Sales Through Humor Kiss - Alive During the ninth grade at high school I had the good fortune of being introduced to the self proclaimed "hottest band in the land" ... Kiss. Perhaps it was the way I was introduced to the band that was so memorable. There was a guy named Paul in my French class. Paul was different. Paul was the most hyper active person I have met. I once thought of myself as hyper active but after meeting Paul this was no longer a concern. Our French teacher's name was Madame Viancourt and she was exactly the type of person who should NEVER become a teacher. She was a nervous mess and totally incapable of managing the mildest of classes let alone a class with a youngster like Paul. On top of Paul's inability to calm down he maintained a dark sense of humor that I found rather fascinating at the time. On one occasion we were playing a game of hangman. If you are not familiar with this game it worked like this. One person chooses a word and keeps that word to him/herself. They then go to the chalk board and place an underscore for each letter of their secret word. Then members of the class guess at the letters and try to form the word. Every correct letter is placed over the underscore where that letter exists in the secret word. If the guess is incorrect a portion of a hangman's noose and gallows is drawn on the board. The winner can be the person who guesses the word or the person who's word could not be guessed before the hangman is drawn. So on this day we had a little time left at the end of the class and Paul was selected to have the secret word. Well he was beside himself because you could tell that he had "the best" word. He went to the board and started underscoring _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ he stops. We start guessing and get nowhere so he wins. Then finally after Mme V. begging him for ten minutes he gives in. "Ok" he says, "my word was F a l l o p i a n T u b e" He wrote it out as he said it. Well half the class had no idea what this was and the other half was dying as Mme. V. attempted to give Paul some kind of meaningful comment. I found this a stroke of comic genius. This French class was the first class after lunch so most of us were quite energetic. On this day Paul arrived a few moments late and was told to stand at the far end of the class. I suspect Paul had a little too much chocolate milk at lunch. About ten minutes into the class Paul ran full speed across the room and leapt atop of the first row of desks. "Paul!" shouted Mme. V. Paul was about to break into the most exciting air-guitar sequence I have ever seen. There he stood defiantly facing the class right arm held high in the air, guitar pick in hand and the left hand holding the imaginary guitar neck. You could just invision that Gibson Flying V hanging off his hip. "Alright everybody" Paul shouted with this put on New York accent. "It's getting so hot in here, I think it's getting... Hotter Than Hell!" From this moment and for the next five minutes he ran up and down the desks screaming the lyrics to this Kiss song until he stops and shouts "Ace Frehley, lead guitar!" and he starts this bizarre dance while screaming a series of guitar like riffs. Well I was sold on the Kiss Alive album and for the next three years of my life I enjoyed Kiss concerts and albums. I even went as far as putting the make up on myself a couple of times. I was a Kiss fan. Poor old Mme. V. didn't really gain the same inspiration or amusement the rest of us did, in fact this event was the straw that broke her. You see while Paul was so aggressively entertaining us she was having a nervous break down in the corner. Paul didn't really stop until the bell rang ending this 40 minute class and when the silence fell over the class she was left crying in her corner. The end of one career and potentially the beginning of a new one. I was a Paul fan too.