I'm bad at telling jokes," says humor expert Emil Herzog (70). And he means it. "Jokes have nothing to do with humor. Humor is, according to the letters of the word: cheerfulness, entertainment, humanity, originality and respect. Humor is a source of serenity and joy in life, an optical brightener, an inner gold-rimmed spectacle." This is indeed more than a bland joke.
Herzog has mastered the attack on his audience's laugh muscles from scratch. He contorts his face, runs his hands through the air, imitates the gait and tone of his fellow human beings, and serves them weird, peculiar, and funny things. And if his audience seems a bit stiff and rusty, Herzog quickly loosens them up: with the Crazy Dance, a self-invented join-in formation dance for all limbs. Herzog's parodies are not intended to generate flat laughter, but to hold up a mirror to his audience, to make them smile and think. Because his clients book the Duke of Humor not as a break clown, but because they want to change something in their company: for example, to create closeness between team colleagues, to show potential, to solve conflicts, to make mission statements and goals come alive for the future, to give employees confirmation and new energy, or to create a spirit of optimism. "It's also a better way to make corporate events memorable," Herzog says. "It's power without point."
Humor tightrope walkHerzog has a suitable saying in store for every situation. At the beginning of each performance, he de-ices the mood with a well-placed laugh. Laughter promotes the audience's willingness to cooperate. This is the breeding ground on which Herzog's sharp, funny look at the often unpleasant facts can bear fruit. He uses questionnaires to determine which sticking point the cabaret artist should bring up with his play: "I send a questionnaire to my respective contact person in a company with the request that I forward it to nine other employees of the company, spread as widely as possible. The ten anonymized responses then quickly tell me where things might be sticking in the company." A trained eye for people and a large portion of empathy help Herzog to hit the right topic and the right tone. He is careful with sarcasm, irony or touchy subjects. After all, humor and humour are more than two different things. "Nevertheless, I also like to take risks sometimes," Herzog emphasizes. "Of course, I'm not allowed to be smarter than the CEO or ridicule employees. But I'm allowed to hold up a mirror to my audience with charm and competence and make them laugh and think."
What laughter does at an event, it also does in everyday work: humor defuses conflicts, reduces stress, connects people and promotes team spirit. In companies with a good humor culture, employees are more motivated, creative and flexible. Grumbling during the coffee break, on the other hand, ties up energy and often leads to inner resignation across the board. With fun in the workplace, that's a thing of the past. Really clever managers therefore use humor as a targeted and unerring tool. They can afford to be calmly cheerful, give their employees the freedom to play the fool, and can even let things slide. In this way, they unblock processes and everything runs smoothly. Herzog teaches this in his humor seminars for executives. The humor expert is convinced that top people don't take themselves too seriously. He's right: true professionals are
mostly very relaxed.
Laugh againOf course, not everyone is born to be an entertainer. But Herzog doesn't want to make an Emil out of everyone either. And that's a good thing. After all, people who constantly have a snappy little saying on their lips can get on the last nerve of their fellow human beings. Herzog's aim is rather that everyone learns to recognize the funny side of their everyday life and their own personality - and to allow it more. Then many things dissolve in a smirk, even before they can develop into conflict. "Humor is creativity, a perfect relationship lubricant and a de-stressor," Herzog summarizes. "If you as a boss just take these three things to heart and refrain from acting up in return, you've already come a long way."
When things go well, Herzog's parodies not only lift the spirits during an event, but also have a positive impact on the rest of the working day and the attitudes to life of those present. "Humor is a life and productive force that has yet to be truly discovered," Herzog emphasizes. Herzog's clients pay between 5,000 and 7,000 Swiss francs for the journey of discovery, for an event for around 300 employees with one to two days of preparation and the performance. Non-profit organizations pay 40 percent less. Given the broad impact of Herzog's game, a real bargain.
Herzog honed his sure hand for punchlines and his sense for friendly provocation at the beginning of his cabaret career with training at the Mime School Ilg in Zurich, at the Paris "École Lecoq" with Philippe Gaulier and with the clowns "I Colombaioni" in Rome, made famous by a film by Federico Fellini. Two theater tours and 280 solo appearances in Switzerland, Germany and Austria gave him a lot of stage routine. But Herzog can also put his professional experience in marketing to good use in his acting: "I'm a manager and a salesman. I know how the real economy works and can think my way into companies, processes and people. You can only be amused by something that you have seen through. Otherwise it comes across as slightly arrogant, and the effect fizzles out. But I'm competent professionally and as a comedian, and that gives me a good connection with my audience."
Herzog not only performs in companies and social institutions, he is also hired as a director when a company's employees perform theater at company events. He then coaches the players as they prepare for their performance. Since 1999, another important pillar of the humor trainer's work has been the annual training of trainers, project and team leaders to become "Managers of Business Entertainment MBE". In this training, trainers learn to turn their seminars into events instead of conveying dry knowledge.
Passion for bird catchersBetween 1939 and 1946, Emil Herzog grew up with his grandparents in Lucerne. Even as a child, he was drawn to the stage: the boy was fascinated by Mozart's Magic Flute, especially the two characters Sarastro and Papageno. "They are like the serious Weissclown and the cheerful but somewhat dim-witted August," Herzog says. "I loved both of them." After seven years, Herzog moves in with his parents in Zurich. There he goes to school and completes an apprenticeship as a salesman in a hardware store. "It was varied and fun, but was ultimately too easy for me," he recalls. That's why Herzog catches up on his Matura at night school and starts studying business at the University of St. Gallen. After completing his studies, Herzog went to America and England - and brought back a lot of dry British humor as a souvenir.
Back in Switzerland, Herzog joins Nestlé and looks after marketing for Nescafé, Nesquik and new products. For example, he is jointly responsible for the development of the Nestea brand. From 1970 to 1972, Herzog worked as a representative for medical devices in his father-in-law's company, then he returned to marketing: "At Unilever, I was a marketing man for detergents. Then I wanted to do something meaningful and went to the Zurich transport company VBZ," Herzog reports with a wink. At VBZ, he's stepping on the gas: he's developing the new identity "VBZ Züri Linie." "That was incredibly exciting, but also very hard at the time because of the pronounced bureaucracy. A Stalingrad of marketing." Herzog's last stop as an employee is at Globus. There he is responsible for regular customer marketing.
Steady laugh muscle trainingNo matter what Herzog's main occupation was and is - he can never do without theater:
neither in school, nor in the military, nor as an employee. At Unilever, he's in demand not only as a marketer, but also as a cabaret performer and entertainer at company events. "I realized that if I was funny, I would get response," Herzog says. "And I felt there was more to it than just performing every now and then. So I started looking for my primal role. I asked myself, 'Who am I, really? And if so, how many?'"
At the age of 35, Herzog stumbled upon the Mime School Ilg in Zurich. "I attended this school with the idea: 'In seven years, you'll be on Hechtplatz!'" he says. Indeed, seven years later, Herzog is performing with a solo program at Zurich's Theater am Hechtplatz, among other venues. He performs two programs, but even as he prepares the third, he is bothered by the fact that some things are repetitive. "So I came up with the idea of combining play culture and business know-how to create business theater and performing in large companies in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. That was in 1988." In the beginning, Herzog still parodies and caricatures parallel to his job, and in 1990 he finally goes into business for himself with "Emil Herzog live." At the age of 50. In doing so, Herzog remains true to his life's motto, a saying by T. S. Eliot: "It's never too late to become what you could have been."
Herzog has been successful with his business theater. To date, he has appeared on stage for a number of illustrious names, including BMW, Coop, Credit Suisse, Hewlett-Packard, McKinsey, Migros, Otto-Versand, Pro Infirmis, SV-Service, the University of St. Gallen, Winterthur- and Zürich-Versicherungen, Deutsche Post and Schweizer Post, Siemens and the City of Zurich. Former employers Unilever and Nestlé also hired the comedian. It happens that a CEO hugs Herzog after an event full of enthusiasm because he liked his performance so much. "Those are my best moments," Herzog says. His success is actually amazing, he thinks to himself, "When I started corporate theater, it wasn't as accepted as it is today. Rather, a bit strange."
Humor as an operating system of leadershipEmil Herzog is 70 years old and looks back on a fulfilling family and professional life. But above all, he's looking ahead: "I'm planning hikes and trips with my wife and dream of living a third of the year in Stäfa, a third in San Francisco and a third on the south coast of England." And since Herzog can't do without clowning, he's also still fine-tuning his concept for humorous leadership. "I've been dealing with humor in leadership, with the pleasurable relinquishment of dominance, for two or three years now," he says. "My seminars for cadre members are well received and are becoming more and more important in my portfolio. That's why I want to continue to expand this offering. I'm a good climate creator myself, and I can show managers what a good atmosphere can do in a company - and how to create one. Most CEOs and managers can use a humor pacemaker for a little more composure."
Anne-Friederike Wilhelm
