John Cantu

As a former owner of the Holy City Zoo Comedy Club, Cantu produced nightly entertainment for Bay Area residents showcasing some of the county's top comedians. But these performances that you laugh at and love today, were not universally acclaimed as creative, or entertaining when they started. It took years of effort, hard work, and perseverance for the their skills to evolve into what their fans today think of as effortless and "natural" talent.

John Cantu passed on to perform nightly at the pearly gates (we hope) in June of 2003. We'll miss his expertise, here is an example of his work.

One of my former writing partners used to copy Carson monologues and sketches and study them to see how they were constructed.

Six months after he and I started collaborating he was hired by Johnny Carson - - - and it was all done thru the mail. He got his first Hollywood writing job while living in San Francisco, without ever going to Hollywood. But it all stemmed from the fact that he had analyzed many Carson monologues and sketches.)

Three suggestions for teaching yourself how to write humor columns which I have adapted from my friend's experience of deconstructing an existing piece of work.

Suggestion one:
Write a 10-20 or so jokes, Routine them in some sort of logical order.
Rewrite them in essay form for 750 word humorous essay.

Suggestion two:
Write 375 word straight or serious essay
Add 375 words worth of humor interspersed with the serious content. Create funny names for characters, add a funny one line description about the location, about each character, etc.

Suggestion three:
Deconstruct some humorous essays.
Read an essay you find funny, and underline the jokes (humorous lines).
Extract the jokes and the count them.
Use the essay as a format for you for your essay with a switched concept.
I.e., you read a funny essay about a man getting a medical checkup. You pull out 10 jokes in a 750 word essay.

· 1 joke is about condition of doctor's office
· 1 joke is about the receptionist
· 1 joke is about the long was before the doctor sees you
· 4 jokes are about conversation/exam by doctor
· 1 joke is about doctor's diagnosis
· 1 joke is about doctor's bill
· 1 joke is when man tells wife result of exam

You switch the idea to yourself/spouse taking the car in for check up.
You put 10 jokes in a 750 word essay.

· 1 joke is about condition of repair shop
· 1 joke is about the first person you talk to
· 1 joke is about what you do while waiting for mechanic to talk to you
· 4 jokes are about initial conversation with mechanic about possible problems
· 1 joke is about mechanic's diagnosis
· 1 joke is about estimate
· 1 joke is when you tell spouse/friend result of exam.

John Cantu was an instructor at the East of Eden Writers Conference this year. He recommended a service that would list anyone's expertise in a given area and journalist and writers access the database and pay you for your expertise. Cantu sent me the information for two different companies that offer this service.

What www.Expertclick.com does for you:
1. We get www.ExpertClick.com to the news media - with your profile, graphics, text, audio and a link to your home page. --- Three million plus monthly hits.
2. We send your news from www.NewsReleaseWire.com to tens of thousands of journalists. We link your news releases to your profile.
3. We include your events and news conferences at www.Daybook.com
4. We update and maintain Online Media Database to give you constant new information about journalists and the story ideas they want.

Minimum Costs $495 for six months.

Cantu also recommends PR leads - http://www.prleads.com/

PR LEADS is the fastest, easiest and most inexpensive way to get publicity for authors, experts, speakers, doctors and psychologists.
Do you need to get publicity to:
· Build your business
· Sell more books
· Get more speaking engagements
· Make more money
PR LEADS can help you by alerting you to PR opportunities that can help:
· Build credibility
· Create marketing tools for your handouts and websites
· Position you as an expert
· Show why you are better and different from competitors
· Justify raising your rates and fees!

How PRLeads works
Every day, we get upwards of 100 requests from reporters who need to interview experts for stories they are writing. These reporters work for the top daily newspapers, like the New York Times and Washington Post, as well as leading business publications like The Wall Street Journal and Investors Business Daily, as well as the top women's magazines, like Redbook and Glamour, and leading business-to-business publications in dozens of vertical markets, including health, retail, sales and marketing.

Minimum Costs $495 for a whole year.

Both are highly respected by Cantu's speaking peers. "PRLeads is better in that you get leads sent to you of writers doing articles right now - I have been quoted in articles across country from leads from PR leads. I would go with PR leads. In the first source (expertclick.com) is a directory where reporters have to find you. With the second one (prleads.com) you are send a hot lead from a reporter who has actually sent out a request asking for source leads."

John Cantu offers more how-to essays monthly
http://humormall.com/ezine/current.shtml