# Greg Schwem Corporate Comedian, Business Humorist & Humorous Keynote Speaker Canonical: https://mornings.network/shows/center-stage/guests/greg-schwem ## Biography Greg Schwem is one of America's most in-demand corporate comedians, a nationally syndicated humor columnist, three-time bestselling author, and the man the Chicago Tribune called "king of the hill in the world of corporate comedy." Based in Chicago, Schwem has spent more than three decades doing something most people consider impossible: walking into the most serious rooms in American business — the annual conferences of Microsoft, McDonald's, IBM, Cisco, General Motors, and the CIA — and making everyone in them laugh at themselves. His brand of humor is clean, deeply customized, and built on the conviction that laughter is not a break from the work — it is the work. Schwem's path into corporate comedy traces back to his early career as a television news reporter, including a stint at a Florida NBC affiliate, before he made the pivot into stand-up and discovered his true calling in the corporate market. What he found was a niche almost no one had claimed: comedy that meets organizations exactly where they are, speaks their language, knows their acronyms, understands their culture, and uses that intimacy to generate genuine laughter rather than generic jokes. That approach — immersive, research-first, audience-first — has earned him the loyalty of Fortune 500 clients across industries and the designation "Your boss's favorite comedian" from HuffPost. He has opened concert stages alongside Celine Dion, Keith Urban, Enrique Iglesias, Jay Leno, and Styx, and has appeared on Comedy Central, VH-1, Sirius XM Laugh USA, FOX News, and Caroline's Comedy Hour. Beyond the stage, Schwem has built a media presence that extends well beyond the speaking circuit. Since 2011, he has written the weekly "Humor Hotel" column for Tribune Content Agency, a nationally syndicated humor column that has twice earned him recognition from the National Society of Newspaper Columnists for outstanding humor writing. He is the author of three books, including the Amazon bestsellers *Text Me If You're Breathing: Observations, Frustrations and Life Lessons From a Low-Tech Dad* and *The Road to Success Goes Through the Salad Bar: A Pile of BS (Business Stories) From a Corporate Comedian*. In 2018, he launched the travel web series *A Comedian Crashes Your Pad*, in which he stayed in quirky Airbnb properties and filmed his encounters with hosts and guests. The series won a Telly Award for Travel and Tourism in 2020 and now streams on Roku, Amazon Fire, and Apple TV. In January 2024, Schwem's life took a turn that would test everything he had ever preached from the stage. While already in the midst of a gray divorce — the dissolution of a 29-year marriage — he received a diagnosis of a malignant tumor lying flat on his colon. Stage II colon cancer, discovered during a routine colonoscopy despite no family history and no symptoms. The surgery removed the tumor along with 18 inches of colon. He did not require chemotherapy or radiation. Both the divorce and the cancer were happening at the same time. As he described it plainly: "There wasn't a whole lot to laugh about in that span of time." What Schwem did next was characteristically him: he grabbed a laptop, propped it on hospital pillows, and started writing. The result was *Turning Gut Punches into Punch Lines: A Comedian's Journey Through Cancer, Divorce, and Other Hilarious Stuff* — a new book and a new keynote that teaches audiences how to locate humor in the unfunniest of circumstances. The personal reckoning also surfaced something Schwem had observed with growing concern: the invisibility of men in the national conversation about gray divorce. When Oprah did a major podcast episode on gray divorce, the audience was overwhelmingly women. Support groups for divorcees rarely center the male experience. Schwem became an accidental voice for that gap — a man in his 60s who found himself suddenly alone, relearning how to date, how to manage finances, how to make new friends, and how to build a life from scratch. He discusses this openly, not with bitterness, but with the self-deprecating candor that defines his best material. "If you can laugh at yourself," he says, "things will get better." Today, Greg Schwem continues to perform for corporate audiences worldwide, advocate for colorectal cancer screening as a volunteer for the Colorectal Cancer Alliance, and remind anyone who will listen that humor is not a luxury in hard times — it is a survival mechanism, a communication tool, and a vital sign of organizational and personal health. His keynote *Turning Gut Punches into Punch Lines* has become one of his most requested programs, proof that an audience of business professionals responds just as powerfully to vulnerability as to a perfectly timed punchline. ## Links - linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregschwem - instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gregschwem/ ## Transcript Be honest. When was the last time you laughed so hard at work that the slide deck actually got better afterward? Imagine the guy whose full-time job is walking into those serious boardrooms and making everyone laugh at themselves again. That guy is Greg. Corporate comedian, business humor speaker, and professional fixer of boring meetings. For more than 30 years, he has flown into ballrooms and breakouts, turning Microsoft, McDonald's, IBM, and United into punchlines. He has opened for Celine Dion, Keith Urban, and Jay Leno. Proving clean comedy can still shake a thousand people awake. He researches every client, learning their acronyms, jokes, and truths, then builds sets that feel like they were written in house. He even created a travel series, A Comedian Crashes Your Pad. Living in bizarre Airbnbs while making strangers and corporate crowds howl. Today, his sweet spot is leaders and teams who secretly know their culture is tired and need permission to be playful again. Offstage, he is a gray divorce survivor after 29 years of marriage, asking why support groups forget the men. He stared down stage 2 colon cancer, turning chemo chairs and bright hospital corridors into material, refusing to let fear own the microphone. Underneath every joke is his belief that humor is not optional at work. It is a vital sign of health. Greg, we're excited to sit down with you today. Welcome to Mornings in the Lab. Keith: Greg Schwem, what a shaking brother. Greg: Hey. Hey, dude. Hey, bro. I'm sorry. I had to start off with that. Keith: Good morning, Greg. Where are you joining us from today, brother? Greg: From Chicago. Keith: listen, thanks for joining us in the lab here this morning. It's not lost upon you that you have been fortunate in your career to open up for some pretty high-profile people. Greg: Yeah. Yeah. I've had a pretty great career, I think, as a corporate comedian and a business humor speaker, which is sort of a special niche that I've been able to just immerse myself in. And that was going great. And then you obviously even comedians have problems in their lives. I think a lot of times people don't realize that. I think a lot of times people think comedians were just put on earth to entertain others. Keith: You're a cancer survivor and you're a divorce survivor, and those occurred simultaneously. Greg: Yeah. And those those occurred simultaneously. So I've had a pretty great career as a corporate comedian and a business humor speaker. And that was going great. And then you know, you obviously even comedians have problems in their lives. I think a lot of times people don't realize that.