CRESTVIEW — Jeanne Robertson tours the country telling crowds funny stories about her life.
"One of the ways I enjoy life is I look for humor every day and I try to find it," the 71-year-old said.
Then, she shares it.
Her next stop is "Fit, Fierce and Fabulous! At Any Age," an Aug. 4 Healthy Woman dinner presented by North Okaloosa Medical Center.
Alicia Booker, Healthy Woman's program coordinator, said Robertson's presentation fits the event's theme.
"We wanted our attendees to have an evening of great information, great food and great entertainment," Booker said. "Jeanne Robertson fit the bill perfectly because she is certainly known as a great entertainer.
"Jeanne came highly recommended by one of our board of trustee members who had the opportunity to see her perform at another venue…"
Tickets already are sold out for the dinner, which begins at 6 p.m. at the Crestview Community Center.
LOOK FOR LIFE'S HUMOR
Having a sense of humor helps when difficult issues arise, Robertson said.
"Whether stressful situations occur or you have to make unpopular choices, if you can keep a sense of humor, it is a talent that lets us work with people every day," she said. "It keeps us fabulous; it keeps us fit."
Robertson said she recalled being at the airport once and learning, along with other travelers, the flight was delayed. She noticed, walking up to the gate, how tense everybody else was.
She knew it didn't have to be that way.
"I looked at them and they were angry, and I am just sitting here looking for somebody … saying something funny," Robertson said.
Instead of getting stressed, she wrote down anything she found hilarious about the delay.
That situation — and others over the past 52 years she has been a professional speaker — "reinforced that what I do is a great way to live your life," she said. "If you look for (humor amid chaos), you can find it."
'YOU CAN'T TAKE THEM WITH YOU'
Everyday chaos — like a routine trip to the grocery store gone awry — plays out in many of Robertson's speeches.
In an almost eight-minute clip on YouTube, Robertson tells the audience about the time she sent her husband, Jerry — whom she affectionately calls "Left Brain" — to the store for ingredients to make her go-to comfort food: a 7 Up pound cake.
He has master's and doctorate degrees, she says in the clip, but "I don't care how many pieces of paper you frame and put on the wall; if you have a left brain, it's gon' kick in on you — and it kicked in on him about the third aisle of that grocery store…"
She had numbered the list of items for Jerry to purchase, and his brain multiplied those by each ingredient's quantity, which gave way to hilarious results.
The third item was a dozen eggs; the fourth item, a tub of lard; fifth, 5 pounds of sugar; and sixth, 5 pounds of flour. So naturally he bought three dozen eggs, four tubs of lard, 25 pounds of sugar and 30 pounds of flour.
You'll have to watch the clip — which has more than 7.5 million views — to hear what the cashier, who knew Jerry, said to Jeanne the next time she went to the grocery store.
INTERNET'S 'TREMENDOUS ADVANTAGE'
Robertson — who recently learned her YouTube channel hit 28 million views — said she sees the Internet's advantage.
"First, we just put up two (videos) a year, and people kept writing, saying, 'Put up more, put up more,' and we put up more," she said.
Some of her colleagues find it a chore to keep up with, but Robertson has embraced social media.
"I got so into Facebook," she said. "I do my own Facebook; I wouldn't have anybody (else) doing it."
She said she loves chatting with people on her Facebook page.
"I'm not saying people my age have to adopt (Internet use), but it's a tremendous advantage," Robertson said, adding that Skype, Facebook and other programs can help people stay connected with friends and family members.
And she hopes people who share her clips will realize the importance of oral storytelling.
"If you don't tell your family and younger people these family stories, you can't take them with you," Robertson said. "They bring joy to your family, and if you write them down or record them and share them with people, they continue on.
"Everybody has these family stories. What I want the women to do that day (in Crestview) is say, "She's been a fly on the wall in my house. The same thing happened to me."
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Public speaker encourages Crestview residents to find fun amid life's chaos