New Orleans comedian Mike Strecker publishes a joke book for kids

Mike Strecker is a stand up comedian who has published a series of joke books for kids. Photo by Sally Asher

Mike Strecker is a stand-up comedian who has been performing in the New Orleans area since 1995. And now, he is a published book author. Mike recently released two volumes of jokes, Young Comic’s Guide to Telling Jokes Vol. 1 and 2, which are nationally distributed by Sterling Children’s Books.

“The way it came about… my wife’s a school teacher, and I have a habit of coming up with these corny little jokes. And she would say, ‘You have to write these down; kids love these kinds of books.’

So I wound up writing them down, and sure enough, I sent them away and a publisher wanted  to publish them.”

“First I wrote 150 jokes—I figured that would make one volume. Little did I know!” laughs Mike. “I sent it away, and they said, ‘Yes, we like this. But we want to make two volumes of 600 jokes each.’”

Whew! That’s a lot of jokes!

Mike rose to the challenge, and spent the next few months torturing his wife and kids with experimental puns and word play.

“I have to say, the experience was pure joy,” says Mike. “Some days I’d come up with ten, other days, I’d come home and say, ‘Honey, what a day! I did 45 jokes!’ Finally, she was like, ‘Can you turn this off?’”

“There is a pun every where you look…. Once you start looking for them!” says Mike.

Mike’s books came out in January 2017. Included with over 600 jokes each are tips of how to deliver jokes, which Mike developed from his 20+ year career in standup comedy. For example, a joke should always be delivered conversationally. “Act natural,” says Mike. “Don’t read your jokes from this book or any book.”

Mike is already working on a followup, which is tentatively titled “Jokes for Crescent City Kids.”

You can catch Mike performing his family-friendly brand of stand up comedy around New Orleans. Check out his schedule at http://openmikestrecker.com/index.html