Transcriber: Nga Nguyen Thuy Reviewer: Mujtaba Abdelwhab
Tonight, I want to share three stories on the power of laughter,
how it changed my life, how can change your life and how it can change the world.
Some people will try and convince you that laughter is the best medicine.
Those same people have never had diarrhea.
Trust me, I know I had to learn the lesson the hard way three times.
And it's OK to laugh at a crappy joke.
Because laughter gets us through life,
it doesn't heal everything that life throws at us,
but it allows us to get through.
And again tonight, I want to show you three stories because when we laugh,
we connect and when we connect,
our hearts are open and when our hearts are open, the world is a better place.
Research shows that kids laugh up to 300 times every single day.
Adults. Seventeen.
Do we not laugh because we’re so stressed?
I was so stressed, so we don't have time to laugh.
But it's because of laughter that I'm here tonight
because of laughter that have a wonderful family.
And it's because of laughter every day
I can help professional sports teams work happy.
Now you might think what does the skinny John Goodman?
I know about laughter,
and the rest of you are wondering,
when the hell did Prince Harry let himself go?
But I'm here to show you my story. So here we go.
Ever since grade nine, I wanted to be this guy.
I was doing a five minute stand up comedy set at a bar in Vancouver,
British Columbia, when the door opened up and in walked,
Robin Williams couldn't believe it.
He came in, sat down and ordered a beer, and he started to laugh at my jokes.
My head was raised and I didn’t know what to do,
but I wanted to make him laugh when I got off stage. So here’s what he did.
I went up and had a conversation and pretended I had no idea who he was,
and I worked. I found out that he was from San Francisco.
He was in Vancouver filming a movie night at the museum.
I was like, Man, that is really cool, right?
Are you the camera guy or do you hold the big microphone
and catering?
He looked at me like, Why the hell is John given? Have no idea who I am?
Through the content of the conversation, and I finally let him in,
I said, you know what, dude, I totally know who you are.
I'm a big fan because of you that I got into stand up comedy.
And then he told me these words I’ll never forget.
He said, Greg, keep doing what you're doing.
You're really funny, and you'll never realize
the difference you make in someone's life by making them laugh.
Robyn went up close the show with a two and a half hour set.
The bar was now packed and after the show, I got a picture with him, he left
and it was absolutely amazing.
But when we laugh, we connect with each other.
Several years later, I was at our company's biggest event of the year,
the annual sales award banquet and the Bellagio Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada.
I was sitting at the back of the room waiting for the program to begin.
And it was a big deal. The number one salesperson every year got
a brand new Porsche. Seven minutes in to the three hour event.
The emcee said something so horrible that he got fired right on stage.
Oh, they cut the microphone, the house lights came on.
The band started to play in. The room got really awkward.
It's kind of like right now.
Several minutes later, over the P.A. , a voice boomed, said,
Ladies and gentlemen, I am so sorry for what just happened,
one to let you know that we will be restarting
the program in its entirety in 15 minutes.
And by the way, if anyone knows where Greg Kettner is, we need to talk to him.
I was like, who was out with last night and how much should I have to drink?
Why were they calling me so we went backstage, I said, Hey, I'm Greg Kettner,
how can I help? And they said we saw what happened to that guy and I said, Yeah,
I can't do any worse than him.
They said we needed to go do 15 minutes so we can restart the program,
I said sure, it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Robin Williams thinks I’m funny, so why not?
So I remember standing there.
They're watching me up on the microphone. I can't remember my name or my jokes.
And the guy went out and introduced me, said, Lucky for us,
we're in Vegas and one of our own is a very, very, very funny comedian.
I look behind me play, who's for funnies? And he introduced me.
So I stumbled through the curtain onto this massive stage in front of 4000
people, blinding lights through a standing ovation. It was awesome.
It felt like I just won the Stanley Cup.
I got through my 15 minutes and at the end, laughter,
it opened people's hearts, right, they accepted me and as one of their own.
That year I didn't make Presidents Club,
which was a $10000 cruise for you and a guest through Turkey, Italy and Greece.
And I missed the boat. I didn't have the numbers if I was up there,
and I apologized and they said, Hey, I didn't hit numbers.
I can't go on the boat, but I'm kind of helping out the company right now.
Can I get on the boat?
And a gentleman stood in the front row,
came and shook my hand, he goes, Kid,
you're on the boat, I go. This guy says, I'm on the boat. Who are you?
It's like, Oh, I'm the president of ASCAP. I was like, OK, we're we're good.
So again, laughter can access. LAUGHTER opens people’s hearts.
A couple of years later, I was doing a show at a hotel pub in Vancouver.
Five minutes into the set.
A father and son walked in, sat in the front row,
put their feet up on the stage, stared at their beers, crossed their arms.
They weren’t having fun.
Obviously, they had never seen me do Stand-Up Comedy before,
but I made it my mission that night. I wanted to get these two guys to laugh.
So the show went on, they started to laugh a little bit more than
I talked about how I need to lose weight
because I used to weigh eight pounds,six ounces.
It's more of a math joke.
But finally, I had them
they were laughing and having a good time,
and afterwards I went and talked to them. I said, Hey,
have you been to the show before? They said
No, we walked by it for eight weeks straight. We’re still in the hospital.
My wife was diagnosed with breast cancer.
And every day we go across the street
and we hang out with her,
we go to a doctor's appointment.
When we're done with the day, we're so tired, we eat,
we fall into bed and I said, I'm so sorry. How's mom doing?
And the kid?
The kid looked at me and said mom died.
So there was the two strangers. Hugging them and after some tears.
The dad said to me and I realized.
Well, Robin Williams said.
He said, Greg, thank you for making us laugh.
It’s the first time we’ve felt almost normal.
And he which.
So take it for me, Prince Harry.
LAUGHTER is good medicine,
because when we laugh, we connect with each other.
And when we connect, we open our hearts and we open our minds.
And when our hearts and our minds are open . The world is a better place.
So I challenge all of us here tonight. Go out. Laugh.
Give someone the opportunity to laugh.
Let's go out b kids and we together can change our world. One laugh at a time.
I'm Greg Kettner. Thank you. Good night.