Chris Bliss
Comedian seen on The Late Show and the Tonight Show
Topic Categories:
- A full range corporate event specialist, Chris is an experienced interviewer, moderator, and emcee in addition to his roles as a keynote speaker and featured entertainer.
- Headline comedian, with appearances on both the Tonight Show and the Late Show with David Letterman
- Toured with superstars including Michael Jackson and Eric Clapton,
- TED speaker, with over 600,000 views of his first TED talk, “Comedy Is Translation”
- Chris’s “Amazing Juggling Finale” was one of the first viral video sensations, garnering 100,000,000 hits worldwide.
*Fee ranges are presented as a guideline only. Speaker fees are subject to change without notice. For an exact quote, please contact your Speaker Exchange Agency representative.
Speaker, comedian, variety artist, and Bill of Rights proponent Chris Bliss delivers intelligent and timely commentary about our world, in the tradition of American satire from Mark Twain to Jon Stewart. Jay Leno, who featured Chris repeatedly on the Tonight Show, has called him “one of the brightest comedians around,” with the Washington Post adding that “if you’re looking to laugh, you can’t do much better than Chris Bliss.”
Chris was also one of the first surprise stars of the YouTube era, when his “Amazing Juggling Finale” video went viral to the tune of over 80,000,000 downloads. The video reprises the signature piece of his early career as an internationally acclaimed variety act, when he toured with superstars from Eric Clapton to Michael Jackson. Its internet popularity included being posted by Ringo Star on his personal website, and resulted in British R & B icon Fatboy Slim asking Chris to star in his music video “Old Pair of Jeans”, and to join him on The Late Show with David Letterman to perform the song live with the Paul Shaffer Band.
Chris’s latest venture is the Bill of Rights Monument Project at MyBillOfRights.org, a nonprofit dedicated to creating monuments of the Bill of Rights across America. Chris started the project after discovering there wasn’t a single monument to this cornerstone of our individual rights and liberties. That all changed on December 15, 2012, with dedication of the Bill of Rights Monument at the Arizona Capitol, a historic first for the State and the nation. The dedication garnered national attention, with coverage in both the New York Times and USA Today.
Culminating nearly seven years of hard work, Arizona’s monument set the table for a national effort to bring the Bill of Rights to all fifty State Capitols. That effort received a major boost with the recent airing of “Let Freedom Laugh! – The Bill of Rights Comedy Concert” on AXSTV, Chris’s first television credit as an executive producer. Taped in front of a sold out audience at the Warner Theatre in Washington, D.C., the concert was headlined by Lewis Black, and also featured comedy legends Dick Gregory and Tommy Smothers, as well as rising stars Cristela Alonzo, Ahmed Ahmed, and John Fuglesang.
Other notable achievements include Chris’s first TED talk, “Comedy Is Translation”, which has been viewed by over half a million people on TED.com, and invitations to speak at Images and Voices of Hope (IVOH.org), an annual summit of thought leaders from across the media spectrum that explores the impact of media messaging on societies worldwide, and Chicago Ideas Week, a citywide event “about the sharing of ideas, inspiring action, and igniting change to positively impact our world,” which has also presented luminaries from Bill Clinton to Tom Brokaw.
The through line connecting all these dots is Chris’s passion for communication. Whether it’s his unique approach to juggling as a musical art, his scathingly funny comedy about the absurdities of our modern world, or his commitment to spreading awareness of our founding principles, Chris Bliss is continually searching for new approaches to old conventions, and fresh ways of expressing them. The result is engaging presentations that inform as well as entertain.
One thing is certain. To paraphrase his write-up in the Washington Post, if you’re looking to laugh and think, you can’t do better than Chris Bliss.
Intelligence. Preparation. Personality. Along with his comprehensive knowledge of the structure and objectives of corporate events, these are what make Chris Bliss a dynamic choice for your client’s next conference. Whether facilitating the flow of executive presentations, moderating panel discussions, or ensuring that your meeting’s goals and takeaways are creatively reinforced throughout, Chris brings his years of public communications experience to bear in working with your advance team to cover the essential details.
As the voice of your meeting, Chris’s ability to deliver focused and disciplined messaging in a memorable way makes him an effective host for all your critical sessions. As a nationally recognized headline comedian, he can also provide an engaging keynote to open or close your conference. Toss in Chris’s amazing juggling finale, seen by tens of millions on the internet, wherever you need one last exclamation point; and you’ve got a triple threat addition to your conference from a single source talent.
During his 30-year career as a variety artist, comedian, and corporate speaker, Chris Bliss has performed live on five different continents, in front of literally millions of fans, with 80 million more having downloaded his “Amazing Juggling Finale” on the Internet.
Comedy is Translation is based on Chris’ acclaimed TED Talk of the same title. In it, Chris draws on his lifetime of experience as a verbal and visual communicator to share the artist’s perspective on how successful communication actually takes place.
Part personal memoir and part master class in comedy as communication, Chris begins by exploring the barriers to successful communication we all face. He then uses some of his favorite material to illustrate how comedy and satire overcome those barriers, and to discuss the lessons that decades of performing all over the world has taught him about connecting with an audience.
The end result is an entertaining and thoughtful discussion of how we can open new paths to fresh perspectives and critical thinking, both within ourselves and in our professional and personal lives.
A fresh and captivating voice in the tradition of American satire from Mark Twain to Jon Stewart, Chris Bliss is one of the country’s top comedians. His custom writing skills and quick wit make him an excellent choice for emcee, meeting facilitator, and corporate video spokesperson – not to mention a terrific star performer to close out any session!
Chris has opened hundred of concerts, for major stars from Eric Clapton to Asia to Kenny Loggins. He was also chosen as the exclusive opening act for Michael Jackson on his record-breaking Victory Tour.
More recently, comedy legends The Smothers Brothers personally invited Chris to join them on a series of concerts, and the #1 rated variety show in France flew him to Paris to reprise his “amazing juggling finale”, as seen on the internet by some 60,000,000 people worldwide.
Energizing your attendees is the key to a successful meeting. Chris’s refreshingly intelligent and original comedy, followed by his “amazing juggling finale”, is guaranteed to bring the house down and send your attendees out buzzing and engaged.
Telling the story of his successful but questionable quest to become the world’s most famous juggler (“a claim to fame as unimpressive as it is difficult to refute”) Chris uses his incredible finale to demonstrate the power that mastering the basics has when combined with each individual’s passion for excellence. Depending on your conference schedule, this program can be augmented with interactive juggling classes for attendees either before or after the presentation.
In addition to his on stage duties, Chris Bliss also offers a program at no additional fee where your attendees can learn basic juggling. The program length is one hour, and can be offered multiple times throughout the day to accommodate attendee schedules and be available for the maximum number in your group. Chris then selects the best students from each class, who are called up to join him on stage before his finale to demonstrate the secret of “juggling” the nonstop complexity of today’s workplace.
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