Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - October 1, 1973, Winnipeg, Manitoba 14 Winnipeg free press monday october 1. 1973 joke maker Robert Orben laughs All the Way to Bank by Cuve Lawrance Christian science Monitor news service there Are two extraordinary things about Robert Orben. You be probably heard thou Sands of his jokes. But you avg probably never heard him. Like most show Biz comedy writers or. Orben Seldom hits the limelight. Everyone has heard of Dicky Gregory red Skelton red buttons. They Tell very funny jokes. But who has Ever heard of the person who makes the jokes for them for Many years it was Bob Orben. Now he is president of the world s Only humor service for business government and communications called the comedy Centre inc. In the joke business or. Orben is recognized As a top comedy writer and. Probably the we Ltd s leading creator of there is hardly a top come Dian in the world who has not used jokes from his 43 humor books which have sold Over a million copies. In addition comedy Centre puts out annually 36 copies of two joke sheets comedy fillers and current comedy. Or. Orben writes so per cent of the material. The rest is bought and edited to style by him. Comedy Centre was started 15 years ago As a show business service but gradually or. Orben found he was get Ting More subscribers in the worlds of government and hold that hairline if your hair is falling out receding from your forehead. If you Are getting thin on Don t just sit Back and watch with alarm while your hair disappears natures warning signs itchy Scalp Dandruff hair full hair too dry spot baldness hair Loo oily act now save your hair the Choice is yours make no Choice or choose to follow Amateur advice and the result will be less hair because baldness is usually persistent and progressive it does t Start or Stop without Good reason. Specialized National treatment will Stop your abnormal hair fall As it Fias for thousands of other men women in North America. National treatment will quickly remove Dandruff eliminate Scalp itching and make your hair feel better look better and grow better. Today with Nat snal treatment available to you Here in Winnipeg there is no need to accept less hair and even Tual baldness. See or. Klein today fora private Scalp examination and consultation. You will be told can be done to Correct your condition. You Are under to obligation except to yourself. If you Are beyond the scope of treatment you will be told so. For appointment phone 957-1247. Hours won. To Fri. 11 am to . Sat. 11-2 . Home treatments prepared for out of town clients. National hair Scalp Institute Ltd. Ste 190 Smith St. Pic. Lou i Yrtti business. He now has More than corporate clients in eluding Ford motor company general electric the Chase Manhattan Bank ism and Tom s food Ltd. Does this Surprise when was the last time you heard a speaker who did t Sprinkle his text or introduction with or. Orben asks and those rib ticklers come from professionals. American business already provides More work for professional comedy writers than show business and the trend is so you Don to thing people Are losing the ability to not at he exploded. I m always vastly amused by All these theories. They Are based on declining comedy in show keeping people laughing is no easy task. Or. Orben sets himself a quota if 25 original jokes every Day seven Days a week the Only time i actually take off is when i go on holi Day and then i Don t even think about jokes. Other than that i sit at my typewriter and if it takes me two hours to turn out those 25 jokes Fine. If it takes me 12 hours that s of too but i won t get up until i have 25 workable do you enjoy your own or. Orben laughed As though that were a joke the worst audience in the world is a professional comedy writer. The Only thing that truly makes me laugh is something very spontaneous and that rarely is words. It s usually a physical action. I still laugh out loud at a Skelton or Chirlie Chaplin move because that is not As predictable As a line. Bob Orben has t been laughing at his own jokes for 27 years. He published his first Book when he was 18 and working in a magic shop. After years of writing for comedians 12 year s ago he became the first comedy writer to be retained by a major political party he does t say which to do humor for their top line since then he has worked for both . Parties not simultaneously of course a joke also carries an Emo said or. Orben to sex affiliation. If you make accusation against the opposition via a joke and they try to rebut it seriously they look very stodgy. The Only Way you can really counter humor is with humor. So it s a very potent political some comedians make fun of themselves but i suppose a political figure would have to make fun of the what they do is both. The people i work with Are International political figures he s not telling and when they first use humor i try to write self deprecatory jokes not hurtful and not ridiculing but something that brings this enormous figure Down to the common mus so that his Audi ence can Ite to him. That s very important thing. The whole thrust of modern humor is to present it As truth. It should always involve people in the you say this is new. How As far As non show business use is concerned it s Only flourished Ilithe last few to keep it flourishing and topical is or. Orben s Busi Ness and this requires an enormous amount of Reading. He subscribes to 40 magazines ind eight newspapers. I Don t Ruly read he said i Kirn. I tend to use headlines or jokes rather than body copy and i tend to wait to see if a Story is going to develop or instance watergate. When t first came out a lot people said there won t be Many jokes about this it s too serious. I said on the contrary it is oing to be the greatest joke subject since Dick and Liz and Eddie Fisher about eight years ago. I must have 48 watergate jokes these include that s really a wild scene n Washington these Days. Every time reporters refer to an unimpeachable source Nixon Hopes they mean him. We Call our parakeet watergate. It took months to get Lim to talk and now we can t top him when one of the Democrat c candidates read about All Hose burglaries he rushed to be if any of his important Myers were stolen. Then he 19 Given heroism medals Ottawa up Nineteen persons including three who gave up their lives have been awarded medals Sof heroism by . Koland Michener it was announced saturday. The Star of courage has been awarded posthumously to each of the three who died while saving the lives of others. They Are Thomas William smart 13, of Kemptville ont., who drowned while helping an other child who got into difficulty while swimming Ula Boudreau of Bathurst . Who lost her life after helping her six children escape from their burning Home and Gar Field George Babcock of Wes ton ont., who drowned while trying to save two canoeists in the Humber River. The others awarded the medal of bravery for varying acts of courage included master Cpl. Joseph Danie Robert april Ottawa Ter Ranee William Ottawa Eric Thomas Weir Hamilton Clifton Walter Taylor and Albert Taylor both of grand Manan Island . Edward Sokolowski Campbell Ville ont. Claude Savard Timmins ont. William Camp Bell Abi Tibi Canyon ont. Con stable Joseph o Hagan Toron to Cpl. Ihor Yaroslaw de dish Vanderhoof . Charles Edward Petersen Coronation Alta. Stuart Gregory Cousin eau notre Dame de Grace que. James Flaherty kit Chener ont. John Maloney. Toronto and Margaret Cornish and Ann Dale Harris a staf. Members at the Canadian embassy in peking. Investiture ceremonies will be held in Ottawa on a Date to be announced. Quality Grain found Washington a a High protein Grain sorghum has been discovered in a re Mote ethiopian Valley United states agriculture scientists said last week. They said that if the sorghum were grown worldwide in would substantially improve the diets of the poorest of the the scientists however con ceded that it will be a Long difficult task to incorporate the discovery into the agriculture technology of underdeveloped countries that depend on Grain sorghum. Two strains of High protein sorghum were discovered by Purdue University scientists who surveyed the protein con tent of varieties gathered worldwide under a seven year project. The ethiopian strains showed a 30 to 40 per cent protein in crease Over All and twice a much of the key amino acid Lysine than commonly used Grain sorghum said or. John a Tell a Purdue University scientist. A shortage of Lysine one o eight essential amino acids robs Cereal grains of much i fictive protein. For More than a decade scientists have sough methods to increase it. A x t e 11 said studies Havi shown the ethiopian sorghum have the proper Lysine con tent. Final conclusive avid inc that a controls Lysine and can to bred into Otic strains is lacking a Lull said. Third largest group germans constitute the third largest ethnic group in Canad. Behind British and Frencl Stock. Remembered something. H e does t have any important papers is it True that the biggest problem the republicans had was convincing h. R. Hal deman that his initials did t stand for his Royal highness or. Orben spent two to three hours a Day watching water Gate. Did it make you laugh yes that s a very uptight situation and anybody doing even gentle humor is going to get a big if you reduced it to cold print it would t look very funny though would no but it s a great use of humor in the sense that of our recent presidents president Kennedy was the Best stand up humorist. If you look at what he said critically it was t terribly funny but it was a Little bit of levity added to a tense situation. In this sense Ken Nedy had a great appreciation of the uses of humor. Bobby Kennedy was the same. In question and answer periods there was inevitably the question do you plan to run for and he would answer along the lines no i have absolutely no inter est in becoming president and neither does my wife Ethel Bird now that s a Beautiful answer because it says yes and no at the same time. And it gets a what about president i Don t understand Why president Nixon has turned away from humor. Nixon s problem today is that he is not considered a w a r in human being. Instinctively the Media have not liked the Public Nixon. And the reason there is so much of a Hue and cry about watergate and the Rea son he is so backed into a Corner is that he has not made it on a one to one basis with the people who communicate his ideas. Can you imagine for in stance if Nixon had been involved with the Bay of pigs the fantastic gum up of the Bay of pigs when we standing there with egg on our face and yet because tha Media liked Kennedy they let him get off the Hook totally with one of the worst foul up in recent years certainly on t Par with watergate. They like Kennedy they Don t Nixon. The Odd part is that Nixon does understand humor. One of his advisers is a top comedy writer. You wonder Why he has gone this reclusive supposing there was not humor in the1 world what would be the effect of Well i can t imagine a world without humor. I think that perhaps one of the Grea test gifts that god has Given us is this essence of humor. A True response to some body else s humor is the equiv Alent of saying yes we Are now friends. I can Trust you essentially laughing with someone not at them is Mark of copyright 1973 the Christian science Monitor publishing society the the classic casuals of Bernard Cowan mean simple lines of pare Wool. Is Bernard who demands ;