In the Mail today veteran ‘master of mirth’ Frank Cason held forth with his views on the ten best jokes nominated at the Edinburgh Fringe. Perhaps not surprisingly he did not rate the comedians as funny as Tommy Cooper, but then who is. Observing that delivery is all important, he quoted his own catchprase,  “It’s the way I tell’em!”

For anyone pitching the phrase is a good reminder on two fronts. Firstly, if you can’t tell jokes, and very few can, don’t. Don’t feel you should try it in a midsguided attempt to get your audience on side.  The chances of it working are minimal and the more likely scenario is embarrassment.

However do make it your own cri de coeur for the pitch itself. The commonest error is focus on content to the detriment of performance, worry about what you say, rather than the way you say it. It really is the “way you tell’em” that counts. That how your performance matches the rest of Carson words,  “IT’S A CRACKER!”

The winning joke incidentally, from comic Nick Helm : “I needed a password eight characters long, so I picked Snow White and the seven dwarves.” Not that funny?