The Humor Detector Story Program

6 Weeks to a Funny Story

That's built to get you more bookings, higher fees, and contest wins.

The only humor training for speakers created by a writer for Emmy-nominated comedy programs (not another speaking coach who “does humor”)

Six weekly live sessions, group coaching, and the Hot Sauce Humor Lab AI tools.

Join the wait list

Waitlist gets first seats and discounted launch pricing.

Next cohort starts January 14th

Sound familiar

Raise a virtual hand if

Your talk gets “great job!” but re-bookings have dropped off.

Keep it up if you're charging the same fee you charged three years ago.

Keep it up if you placed second. Again.

Raise it high if you practiced jokes on your cat.

If the cat walked out of the room, you're in the right place.

How I approach humor

Your story is a comedy. Write it like one.

Most humor coaches tell you to add jokes. I approach your story like a movie.

Every good comedy goes the same way. The main character has a quality that gets in their way (mine is stubbornness and a naive trust in technology). They make a big decision based on a ridiculous expectation (installing smart bulbs will make me the Thomas Edison of the greater Encino area). Then they run into people, situations, and things that are just as funny (a ladder that’s been plotting my death since 2019), and each one makes their life more hilariously difficult than the last.

That's the structure audiences laugh at. You already lived it. It's just not on the page yet.

Your story is a house. Jokes are paint. If the house is condemned, paint just makes it a cuter condemned house.

Build the beams right and the story is funny before you add a single joke.

You can't see the cracks in your own house.

Nobody can. That's what the cohort is for.

It's like insurance. (Nobody likes insurance.)
It's like a crack fixer. (That came out wrong.)
Fine. It's frameworks that find the cracks, and a cohort that helps you fix them.

Who's your sherpa up Mount Funny?

Chris McGuire

I've spent more than 20 years in late night television, and shows I've written for and produced, like Martha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party, have been nominated for Emmys. Along the way, I did standup for 16 years. Including TV appearances and bombing for 6 straight months. (The waitresses loved me when I started out. When I was on stage, they didn't have a problem hearing drink orders over the laughs.) I survived the hell gigs so you don't have to. You're welcome. Now I'm an Executive Producer for Live Moments, trusted by CEOs, top business schools, founders, keynoters and contest speakers.

A showrunner's job is to look at a script and find the exact line where the audience checks out. That’s the read you’ll learn to give your own story.

You stay the CEO of your speech. I teach you how to find what's broken, and you fix it in your own voice.

Head WriterComedy Central Roast of Justin Bieber

Executive ProducerMartha & Snoop's Potluck Dinner Party

Executive ProducerNot Safe with Nikki Glaser

Written for and worked withMartha Stewart, Snoop Dogg, Arsenio Hall, George Lopez, Kevin Hart, Nikki Glaser, Jeff Ross, Howie Mandel

What you'll walk away with

The toolkit

The Humor Beats Framework

First, I'll share the structure that makes a good story. Then I'll show you the five places in it where exaggeration reliably turns up laughs. Your message stays earnest. The humor won't undermine it.

Plot Pixies

A gang of nasty little buggers that burrow into your story and steal the parts that make it work. I'll introduce you to every one of them, and teach you how to banish them forever.

Hot Sauce

Worried humor will make you look unprofessional? It won't, if you know how hot to run it. You'll learn to read the room and pick your heat.

🍌 Levity: the banana.
Humor: you slip on it. ← aim here
Comedy: someone else slips on it.
Roast jokes: someone takes a video and posts it to TikTok.

Page to Stage

Does your story read great but die out loud? That's normal, especially if AI helped write it, and easily fixable. You'll un-write it into the version you can confidently tell.

The Hot Sauce Humor Lab

Not ChatGPT. AI tools I've spent 18 months building on my own frameworks. Run your story through them between sessions to find what's missing and get punch-up ideas and inspiration. Think of it as a writers' room that never sleeps.

What speakers say

Survivors of Mount Funny

"Chris' style is hilarious, high energy, and deeply human, and he was a fan favorite at Harvard Business School. I can't wait to have him back."
Christina Wallace · Senior Lecturer, Entrepreneurial Management, Harvard Business School

"Even after 25 years as a motivational humorist and keynote speaker, Chris's program finally gave me the structure and terminology I needed to make my keynotes and workshops more impactful and easier to customize."
Carol Ann Small · Motivational Humorist, Stress and Burnout Expert · Story Program, Jan 2026

"I got hired to give my highest paid keynote speech. Chris helped me connect quickly with my audience to gain the trust to deliver my content. He is the hardest working person I know in the industry and you will not go wrong if you invest in him."
Darren LaCroix · World Champion of Public Speaking, CSP

"Chris showed me that you don't have to choose between being taken seriously and using humor. The audience laughed throughout my keynote, and afterward I was invited to speak at another conference."
Rosanne Callens · Keynoter, "Electric Leadership" · Pain Point Detective Alum

"I thought I had humor figured out, but Chris showed me the real mechanics behind strategic humor that actually lands."
John Bell · President, Outstanding Orator · Story Program, Jan 2026

"In a recent speech my humor lines landed big laughs because I followed specific formulas from Chris' program."
Glenn West · Public Speaker · Story Program, Jan 2026

Is this you

This is for you

You speak for a living, or you want to. Keynoters, leadership trainers, financial planners, and business owners who speak to sell. Contest speakers who are ready for the next round and want to come ready to get laughs.

You have one story you tell everywhere and you know it could be better. Bring that one.

Or not

This isn't

You want someone to write your speech for you. Chris won't. You'll leave knowing how to fix it yourself.

You want a list of jokes to drop in. We'll find the funny in your story. It has to be your story first.

Questions

Fair questions

I'm not funny. Is this still for me?

Yes. Most people who say they aren't funny have funny stories built wrong. Fix the structure and the funny shows up.

I don't compete. Is this for me?

Yes. Most of the stories we work on go into keynotes, trainings, and talks that sell. If you do compete, the same story works in a contest.

Do I need a finished speech?

No. You need one story. A rough one is fine. Talking it out is part of the method.

I have a keynote with a story that runs through the whole thing. Is this the right program?

Maybe. You can apply the frameworks to a longer speech, but in this group format I can't give feedback on a story longer than 8 minutes, or on multiple stories. If you have specific questions, just shoot me an email at chrismcguire@humordetector.com.

What if I miss a session?

Every session is recorded. Watch the replay, do the course work, and bring your story to the next live hour.

Will my story end up on the internet?

No. What happens in the cohort stays in the cohort. Nothing gets shared without your written OK.

How is this different from the Pain Point Detective Sprint?

The Sprint tailors one talk to one audience. The Story Program works on the stories you tell everywhere. Plenty of speakers do both. painpointdetective.com