–By Jan McInnis, Comedian and Keynote Speaker
Do you know what a corpuscle is? Well my brother and sisters and I didn’t when we named our first dog, you guessed it, Corpuscle. Yep, we named him after a blood cell – his best friend next door was a Lab! (Joking about the Lab, not our dog’s name.) We weren’t trying to be funny. We had no idea what a corpuscle was, but our favorite TV show, “Ranger Hal,” had a bloodhound on it named Corpuscle. We didn’t get the irony (remember, comedy is irony!). My parents played along which meant that my poor mom had to stand on the back steps every night calling the dog in. . . ”Here Corpuscle, here Corpuscle.” I’m sure the neighbors thought we were either some kind of intellectual family of doctors or complete nutjobs. Though I have to say, he was a healthy Corpuscle: he lived to be 17.
I speak at lots of health care events now, so I think naming my dog after a blood cell was some kind synchronicity – you know, when two events happen that don’t look causally related but really are. Okay, maybe it was more like foreshadowing and not true synchronicity but I do think that most (if not all) events relate to some future event. Thinking that things are connected makes me feel better when someone cuts me off in traffic because I just know they’re going to get “paid back” somehow down the line. (Or maybe I’m getting paid back for cutting someone else off. I never thought of it that way!)
I love paying attention to synchronicities because my life seems to be full of unexplainable “events” that lead to other good stuff. I mentioned some of these synchronicities in my book (Convention Comedian: Stories and Wisdom From Two Decades of Chicken Dinners and Comedy Clubs), and about how things just sort of fell into place so that I got into comedy, moved to Los Angeles, etc., but I’ve also had a lot of synchronicities in my personal life.
I attended my friend Ruth’s 80th birthday party. She got me my first job a million years ago, but I had lost touch with her and we hadn’t talked in over 15 years. I had mentioned her daughter Lauren in my book, Lauren and I reconnected, and the next thing I know I’m in Seattle for Ruth’s party. Very cool! In fact Ruth getting me that first job was sort of synchronous too. I’d been out of college for about six months, and one Monday morning, after hanging out with Lauren the night before, I was laying on Ruth’s couch when she walked through the living room on her way to work. She said “It’s Monday, why aren’t you going to work?” I replied “I don’t have a job.” Poof. A few weeks later, I was working in her office. If I hadn’t been laying on her couch, I might still be laying on a couch somewhere!
These synchronicities happen more than we think. My friend Nancy and I made a game of it during a hiking trip once, where we traced back past events to see how they got us to future events, and it blew me away! I realized I had many more synchronicities or “connections” than I thought. So I encourage you to take a minute and think back to how you actually got to where you are right now. I bet you’ll find some “poof” moments where one thing happened and all of a sudden three other doors opened and here you are.
And who knows, you may find out that your first dog actually influenced your entire career!
About the Author . . Jan McInnis has shared her customized humor keynotes with thousands of associations and corporations, and she has just published her second book, titled Convention Comedian: Stories and Wisdom from Two Decades of Chicken Dinners and Comedy Clubs. Jan is also the author of Finding the Funny FAST; How to Create Quick Humor to Connect with Clients, Coworkers and Crowds,” and she was featured in the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post and the Huffington Post for her clean humor. She is a keynote speaker, comedian and comedy writer.
From a recent government client: “Jan’s presentation, Finding the Funny in Change, was a perfect fit for the last day of our conference. The combination of humor and thoughtful material made it applicable, entertaining and purely enjoyable. Jan was great!”
