SPOILER ALERT!
This story contains the BEST JOKE I ever heard at university.
Openings
SPOILER ALERT!
This story contains the BEST JOKE I ever heard at university.
It began like this:
It was my first class, on my first day, of my first year at uni.
I was running a little late, so by the time I got to the lecture theatre it was already heaving with new students.
The atmosphere was buzzing, and I was pretty jazzed! My first lecture at uni! Amazing!
Spotting one of the few empty seats high up towards the back, I trotted up the stairs and slipped in just as the professor, an older fella with thinning white hair, entered by the front doors.
My neighbour and I nodded at each other. “First class?”, “Yeah, me too”.
Let’s get this party started!
The room hushed as the professor put up his first slide.
Silence descended. It was a full house. Pens were poised in complete attention.
All three of these things would vanish within weeks,
but for now we were living the uni dream.
Then the professor started his lecture.
No more than 30 seconds in, he suddenly dropped THE joke…
and pandemonium broke loose.
The room exploded. People fell about laughing – we turned to our neighbours grinning, and just like that, all of the nervous tension that had built up was released.
But then something remarkable happened.
It felt like the whole room leaned forward, hungry for the next joke. We were leaning into the university experience.
It was at that moment, sitting in my first-year lecture theatre, that it dawned on me exactly why strong openings are so important.
Whether it’s a story, a presentation, an interview, or even just meeting someone for the first time… a strong opening sets a tone, an impression, that’s incredibly hard to override.
Like throwing an anchor off a boat into the water – once we put down that marker, people assume that it’s the default of what’s to come.
What that deeply experienced professor did was genius.
His joke was the BEST because it was unexpected.
It broke the ice: not just for that lecture, but for our WHOLE university experience.
As calm settled over the lecture theatre, I shifted forward in my seating and waited for his next joke.
And waited.
And waited.
I was fully expecting that his next line, EVERY next line, was going to be hilarious.
And even though that professor didn't tell another joke for the ENTIRE semester... I kept waiting for it, like waiting for a train at a station that is no longer in service.
To me it was unequivocal proof that we should spend a disproportionate amount of time planning our openings… because they have a disproportionate impact on everything that follows.
Now if I back up just a little, I said in my opening that this story contains the best joke I heard at uni, and that’s true.
The story contains the joke. The joke makes a cameo. I just don’t tell you what joke actually was.
And if you're still here reading, you’re the proof that what I say is true.
This story contains the BEST JOKE I ever heard at university.
It began like this:
It was my first class, on my first day, of my first year at uni.
I was running a little late, so by the time I got to the lecture theatre it was already heaving with new students.
The atmosphere was buzzing, and I was pretty jazzed! My first lecture at uni! Amazing!
Spotting one of the few empty seats high up towards the back, I trotted up the stairs and slipped in just as the professor, an older fella with thinning white hair, entered by the front doors.
My neighbour and I nodded at each other. “First class?”, “Yeah, me too”.
Let’s get this party started!
The room hushed as the professor put up his first slide.
Silence descended. It was a full house. Pens were poised in complete attention.
All three of these things would vanish within weeks,
but for now we were living the uni dream.
Then the professor started his lecture.
No more than 30 seconds in, he suddenly dropped THE joke…
and pandemonium broke loose.
The room exploded. People fell about laughing – we turned to our neighbours grinning, and just like that, all of the nervous tension that had built up was released.
But then something remarkable happened.
It felt like the whole room leaned forward, hungry for the next joke. We were leaning into the university experience.
It was at that moment, sitting in my first-year lecture theatre, that it dawned on me exactly why strong openings are so important.
Whether it’s a story, a presentation, an interview, or even just meeting someone for the first time… a strong opening sets a tone, an impression, that’s incredibly hard to override.
Like throwing an anchor off a boat into the water – once we put down that marker, people assume that it’s the default of what’s to come.
What that deeply experienced professor did was genius.
His joke was the BEST because it was unexpected.
It broke the ice: not just for that lecture, but for our WHOLE university experience.
As calm settled over the lecture theatre, I shifted forward in my seating and waited for his next joke.
And waited.
And waited.
I was fully expecting that his next line, EVERY next line, was going to be hilarious.
And even though that professor didn't tell another joke for the ENTIRE semester... I kept waiting for it, like waiting for a train at a station that is no longer in service.
To me it was unequivocal proof that we should spend a disproportionate amount of time planning our openings… because they have a disproportionate impact on everything that follows.
Now if I back up just a little, I said in my opening that this story contains the best joke I heard at uni, and that’s true.
The story contains the joke. The joke makes a cameo. I just don’t tell you what joke actually was.
And if you're still here reading, you’re the proof that what I say is true.
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