In the sake of time I’m going to be focused sharply and may not have full explanation so bear with me.
In my youth I had the great opportunity to work with, and be mentored by, a spokesperson for the Supreme Court of the United States. Back when that position held SERIOUS clout. [Incidentally, GOP Congressman, and later House Speaker Newt Gingrich, also knew this fellow quite well.]
The guy could just flat out debate and deconstruct better than the next closest 100 people combined. He was an intellectual powerhouse of significant magnitude, and ultimately would forget more about position advancement than anyone else would ever learn.
What you saw Don West do with the knock-knock joke (albeit stumbly bumbly) was a cognitive reset. When you ask an engaged listening audience (during debate), in this case a jury: “how many pancakes does it take to fill a canoe”? It’s like taking a massive cognitive eraser to a mental white board.
All prior thoughts are frozen, all ponderings of what you just heard stop; and, most importantly, your focus is unintentionally snapped into position, on the questioner, by the questioner.
It is a classic old school cognitive reset tool to get people to not only stop thinking about what was previous, but it actually wipes out memory. It’s just the way synapses fire – Awesome job by West regardless of how it made him look. (more…)








