Lessons through laughter: Comedian Steve Verret breaths a little life into Safety

The liveliness of the theater was due to stand-up comedian, ordained minister, and traffic safety educator, Steve Verret’s presentation, which is designed to be both engaging and informative for service members.

Verret encouraged audience participation during his presentation through games, joke segments, and even an impression of the Jerry Springer show. His goal was to entertain while also explaining the important facts needed to be a safe driver. Marines and sailors were particularly engaged when Verret had teams compete against each other in a game similar to Family Feud, where they answered questions about the most common distractions drivers face.

Cpl. Liam Anderson, a network administrator with 3rd Network Battalion said that Verret’s style of training was significantly better at keeping the audience's attention.

“If this were a regular PowerPoint presentation, I'd say half the audience would be asleep by the end. But Steve had the audience up and interacting, which let us gain the most out of the training,” said Anderson

Verret has been teaching these safety presentations for service members for over 20 years with positive results. Shawn Curtis, the Installation Safety Office safety director, with Marine Corps Installation Pacific, said this style of training had a visible impact on the audience.

“They are retaining the information. We are giving them an opportunity to learn in a different way and they do. They answered questions, so you can tell how impactful this was,” said Curtis.

Although meant for junior service members, many senior enlisted and officers also find a benefit in Verret’s presentation. U.S. Marine Col. David Banning, MCIPAC Headquarters and Support Battalion commanding officer, spoke on the necessity of having different ways to teach Marines.

“We have to figure out as many different ways as we can to communicate the importance of a topic to Marines and Sailors of the force,” said Banning.

With this delivery method Verret believes he can give back to the service members he speaks to. “I believe that if there is any group of people on earth who deserve to be helped it’s those young men and women who would fight for our country. So, if I can save one life doing this kind of show, I’ve done my job.“