A funny thing happened on the way to my inbox

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Bear with me…this gets a bit convoluted…

So yesterday I had a bit of an ear worm: the old music hall song “Burlington Bertie from Bow”.

No idea why. Just popped into my head. In particular, I could hear Julie Andrews singing it from some film I must have watched.

Google told me it was a biopic of Gertrude Lawrence.

And Wikipedia told me all about Gertrude. her beginnings as a child performer to help earn a few pennies for her family. Her friendship with Noel Coward. Her many marriages, introduction to high society, stage triumphs, financial difficulties and ultimately her death and funeral.

She was the first performer for whom the house lights were dimmed across Broadway. And her funeral was attended by thousands, including a host of stars from screen and stage.

Wikipedia told me Phil Silvers was one of them. And I really like Phil Silvers, so I clicked to read about him.

And it turns out he was originally offered the role of Pseudolus in “A funny thing happened on the way to the forum” but turned it down, giving Zero Mostel his big break.

All of that sunk into my brain. Never to be heard from again I assumed.

But this morning I was looking for a way to open this email.

I wanted to make the point that the stories and examples you include in your emails don’t have to be literary masterpieces. More just intriguing little anecdotes that introduce your topic.

You’re not trying to keep your reader gripped for 90 minutes with an unmissable plot. More just distracted enough from their day-to-day to pay attention to the point you’re trying to make.

And it struck me that the phrase “A funny thing happened on the way to the forum…” or in fact the original “A funny thing happened on the way to the theatre…” did exactly the same thing for the old music hall and vaudeville comedians.

It got their audience’s attention with a promise. Something interesting with a punchline.

That “funny thing” setup didn’t have to be all that much. Just a way of introducing the characters and the situation to allow the comedian to segue into the joke.

A bit like my internet research story.

Hopefully a little bit interesting. Certainly more so than me just coming out and saying “yes, stories are great for emails but they don’t have to be works of art - more just little anecdotes”.

Hopefully it illustrated the point too.

And if you want an endless supply of your own anecdotes and stories to open your own emails in ways that get your readers hooked, you can find out how here.

- Ian