Description

Paul Beavis – Illustrator

Ideal for 8-12 year olds

Review

One of several 5-star reviews for Tom’s book reads:

Rotorua New Zealand, is Tom E. Moffatt’s hometown and he is serious about writing jokes. He is a children’s author and although this book is for kids, the same guidelines can apply for adults.

This casual form of joke-telling is the focus of this book. He has written hundreds of original jokes and people know this. When a joke-telling situation arises, all eyes invariably turn to him.

But it was not like that in the beginning. He enjoyed hearing jokes so much that he started to collect them, writing them down in a large notebook. It wasn’t until he was travelling the world, meeting different people every day and finding endless opportunities to practise his jokes, so that he began to develop his skills and confidence.

Joke-telling is a skill mastered with practice. If you read through the tips in this book, memorise some of the jokes. It is an ongoing process of learning, revision of your repertoire. Moffat started collecting jokes that relied more on actions and universal truths than on language play, and before long he had the perfect collection for a global, non-native audience.

Becoming an expert joke-teller is more than just a joke book. It’s an instruction manual that also provides you with 101 jokes to hone your skills. Each section contains basic tips and information, followed by practice jokes and exercises, and ending with a reflection. The jokes are numbered from 1 to 101, so you can jot down the number, rather than the whole thing.

As with regular joke books, you can dip in and out as you please, sharing funny jokes when you discover them. However, the instructional tips and exercises build on each other, so you will get the most from this book if you read it from start to finish. This is not a school assignment, so you don’t need to complete every single exercise if you don’t want to. But practice makes perfect, so the more you use this book to help you practise, the closer you will get to becoming an expert joke-teller.

All the jokes in this book are ‘clean’ and hopefully do not offend any people, animals or the inanimate. General rules for adults also apply to kids.

Here are the elements you will learn from the book:
Exercise 1 Know Your Audience
Exercise 2 The Delivery
Here are some of the elements to focus on when telling a joke:
Exercise 3 Right Time, Right Place
Exercise 4 Joke-telling Sessions
Exercise 5 Go with the Flow
Exercise 6 Build Your Repertoire
Exercise 7 Longer Jokes
Exercise 8 The Beginning

Tom is continuously expanding experience and knowledge There is also a short story collection of him you can enjoy.

Have a look at the eBook edition using the ‘look inside’ feature.

Meet Kiwi author Tom E. Moffatt

Tom E. Moffatt writes stories and jokes to make himself laugh-out-loud. When other people find them funny he considers it a double-bonus.

He is an award-winning author, a keen story teller and edutainer, having spent 12 years teaching in primary schools around the world, and loves visiting schools and making children laugh.

Find out more about Tom and how to contact him on his author page.