Recently, Jack Wise and Danny O’Brien came to CPCC to do a comedy workshop with our Transition Year students. There were two groups, one at 9.30 and the other at 11.30 and both groups had the same workshop.
Transition Year students participated in the activity by taking turns to go up and introduce themselves, they talked about where they came from, their favourite food and what makes them laugh. This was impressive considering a fun fact that Danny told us, public speaking is the number one fear in the world, even ahead of death. So people would rather die than get up and talk in front of their peers.
Jack Wise stepped up to show off his impressive magic skills. He selected Callum Cooney from the crowd and took his fiver, Callum then made a mark on the €5 note with a marker before Jack burned it. Calllum was baffled but was a good sport and stayed up for ventriloquism, which was hilarious. After that was finished Jack picked up a random tennis ball and cut it open, out fell Callum’s €5 note with his distinctive mark. Brilliant!
After Jack showed the Transition Years this trick, he took a sword from his bag and showed the crowd his skill of sword swallowing. After a short break each student got up to the microphone to talk again, this time about their pet peeves. This exercise in public speaking was fun and educational.
Rian Gannon McGuirk & Alex O’Callaghan - TY Press
