Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas often shows up on lists of the top 20 opera houses in the world.
Hall of Fame speaker Jeanne Robertson is one of the world's most enjoyable speaker/comedian/storytellers, so theirs is a match of perfection.
As great as the world's opera singers are, none can brag that they have 65 million views of their best work on YouTube. Jeanne can. Only by the time you read this, she'll have added another half million.
Jeanne built her career on entertaining at corporate conferences and association meetings. Now, at age 75, she performs at some of the great halls across the U.S. This was her third visit to Bass Hall, and it was a sellout.
Jeanne has a top 10, no , make that a top 100 list of popular stories. Her audiences want to hear the best-of, such as what it was like to break her femur bone and recuperate in a hospital bed watching crazy late night television while on pain-killing drugs.
She poked fun at HGTV shows, her wardrobe consultant who tried to convert the North Carolina native to a New York style (didn't work, fortunately) and even the notion of an encore.
Look, she told her audience in the final minutes, why go through the charade of her walking off, everyone applauding and then returning to the stage for an encore story? Why not skip all that and head straight to the encore? The audience roared!
It was one of those nights where audience members laughed so hard for so long that their insides hurt. Just a typical night in Jeanne Robertson's world.
If she comes to a city near you, make sure you come and bring your friends.
Note: The author, Dave Lieber, is a columnist for The Dallas Morning News. Like Jeanne, he's a member of the National Speakers Association. He's earned the designation of a certified professional speaker, one of only a thousand in the world. He considers Jeanne one of his mentors.
