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Top Toastmaster is a master of wit

Auburn man has knack for laughs

By Bill Fortier

Darren J. LaCroix is proof that sometimes appearances truly can be deceiving.

It was Wednesday night at EasCorp in Woburn and the pressure was on Mr. LaCroix, the winner last month of Toastmaster International’s World Championship of Public Speaking.

As Mr. LaCroix, of 9 Jade Hill Road, Auburn, stood anxiously off in the corner of a tent where about 70 employees – the company provides technical support for credit unions in the state- talked and laughed with each other, it was hard to believe the thin, balding, 35-year old Mr. LaCroix would soon transform himself into a self-assured King of Comedy,. He would then regale his audience with a 40-minute performance that frequently caused laughter to echo out into the parking lot of the Unicorn Industrial Park.

Added to the equation was the fact it was Mr. LaCroix’s first public speaking appearance since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.

“There’s no question this is the most interesting night of my career,” he said before going to work.

EasCorp Vice President Alan Bernstein introduced Mr. LaCroix by telling the audience about his recent victory in California.

“So we have quite a celebrity in our midst,” he said.

“When I talked to Mr. Bernstein, I knew there were a lot of comedians who get the chance to perform on the red-hot credit union circuit,” he said. He then went into a riff on the abbreviations used in the course of daily business-which had tears rolling down the cheeks of some employees.

During his talk, Mr. LaCroix’s voice became hoarse.

“Can somebody get me some water,” he asked.

Nobody moved.

“This is not a joke,” he said.

Da-dum.

“You know a lot of people look at me, and they’re worried about me and what I’m going to be doing,” Mr. LaCroix said after he finished his routine. “But, once I take the stage, it’s my house.”

For Mr. LaCroix, the recent events have been the latest segment of an unlikely long distance trip that started about nine years ago when a friend gave him a tape. On that tape, a speaker asked a listener: What would you most like to do if you wouldn’t fail in trying?

Mr. LaCroix always wanted to be a stand-up comedian, and so he decided to give it a try. His first performance was on April 24, 1992, at the Stitches comedy club in Boston.

“I just knew it was something I wanted to try,”he said, adding that he still finds it painful to watch the tape of that night when he nervously described the activities of Dr. Robert Goddard with hand gestures that weren’t always in synch with what he was talking about.

“It’s better to have tried and not succeeded than always regretting that I didn’t try,” he said.

He put it another way in his championship winning speech.

“Would you rather do something you love or go through life knowing you paid all your bills on time?”

Now he realizes the Toastmaster’s prize gives him a launching pad to accomplish both. In fact, he’s recently hired a publicist who will use the recent win in Anaheim as a marketing tool in getting more business as a humorous keynote speaker at events such as the one at EasCorp.

The thing is, Mr. LaCroix — a man who owns the Humor Institute Inc., which offers programs to teach people how to be funnier, and is the author of a book and compact disc titled “Laugh and Get Rich” — readily admits he was about the least funny person in his class at Auburn’s middle and high schools.

“The first time I ever made my brother laugh was when I told him I wanted to be a comedian.” he said one recent rainy afternoon.

Da-dum.

Mr. LaCroix, whose picture is on the wall of humor at the Aku Aku in Worcester, is scheduled to speak Tuesday at Kendra J. Underwood’s seventh-grade class at the middle school.

“I had Darren in the seventh grade,” Mrs. Underwood said. “I can’t say I remember him as being a good public speaker, but he had a great personality.”

Mrs. Underwood said she’s very proud of what her former student has accomplished.

“His real message is that you can become whatever you want to be,” she said. “I can’t wait to hear him.”

When asked whether the self admitted “nerd,” gave any indication of being a humorous kind of guy when she had Mr. LaCroix as a student, Mrs. Underwood laughed.

“Well, no, actually,” she said.

Lifelong friend James W. Boland, now a sales representative in Chicago, said he talks with Mr. LaCroix about once a month.

He recalls his friend as a stand-alone comedian, guy, who was very observant.

“I guess I’m sort of surprised he’s chosen this path, but I’m not surprised that he’s done well at the path he has chosen,” Mr. Boland said.

Toastmasters International is an organization that helps people become more comfortable with speaking in public. Mr.LaCroix said he is the first person from Massachusetts to win in the 77 years the organization has held World Championship of Public Speaking contests.

About 20,000 people from 30 countries participated in the championship, which began in the spring. Mr. LaCroix won with a 71/2-minute speech about failure that began with him falling on his face on stage and his telling the 2,000 people in the main ballroom of the Anaheim Hilton that you can’t be afraid to fail.

When he finished, the tape of his speech shows, he pumped his fist skyward.

“I knew I nailed it,” he said, adding that being fifth of the nine finalists gave him a chance to hone his performance.

Suzanne Fey, publication, manager for Toastmaster International in Rancho Santa Margarita, Calif., was in the audience the day Mr. LaCroix performed.

“I think when he finished, a lot of people thought he was the winner,” she said. “He really stood out.”

While not one of the 18 judges, Ms. Fey said his face-first pratfall at the beginning got the audience’s attention.

“He had a universal message about overcoming failure,” she said. “His speech was dramatic, and the humor in it didn’t hurt.”

Winning international speaking contests doesn’t just happen, Mr. LaCroix said. For example, he said,he spent hours watching the finalists in the last 10 World Championship contests perform.

He usually arrives at least 60 minutes before speaking to gauge the mind-set of the audience.

EasCorp Chief Executive Officer Jane Melchionda said the event had been postponed a week because of the terrorist actions.

“We felt it was time to move on, time to get back to normal, so we decided to hold it,’ she said before Mr. LaCroix took the microphone.

After he finished, Ms. Melchionda said it was the right thing to do. “He was great,” she said. “He gave us something tonight I think we all needed.”

As seen in the Telegram & Gazette.