Museum Humor

Wednesday's tour, followed by the coffee featured previously, was perhaps my most positive experience yet.  Perhaps it was because I ordered a medium coffee instead of a small :)

The tour group was a mix of Americans and Brits of all ages, about 30 in all.  We had expected 40, so Val and I thought we would each take a group of 20.  However, since some cancelled last minute, we decided to tag team.  It's actually great (for me!) to do the tour that way.  It helps to give our voices a break when we alternate, and it also is fun to banter back and forth.  Val and I both enjoy entertaining and our friendship comes through as well when we work together.

Part way through the tour, one gentleman came up to Valerie and I and commented, "This is just brilliant.  Do you two plan the jokes?"  We had a chuckle.  The great thing about co-guiding the tour is that we actually fit more humor in because the presence of another guide allows for more spontaneous interaction. Most of the jokes we were using weren't planned and some were actually our segues into the next artifact!  It is true though that as each member of our team has learned the tour, we have developed our own style and our unique jokes which are woven into the dialogue.  When I first started doing the tour, I felt that I needed to do it exactly as my boss does.  However, I quickly realized that my own humor fits much better for my tours, just as his flows with his style.

Val created the best pun yet (in my opinion) on Wednesday.  She was discussing the city of Ur.  We were looking at ornate artifacts from Ur in Mesopotamia.  Val was emphasizing that Ur was a metropolitan city in it's day.  When Abraham was called by God to leave Ur, it wasn't as though he was leaving a small, dusty village to go wander and find another small, dusty village.  Val said, "It would be quite accurate to say Abraham was an urbanite."

I thought it was hilarious!!!  No one else laughed!  I had the next artifact, and I did make a point to reiterate the humor.  "Abraham was an "Ur"-banite!" :)  Val hadn't realized the pun and we have since decided it should be an included joke :)  As she said, it should go down in history....although technically, it already did!

One of my trademark comments on the tour is, "Isn't that amazing?"  I try to avoid repeating it too much, but I get so excited by the details of the tour and I want others to see the value of what they are seeing and hearing.  I often jokingly admonish the tour group for not getting excited enough by what they are seeing.  At the end of Wednesday's tour, one of the couples came over to compliment the tour.  After thanking me, the husband said, "Hope, I have to tell you something.  I'm an Englishman.  This is me being excited!"