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Essentials in
Lead the Chapter
Increasing Laughter in Your Chapter Meeting
Kirk Roose offer ways to make every week a reward for members.
Updated: 12/12/2005 10:18:19 AM
Research suggests that a good hearty laugh can help:
- reduce stress
- lower blood pressure
- elevate mood
- boost immune system
- improve brain functioning
- protect the heart
- connect you to others
- foster instant relaxation, and
- make you feel good.
Listen for the amount of happy laughter in your chapter. Nurture it. Your guests will be impressed if they hear during breaks a happy buzz sprinkled with laughter. Not only recreational chapters, but all chapters need humor and delight.
Fortunately, we don’t need to force humor into our meetings, because barbershop music is inherently funny. Have we forgotten this? Barbershop music has a tickle. A shtick. Meredith Willson knew this, as he used the quartet of school board members in The Music Man to bring a chuckle to his audience with “ice cream - ice cream - ice cream - ICE CREAM”! And lyrics like “how can there be any sin in sincere.” The tenor soars, the bass descends, the lead holds a note while the others gyrate, it’s all good fun. This is why we had 40,000 men singing barbershop. Junior high school kids giggle when they hear us sing. We’re the hams that can’t be cured. So don’t forget the shtick.
Do something interesting with the music. Instead of just singing “Down Our Way,” ask them to sing “Down Our Way Cha-Cha-Cha.” You get the idea. Or sing the tag quickly, abruptly ending the song. See how fast they can sing an uptune. Take an old repertoire song and pitch it up a fourth (falsetto practice!). Or turn it into a waltz or a rap.
The director’s mood counts. Before you enter the meeting place, be ready to have the most fun you’ve ever had, tonight. While you are directing, if something funny happens feel free to crack up.
Add some funny choreography. Have them wiggle their hands by their ears every time they sing the word “wild” in “Wild Irish Rose.” Just make something up. You’ll get better at it. (And they are listening for lyrics!) It doesn’t have to be permanent.
Use quartets in a funny way during the chorus time. For some reason, quartets are amusing. Have a quartet sing a chorus-repertoire song before the chorus sings it. Make the quartet funny—three tall guys and one short, or give them funny hats.
Make sure your entire out-front team is on board, especially the guy who is in charge of the program. A lot of this is in his bailiwick. If your chapter meetings have degenerated into chorus rehearsals, encourage your officers and program people to work with you to increase and improve the time that is not strictly “rehearsal.” As the musical director, you may be one of the most creative people in the chapter, and you may set the tone.
If you or any of your members or guests can tell a joke, let them. Surprise the chapter by calling on your funny man between two songs you are directing. If the joke bombs, that’s funny too. If there are two or more funny guys, call them up front for the joke of the week contest.
Your team should encourage the supporting actors. Handing out membership cards for renewals can be fun—in one chapter, the secretary does a funny walk out front, in another the guys applaud each renewal with the number of claps that the renewed member has years of membership (10 years, 10 claps). If your chapter has refreshments, let the refreshment guy come out in a chef’s hat and announce the “menu for this evening,” perhaps in an atrocious French accent. What does it take? Fifteen seconds? And another guy gets to do his thing, another laugh.
Your team should schedule special nights like “loud shirt night.” Or “ugly outfit night.” (“You might win, even if you forget.”) You may have to work up to that one.
Try improv. Improvised songs, skits, and other creative entertainment can be worked into your chapter meeting. We had a lot of fun with this one: we divided the men into four groups, and told them they had ten minutes to go off in a corner and prepare “a corny song.” Didn’t have to be barbershop or even harmonized. Ten minutes later, they came back and each group performed in turn. It was a hoot. I noticed that the newer and younger members and even guests especially participated. You are strengthening creativity and performance skills, too.
Improv can be based around scenarios (“your third-grade music class”), or around props like a newspaper or cell phone, around funny poems the guys know, or around a certain tag or polecat. Use your imagination and encourage them to use theirs. For variety, sometimes give them a week to think about it.
Share your successes with other chapters.
Notice what parts of your meetings bring down the mood and energy level. If appropriate, make them funny or at least interesting. Of course, humor is not always appropriate. If an announcement is made that a member has died, mirth is out of place. That is time for a few minutes of warm sharing of memories. Maybe hum “I Believe.” A great meeting may have both laughter and tears.
More laughter in your chapter should increase the fun and energy. You will all be younger. You should hear a difference in the sound of your chorus, a more joyful sound. Guests will be drawn in. Members will want to invite their friends to these barbershop parties.
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