Speak, but do not play

Given the avowed mission of Major FUN, I took it upon myself to contemplate the strategic implications of launching a vast, or at least half-vast, keynote speaker initiative. Tactically speaking, the next logical step was a visit to Google for a brief reconnoiter, or something of that reality-checking ilk. Searching for Speakers Bureaus, I almost immediately clicked my way to the relatively local Nationwide Speakers Bureau. This was a fortuitous stumbling-upon, as the speakers bureaued within were clearly some of the best and mightiest.

Looking for an appropriate category, I pointed my way to Humor, wherein I found not only such luminaries as Dennis Miller, the Groundlings and Second City, but even a personal luminary of mine, friend, protege, Emperor of Playfair, Matt Weinstein.

A feature of the website is an online, Real One video for each speaker. I watched Matt's, and my conceptual jaw dropped in admiration and personal abashment. So polished, so professional was his video, so lively and engaging his performance, so motivating and audience-participatory, that I immediately concluded that it would take me years and thousands upon thousands of actual dollars to prepare anything remotely as enticing.

I wrote Matt to inform him of my awe. Which led to a phone conversation.Which led me to a revelation which continues to startle me to this moment.

It turns out that Matt's amazing video is not bringing him much work. It further turns out that he's producing a new one to replace it. So polished, so professional, so light-heartedly enlightening a video, and yet, so far, not much work. So I ask: Why? So he explains. You know those parts of his video that are my favorite? The parts where we see glimpses of the audience at play, engaged with each other, sharing laughter, surprise, delight? The parts that ring most loudly the bell of fun? Well, it turns out that it's those very parts that his potential clients see as threatening, over-the-top, too audience involving.

Matt explained that the kind of speakers that are succeeding in this difficult marketplace are the kind that are the most entertaining and informative - meaning, the least participative. People want speakers to be shows, entertainments, not facilitations. People want actors, not interactors.

As Major FUN, I must pick my battles with great care. Apparently, this one is already lost. I think the casualty rate is a lot higher than people are ready to admit.