When is a good day, time or place to tell a joke?

Edinburgh Festival.

Before Covid19 every year you would hear the jokes from the Edinburth Festival, held in Scotland, UK. Other festivals of comedy were held in Australia and Asia and the USA. Maybe we can all attend these in 2021. Meanwhile, time to start exploring our favourite jokes. When I went on a standup comedy course organized by Amused Moose, I heard about shows at the Edinburgh Festival. The cost of hiring a room in a pub can be expensive and you need lots of flyers and publicity to get your money back.

Many shows are supposedly free but they pass a hat for contributions.

The cost of hiring the room is not usually down to one individual, unless they are world famous, but shared by up to 20 or more participants in the sketched. It could be borne by a sponsor, such as a school or college or students union.

What about street theatre. We saw one great act. As we approached the crowd the one man performing rushed up to me and shouted, 'Mother!'
He might have done this to several other people previously. I'm sure it got a suprprised reaction from the newcomer each time.

When is a good time to play a joke?
April 1st April Fool's Day
In 1957 the BBC produced a program about a spagetti tree in Switzerland.

National Joke Day
Internationl Joke day
President's joke day - August 11th commemorates the time when Reagan joked that he was going to drop a bomb on Russia. He thought he was off air. The Russians heard and mibilised their armed forces.

What Could Go Wrong?
There are some places and occasions when you should not tell jokes or play pranks, or touch other people.

1 Military - especially guards.
Their job is to guard and protect and they are armed to do so and trained to avoid distractions.

2 Emergency Services
Fire, ambulance, police - they are doing a serious job and often short of time. They make decisions based on life and death, resulting in life or death. Don't fool with them. They need to be able to react quickly and to take it seriously when somebody reports an injury or death.

3 Anybody marching in formation or dancing.
They may have spent a year training for their big moment. They won't be pleased if you try to take attention away or make them look foolish.

4 Crying Wolf?
Next time you try to get help, they might not take you seriously. Next time somebody else rings, they might not get taken seriously.

5 When you think you are off air, in a studio, or after a zoom meeting. Remember to mute. Still always speak as if the world can hear you.

An American in Singapore phoned the police and ended her call with April Fool.
The police were not pleased. They threatened her with a criminal record, for wasting police time.

On a lighter note, I am doing Engaging Humor in pathways, a program of Toastmasters International. I belong to five clubs.

Useful Websites
Toastmastersinternational.org/findaclub
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_April_Fools%27_Day_jokes

Useful Websites
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_British_comedians
https://www.a-speakers.com/speakers/brad-ashton-keynote-speaker/
 Brad Ashton's books on comedy: 
“How to Write Comedy”, 
“The funny Thing about Writing Comedy”, 
“The Job of a Laughtime”, and 
“Stand up and Be Laughed at”.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer.
Her books include:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts
Quick Quotations
Writing Poetry For Fun
Angela's Alarming Animal Poems

Pantomime characters, pantomime dames create humour.
Angela Lansbury is a travel writer and photographer, author of 20 books, and a speaker and speech trainer.
Her books include:
Wedding Speeches & Toasts
Quick Quotations

Writing Poetry For Fun
Angela's Alarming Animal Poems

This blog has many more posts on learning languages and destinations around the world. Please share links to your favourite pages.
See my other blog
https://how2bfunny.blogspot.com/2020/08/why-be-funny-advantages-

Ten Easy Portuguese Words for travellers - another ten words

Flag of Portugal

Ten Easy Portuguese Words For Travellers

casa - house
catedral -cathedral
centro - centre
convento - convent
imagem /imagens - image/images

Judaica - Jewish
militar - military
monumenos - monuments
romanos - Roman
ruinas - ruins

Where can you use Portuguese? Over on the American continent in South America in Brazil. In Europe in Portugal. Offshore from Portugal in the Atlantic in the island of Madeira. Or as I did when reading news articles about places in Portuguese speaking countries.

About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
I and my family have lived in the UK, Spain, the USA and Singapore. I am a trave writer and phtographer and teacher of English A level and English as a foreign language.

Please come to a Toastmasters International Club where the English clubs have a langauge evaluator or grammarian.  We also have French, German, Mandarin Chinese, Tamil and other language clubs based in Singapore and many more online around the world which because of Covid-19 are now meeting online.

I am President of Braddell Heights Advanced, meeting every Wednesday, on zoom the first Wednesday of the month but the other Wednesdays are workshops on app learncool.sg
Or quicker to type and easier to remember:  tinyurl.com/BHACOOL

useful Websites
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogs
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/04/how-to-say-thank-you-in-several.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2019/05/introducing-yourself-in-english-spanish.html
https://travelwithangelalansbury.blogspot.com/2020/01/second-set-of-portuguese-words.html Please share links to your favourite posts
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8384769/Major-breakthrough-hunt-Madeleine-McCann-police-identify-German-suspect.html
https://pt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lista_de_patrim%C3%B3nio_edificado_no_distrito_de_Faro
translate.google.com
duolingo.com

Planning a trip to Vietnam, north or south or both?

Fascinating country. Just as the UK had Boadicea fighting the Romans, and Elizabeth I, Vietnam has its female military heroines, including two sisters.

In modern times the country was split between the communists backed by the Russians in the North, and the American-backed regime in the South.

The Chinese influenced the language before the Roman alphabet was adopted. Also expect to see noodle soup. China is the northern neighbour, which explains the past influence and invasions, as well as the modern business influence and incoming tourists.

The French left behind their breakfast habits of coffee and bread.

The temperature varies from north to south.
Christmas is a good time to go if you don't want the weather too hot, too cold or too wet.

Problems
A What will it cost?
B How long need I go?
C Which sights should be on my list?
D Which ones should be my priority?
E Can I combine my trip with the capital of Cambodia, or Laos?

A One price quotation I saw was for 10 days, about US$1000, per person, sharing, with dinners, not flights from the USA, but includes internal flights. Various extras such airport /country taxes and evening dinners - might be some museum entry fees. Extras for single person room or upgrade of hotel.
B
C The capital, Hanoi. In the North. to east to the coast.
Fly south to
The old capital, Hue.
See the city of lanterns.
Ho Chi Minh City. See the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh, big, solid, square; you might see only the outside depending on the time of year.)
The tiny tunnels with narrow entrances, used by the ultra-slim communists invading the South.

The famous rocks in the water -

D Choose your favourites. Mine are:
Crazy House
Bottle Temple

Sources
tripadvisor
vietnam tourist board
wikitravel
wikivoyage

Author
Angela Lansbury

French Words of the Day

The modern epaulette makes a garment look smart, or like an official uniform. Can be worn in the military (army, air force, navy), police, cowboys.

epaule - shoulder
epaulette - tab on shoulder to hold gloves, from military part of uniform for officers
related to the Latin word spatula from blade, the shoulder bone

An epaulette can be decorative, show official rank by colour or the addition of a braid or badge, and/or be practical.
Nowadays an arrow shape piece of cloth on the shoulder of jackets with the V shape painting towards the nearest arm, held by a button which can sometimes be unbuttoned, which can be used to hold gloves, or on a ladies blouse or coat to secure a scarf at both sides.

Angela Lansbury, author, speaker, teacher.