchitis, depression, diabetes, fibromyalgia, heart disease, hypertension and migraines.
Research at Oxford University also showed that laughter in participants improved tolerance to
pain and lowered blood pressure.

Obviously, one can see the therapeutic benefits of humour.
Don’t get me wrong, there are many people in this world who have really big burdens on
their shoulders that make it hard just to get out of bed every day- much less crack a smile.

I feel lucky. I’m blessed to have the circumstances and thus, luxury to laugh every day.
I’m also blessed and lucky to have friends like Linda, Evan, Martha, Cathy and Elaine who use
their humour and love of laughter to give back.

Again, thank you to my funny, talented and very generous and good friends.

Until next time folks, Laugh Long and Prosper!

Judy-Croon-laugh-long-pro$per-sig-logo

Feel free to take a listen!

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast (voted one of the best
podcasts of 2021 I in Canada by CTV) on 
Spotify or Soundcloud.

‘Laugh Long and Prosper’ is shelf help with a smile, stressbusters with a smirk, and information with a wink wink. You get the point.

Wayne Gretsky – Hockey and Humour

stand-up-in-10-steps-by-judy-croon-canadas-keynote-humorist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think

Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.

I read a book recently that made me feel just a little bit more peaceful or mindful, shall we say. 

The book is called Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think, by Peter H. Diamandis. 

In a nutshell, this book gave me hope that the world is not going to hell in a hand basket.

In fact, quite the opposite is happening. 

Unfortunately, fear sells. 

I blame a lot of this one of my old radio occupations – the news. 

We tend to live in a world where a lot of bad news is reported every day.  

Yes, bad things are happening all the time and it’s sad, but is there an ulterior motive behind some of those headlines? Let’s face it, bad news sells. There is a reason why Fox made two billion dollars last year. 

As Bill Gates once said, “No one wants to hear small incremental good news.” 

However, there IS small, incremental good news happening every day. Lots of good people are continuously doing good things on a local and international level. 

Factfulness and Humankind 

Two of my favourite books are Factfulness:Ten Reasons Why We’re Wrong About the World and Why Things Are Better Than You Think  and Humankind: A Hopeful History. They share the same message: the world is not going to end, just yet.  Abundance adds to this message by putting more specifics behind the dashboard. 

Let me share some of this good news with you. 

Basically, there are all sorts of really great innovations and solutions currently in the works for now and for our future. These innovations are in some fascinating fields like biotechnology, nanotechnology (that’s technology on a really, really small scale that will allow us to create materials that haven’t even been invented yet), 3D printing, solar power and global connectivity. Collectively, this is all shining a bit fat spotlight on a positive, prosperous and abundant future. 

For example, robots and artificial intelligence will help us improve healthcare while nanotechnology and digital manufacturing will help us reduce waste while preserving our precious natural resources. 

Take the year 2020… please! 

One of the interesting things about 2020 is that there were three billion people online. That means there were A LOT of people cranking out ideas, solutions or maybe even writing jokes.

So many people are developing and sharing ideas towards making our planet a better place. 

As Diamandis says, “Technology is a resource-liberating mechanism. It can make the once scarce the now abundant.”

The point is that the more educated and enlightened we are, the better chance we have of being the superheroes of our own planet.  But here’s where the hard work begins for all of us: we have to give up some of our TV time. 

Diamandis states, “If we were to forgo our television addiction for just one year, the world would have over a trillion hours of cognitive surplus to commit to share projects.”

He says, “I’ve got a hunk of gold and you have a watch. If we trade, then I have a watch and you have a hunk of gold. But if you have an idea and I have an idea, and we exchange them, then we both have two ideas. It’s nonzero.”

The computers will figure it out. 

By the way, if we can’t come up with these lifesaving ideas on our own, the computers probably will.  In the next 15 years, computer processors are set to surpass the human brain’s calculation capacity. Just think, you can sit back and watch re-runs of Broadchurch while your robot, Fido, figures it out and, as technology gets cheaper, so will Fido. 

There is hope!

Whether we figure it out or Fido figures it out -there is hope. We have ideas and ideas lead to solutions. 

As the author says, “In today’s hyperlinked world, solving problems anywhere, solves problems everywhere.”

Abundance: The Future is Better Than You Think, by Peter H. Diamandis.

I give this book two human thumbs way up! I highly recommend this good read. The future does look bright. 

Now turn that light off if you’re not using it. 

If you like to catch on this particular podcast on any of my other Laugh Long and Prosper episodes, voted by CTV as one of the best podcasts of 2021 in Canada, check me out!  Judy Croon On Soundcloud and /or Spotify , and /or Amazon and/or FM PLAYER 

Until next time, Laugh Long and Prosper!

Judy-Croon-laugh-long-pro$per-sig-logo

stand-up-in-10-steps-by-judy-croon-canadas-keynote-humorist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sara Blakely – Spanx for the Laughs

Sara Blakely – Spanx for the Laughs

Don’t be shy. You can check out my Laugh Long and Prosper podcast on Spotify or Soundcloud.

 It was voted one of the top podcasts of 2021 by CTV. You can listen to this episode on the podcast too!

Did you know that the founder of Spanx, Sara Blakely, actually did stand-up comedy for two years when she was just starting out?

Even now, this incredibly successful American business woman and philanthropist believes that stand-up comedy is so important for customer relations that she makes all of her employees take a stand-up class!

She also encourages her employees to take debating and speaking classes. 

Blakely says that nothing helps you think faster on your stocking-less feet than stand-up comedy.

I agree! Once you’ve gone a couple rounds with hecklers in the peanut gallery at the comedy clubs, you can probably sell anything.

Remember when salespeople used to sell encyclopedias door -to -door? Maybe I’m dating myself with this reference. Hello, is this on??

But get this, Sara Blakely actually sold fax machines door-to-door!

How challenging would that be but that’ exactly how this young Floridian entrepreneur started out in her twenties. 

In fact, in the late 1990’s, Blakely did so well selling fax machines that by the age of 25, she graduated to the position of national sales trainer.

Blakely said she hated wearing pantyhose as she was walking all day in Florida’s hot climate.

She also hated the appearance of a seamed foot while wearing open- toed shoes. (You mean that’s not a style? I better stop doing that.) But she did like the way the control top eliminated panty lines and held all the junk in. So, once when she was invited to a private party, she cut the feet out of her pantyhose when she was getting ready. The pantyhose initially rolled up but, through trial and error with a lot of pantyhose, she developed a prototype that she could wear under her slacks. Tada!  The rest is history.

Those first ‘footless’ pantyhose eventually walked Blakely into Time Magazine’s Top 100 Most Influential People of 2012’. In 2014, she was listed as one the top 100 most influential women in the world by Forbes magazine. 

Blakley’s creation Spanx – ‘America’s intimate apparel company with pants and leggings’-was recently valued at 1.2 billion dollars after being purchased by the investment group Blackstone. Blackstone acquired a major stake while retaining Blakely as Executive Chairwoman.

In turn, Blakely celebrated the milestone by giving each of her 750 employees (mostly women) $10,000 dollars cash and two first class plane tickets to any destination in the world.

Now that is a true Boss Lady!

Not only is Blakely funny, brilliant and determined, but she has a heart of gold.

Blakely has always believed in empowering women.

In 2006, she launched The Sara Blakely Foundation to help women through education and entrepreneurial training. She got a little bit of assistance from her mentor Richard Branson. Blakely had once appeared on Branson’s reality show, The Rebel Billionaire. Branson wrote Blakely a cheque for $750,000 to start the foundation.  How much do you love these two entrepreneurs?

The foundation has also funded all sorts of scholarships for young women around the globe. Blakely also donated 1 million dollars to Oprah Winfrey’s Leadership Academy for Girls in Africa.

In 2013, Blakely was the first female billionaire to join Bill Gates and Warren Buffet’s The Giving Pledge, a group that billionaires commit to, to give away half of their wealth to charity.

And that’s not all. Remember those iconic leather pants that Olivia Newton-John’s character, Sandy, wore at the end of Grease with John Travolta?

Guess who bought them at an auction for over $162,000? Sara Blakely!

The money went towards Olivia Newton-John’s cancer treatment centre in Melbourne Australia.

In appreciation, Newton-John later sang at Blakely’s wedding.

Recently, during the height of the pandemic,  Blakely donated 5 million dollars to support female – run small businesses particularly hard hit by COVID.

 Sara Blakely: funny, generous, a visionary and an apparel powerhouse. To think it all started off with a little bit of stand-up comedy!

Until next time folks, laugh long and prosper!

Judy-Croon-laugh-long-pro$per-sig-logo

stand-up-in-10-steps-by-judy-croon-canadas-keynote-humorist

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Playing to the Back of the Room

Playing to the Back of the Room

As comedians, we sometimes play to the ‘back of the room’. You’re on the road with two other comedians and you’ve heard each other’s sets three or four times already, so you start yelling out ‘requests’ from the back of the room during a late Saturday night show. Obviously, nothing to throw your friend off, but maybe a request or tag (additional joke) to an already established bit.  Even though comedians usually know their material inside out, it’s kind of fun to hear a fellow comedian laugh or say something out loud about one of your punchlines. It’s considered a compliment coming from one of your colleagues whose writing you respect.

Comedians feed off of good spontaneity vs. bad spontaneity (i.e. a heckler who needs to be thrown out).  A little spontaneity every now and then is good for the soul. That’s why I became intrigued when I heard this story about Martin Luther King Jr.

Apparently, Dr. King had a favorite opening act on his speaking tours- the renowned gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson. Mahalia could inspire a crowd like no one else before she brought Dr. King on stage. While she performed, Dr. King would sometimes shout out a request for a song that he knew Mahalia would sing. Likewise, Mahalia felt equally as comfortable calling out a word or phrase that would inspire Dr. King to talk about a particular topic. Even though they both knew their material, there was that extra boost of inspiration to play to ‘the back of the room’.

One such moment happened on August 28, 1963 at the historic march on Washington.

Dr. King was supposed to give a speech about freedom, in front of an audience of 250,000 people on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. He had worked on it all night.

He had his notes on the podium. However, during one of his pauses, his ‘opening act’ felt comfortable enough to prompt her friend to talk about a theme (or, as comics say, a bit) she knew that she had heard him talk about before. Mahalia whispered, “Tell them about the dream, Martin.”

As old film footage shows, Dr. King put his prepared notes aside and then delivered one of the most iconic speeches of all time. Of course, Dr. King was prepared, but perhaps a little message from a respected colleague gave him the challenge and inspiration to be spontaneous and to play to the back of the room. As a result, Dr. King delivered his famous words that ultimately helped bring to action the Civil Rights Movement.

“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.”

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed — we hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal.”

“I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave-owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.”

Quotes taken from Dr. King’s I Have A Dream speech.

Until next time folks, take care of each other, love,

judy-sig-laugh-long-prosper

 

 

February Newsletter: Keynotes, Comedy and Fundraisers!

‘The quieter you become, the more you can hear.’ Baba Ram Dass

 


 

RELIEVING STRESS WITH HUMOUR/ TAMING OFFICE HECKLERS

It was wonderful sharing my keynotes and comedy with many meaningful groups recently including:

 

The United Way York Region 
Port Hope and District Chamber of Commerce 

 

The Food Industry Credit Bureau

 

 

I also spoke at the beautiful Sanderson Centre in Brantford. I know my late, great friend, Gord Paynter, a proud citizen of Brantford  was w/ me in spirit. 

 

 

Ever have one of those days? This goat is thinking, ‘ Damn, I wore the wrong shoes for this.’

 

 


Second City

 

 

 

 

I have two fantastic groups of students this season at Second City. Their graduation performances will take place February 15th and February 21st at Absolute Comedy Club in Toronto. It’s open to the public so come on down. Drop me a line if you would like some more info. 

 

Feb 21st -The Best Gala

 

 

I’m honoured to be hosting the Best Gala Feb 21st at the Ajax Convention Centre for The Charles H. Best Diabetes Centre.
For more information please check out my interview with Board Chair Serge Babin.

 

 

Feb 26th- Project Beam On Gala

 

Feb 26th, I will taking part in an amazing fundraiser to help people with cancer. It’s called the Project Beam On Gala.
For more information please check out my interview with organizer Rose A Weinberg.

 

‘Dogs do speak… but only to those who know how to listen.’ Orhan Pamuk

 

 

As I mention in my keynote, ‘Relieving Stress with Humour’, animals are an amazing way to relieve stress.  I look forward to hosting a wonderful event Mar 7th 2015 for Speaking of Dogs who says, “Our main goal is to end cruelty, abandonment, mistreatment, and homelessness of man’s best friend.’

 


 

THE BOOK

‘From the Stage to the Page – Life Lessons From Four Funny Ladies’  is an excellent source for fun and practical stress busting tips for work and at home.
Don’t just take my word for it. Look what the following people have to say.

 

"From the Stage to the Page"

 

“We all need to love, laugh, and be happy…this book shows you how to make a life filled with glee.”
Mark Victor Hansen Co-creator, Chicken Soup for the Soul series and The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth

 

“Just what the doctor ordered, a chance to laugh, and learn how to handle stress. An enjoyable read that will delight and entertain you.”
Robert G. Allan, Author of 5 NY Times Bestsellers, including The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth

 

“Sure comedy can be dark, angry and bitter. But it can also be positive, insightful and uplifting. These ladies prove that, over and over and over again. “
Brent Butt (Comedian/Creator/ Executive Producer, Corner Gas, Hiccups)

 

 

Click here to order your copy.

 

Until next month folks- laugh long and prosper folks and remember, you can reach me anytime at www.JudyCroon.com . You can also hear me everyday at 455pm EST on www.ltdradio.com  
 
 

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