Thomas W. Christopher Training in wit and public speaking.
Self-expression products
www.wittyselfexpression.com
CafePress.com outlet
personal page
professional page

Tools of Wit

Thomas W. Christopher

"wit n the ability to relate seemingly disparate things so as to illuminate or amuse; an imaginatively perceptive and articulate individual..."

I teach people how to be witty in two senses of "wit": Cleverness and Creativity.

Cleverness makes people remember how you say things:
Creativity makes people remember the things you say.

Rhetorically, cleverness most involves the schemes, tricks with word order. Creativity involves the tropes, shifts in the meanings of words. Creativity involves metaphor and conceptual blending, seeing connections where others initially see none.

I deliver public speeches in the Colorado Front Range area. Currently I'm offering:

  • Make Them Want To Repeat Your Words
  • Opposites Attract Attention

My seminars include:

  • How To Create Titles And Headlines That Get Attention and Arouse Interest
  • How To Craft Memorable Speeches
  • How To Construct Humorous Word Play
  • Easy Humor
  • Beginning Storytelling

Links

I'm offering T-shirts and other self-expression products on the Web at www.wittyselfexpression.com

Writers' Group Flier.

I publish an E zine, To Wit on how to be witty.

You can view my personal page here.

You can view my professional page here. For income, I'm a consultant in High Performance Computing.

Belief Service for UUs in MS Word format.

Form for constructimg titles and headlines.

I thought having a blog on creativity would have announcements of upcoming seminars as well as free information from my workshops, but I've not gotten into blogging yet. I'm too concerned about perfecting my writing before publishing it. Maybe I'll get into it later.

Here is a picture of me performing my poetry at the 2005 Harvest Moon Festival.

Contact me at:

tc HYPHEN a AT toolsofwit DOT com

where " HYPHEN ", " AT ", and " DOT " have the obvious substitutions. (I'm hoping to slow down the spammers.)

I teach people how to be witty: How to give listeners insights they cannot forget in words they love to repeat. (Although, for actual income, I consult in High Performance Computing.) I intend to pass on my researches and speculations concerning creativity (current theory: conceptual blending), rhetoric (the tropes involving conceptual blending), and humor (involving rhetoric).

About Thomas Christopher

I, Thomas (TC) Christopher, am a part time writer, speaker, storyteller, and poet; although, for a living I consult in High Performance Computing. I was a professor of computer science for 20 years at Illinois Institute of Technology before resigning to write books full time. Currently I am developing a series of (so far well-received) workshops on rhetoric and humor, including: Creating Memorable Speeches, Humorous Plays on Words, and Essentials of Humor. In spare moments, I am a contra dancer and choreographer, Toastmasters ATM-G (the highest speaking award), and a Unitarian Universalist lay preacher. I offer T-shirt designs for the witty.

Contact:

Thomas Christopher, Ph.D.:
1140 Portland Place #205,
Boulder CO 80304
303-709-5659
tc-a AT toolsofwit DOT com


Books:

Books through Prentice Hall PTR, albeit not related to wit:
High-Performance Java Platform Computing, ISBN: 0130161640,
Web Programming in Python, ISBN: 0-13-041065-9,
Python Programming Patterns, ISBN: 0-13-040956-1