Working as a host at Dovetail and the Duluth Folk School, Hadrian DeMaioribus has had opportunities to greet, meet, and connect with patrons - and to muse about humor. "People smile when they're welcomed," says DeMaioribus. "How can you think about it in a way that you can be a bringer of smiles but not really be a comedian."
In the new book Humor in Various Moods and Meters, DeMaioribus talks about viewing humor as an emotion and recognizing that humor exists more in the reaction rather than in the action - humor is the laughter and not so much the joke. "Some of the people who make me smile the most are not comedians," says the author. "We have this kind of humor blindness where we expect to see smiles and laugh around comedies and jokes, and we don't expect to see it anywhere else."
The analytical approach taken by DeMaioribus includes new concepts and understanding of humor told through situational set-ups, graphs, charts, and examples. Also noted is the balance of Okays and Mistakes that ignites humorous moments. "I think of humor as kind of a Goldilocks zone... when these measures balance, we have this framework for when and where humor occurs."
Humor in Various Moods and Meters is available digitally online at the suggested price of $9.99.
Minnesota Reads is produced at The North 103.3 with funding provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
