Malcolm Kushner, BA '74

Humor consultant

Photo by Gena Foucek

Search for meaning

Chalking it up to destiny, Kushner came to UB on a Regent’s scholarship and graduated summa cum laude as a member of Phi Beta Kappa with a degree in speech communication.

And then the search for meaning began. After leaving UB he drove a cab part-time in New York City before attending the University of Southern California for a master’s degree in communication. He said UB gave him the tools he needed for graduate school. “I thought I could be the next Marshall McLuhan” he says, referring to the author of the highly acclaimed 1964 book, Understanding Media. “As a grad student I published papers at conventions, was cited in a book…and UB definitely prepared me for that.”

Though armed with a master’s degree, Kushner was still unsure about his future prospects. One thing he did know was that he liked being a student. Enter law school. “Someone told me that law school is good for anything, even if you don’t want to be a lawyer, so I thought, great I’ll go to law school in San Francisco, and then I’ll figure out what I want to do.”

A “UEO” finds his calling

After graduating from the University of California’s Hastings College of Law, and with a little prodding from his father, Kushner tried on a lawyer’s suit for size. “I called myself a “UEO,” an ‘unidentified educated object.’ I practiced law because after three years of law school, I still had no idea what I want to do, and my father told me to at least try it,” he said.

Kushner “tried it” for two years, first as an attorney for the California Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board and then at a San Francisco firm handling commercial litigation. But his heart wasn’t in it. The fact that his office overlooked the Punchline Comedy Club in San Francisco was a portent of things to come. “I was an okay lawyer but I think I’m great at humor,” he says. “Also, my signature line used to be: ‘whether or not you think the world needs a humor consultant, everyone agrees we could use one less attorney.”

America’s favorite humor consultant

Kushner set things in motion by ghostwriting jokes and speeches for executives. Again he cites UB as providing him with the tools for success. “That’s the UB in me, that’s my training – analyzing messages and what the audience wants and what the person is trying to say.” He found a job writing a column for San Francisco’s legal newspaper about how lawyers could use humor. Not long after, Kushner was asked to give a speech at a state bar convention on using humor in the business world, which led to other speeches and seminars.

Though based in humor, Kushner’s messages are also effective and practical. He preaches about humor in the work environment, and claims humor can be used to gain the competitive edge in business because “it gets attention and retention, which are two primary goals as a communicator. [Humor] produces goodwill, likeability, and creates rapport with people, which makes them more willing to receive your message.” Building and maintaining a reserve of goodwill is especially important, he says. “When you make a mistake, and you will, the person who has no reserve of goodwill gets jumped on, but the person with the reserve of goodwill is cut some slack,” he says. “People like dealing with others who have a good sense of humor.”

Kushner delights in the subjectivity of the term “favorite” and further exploits it by proclaiming that he is “America’s favorite humor consultant.” He may not be too far from the mark. Kushner has given speeches in Canada, across the U.S. and in Manila. His clients include IBM, Sony, AT&T and the IRS. (He notes that he worked with internal IRS staff, not the auditors who come to your house…“If I did, they would be funny,” he laughs).

At home with humor

The blend of Kushner’s sunny disposition and cunning communication ability has served him well over the years and he shares his knowledge and experience in various ways to help people feel more at home when using or creating humor.

Kushner trademarked the phrase “leading with laughter,” which he uses for all his workshops, speeches and multimedia humor presentations. He also invented the “Cost of Laughing Index,” which is published nationwide every April Fool’s Day. It has also been featured on the front page of the Wall Street Journal, is included as a case study in economic textbooks and was used on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson – twice.

Today, when he’s not consulting, Kushner works on his Web site: http://museumofhumor.com/. He has pooled various humor resources with original material to create a Web site that is designed to be a tool for those who have not been blessed with the natural ability to create humor. He provides different categories of humor, arranged topically, so if telling a joke is not one’s forte, all hope is not lost – just pick one of the other simple humor techniques that don’t require comic delivery.

On top of all that, Kushner has written several books including The Light Touch: How to Use Humor for Business Success, Public Speaking for Dummies, and his latest book Vintage Humor for Wine Lovers.

Written by Sarah Heiermann
August 2005

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