BULL GARLINGTON
Keynote Speaker & Award-Winning Humorist
from Chicago
To properly understand Bull Garlington, you have to hear him talk. No slides. No mic. No notes. Just his searing, street-preacher vibe filling the room as he holds an audience in the palm of his hand. Based in Chicago, Bull is an award-winning humorist, a wildly engaging corporate keynote speaker, and a writer who has been publishing stories since before cell phones were a thing. Whether you are hunting down a laugh-out-loud travel memoir like Fat in Paris, learning how sending personal cards is a marketing superpower, or trying to book a speaker who can disarm a room full of corporate suits without a net—you’ve landed in the right place.
Is there a better, richer, more durable goal besides productivity?
Is there a better way to motivate staff who are overwhelmed, over extended, and drowning in emails and Slack notifications?
There is. I’ve been writing about it for ten years. Productivity is not a goal, it’s a result. A symptom of a satisfied crew. The antidote to overwhelm is not maintaining inbox zero, nor is it better organization. It’s not external—it’s internal. Seemingly minor changes—which pen you use, how you take notes, the way you listen—small differences such as these can turn a flatline manager into a superstar. Garlington’s core message is not how to do more, but how to enrich your inner self, how to develop the foundational interests that become wildly valuable intangible assets.
help your team reclaim what's real.
Loud. Inspiring. Hilarious.
Bull’s appearances are not performances. He is authentic and warm, suffused with Dutch uncle energy, ready to tell a wild story or run a workshop with generosity, inclusiveness, and kindness.
is bull the right corporate keynote speaker for your event?
Has your team armed themselves with pitchforks and torches?
One more trust fall and they’re out. They won’t be motivated by that handsome jet pilot’s story, they’re allergic to synergy, and if you try to get them to think outside the box one more time they’re going to put you in it. Then mail you to the north pole.
Match your vibe:
Our team is completely burned out on tech and AI-generated jargon.
Your Goal: A high-energy, engaging presentation that acts as a palate cleanser against workplace burnout and clinical AI copy.
The Program Match: Write More Better Now—Today!
- Why Bull is Your Match: Bull completely abandons the stale, clinical corporate script. He steps off the stage, throws out the slides, and uses raw, captivating storytelling to hold the room in the palm of his hand. It feels less like a lecture and more like a masterclass in human connection.
- The Vibe: Authentic, loose, fiercely engaging, and genuinely hilarious—while delivering a suite of simple hacks to ramp up your team’s communication, crush skill erosion, and give them the confidence to write their own work.
- Bull’s Hashtags: Unconventional corporate speaker, funny business storyteller, interactive keynote Chicago, high-energy conference headliner.
- The Bottom Line: Your audience will still be talking, laughing, and referencing his stories at the closing cocktail hour.
We want funny—but it has to be safe. Don’t go rogue. Don’t make us call HR.
Your Goal: You are planning an event for a traditionally conservative industry (finance, manufacturing, associations). You want someone funny and engaging, but you cannot afford an unpredictable loose cannon.
- Why Bull is Safe For Your Stage: Don’t let the “no slides, street-preacher” energy fool you. Bull is a deeply experienced corporate vendor and a veteran writer for business magazines. He deeply respects the corporate sandbox. His humor is clean, universally relatable, and built entirely around professional growth.
- The “No-Slide” Insurance Policy: Going without slides isn’t a lack of preparation—it’s a deliberate, high-level engagement strategy. It means Bull is fully present with your crowd, reading the room in real-time, and keeping eyes locked on the front of the room instead of a glowing screen.
- The Real Business ROI: Every single joke serves a core instructional takeaway. He wraps hard data on employee retention, focus, and mindset inside unforgettable stories, meaning your team leaves with concrete, actionable tools.
We need an author who can pack a room and put on a side-splitting show.
Your Goal: You are booking an unforgettable headliner for a library gala, writers’ conference, independent bookstore event, or community arts series. You want an author who isn’t just going to sit at a podium and drone through a dry reading, but someone who will deliver a side-splitting, high-energy performance that sells books.
- Why Bull is Your Match: Bull is an award-winning humorist and a master of the live literary essay. When he takes the mic, his memoirs like Fat in Paris and The Full English transform into roaring, live-action storytelling sessions. He blends the sharp wit of a seasoned columnist with the frantic, laugh-out-loud pacing of a stand-up comic.
- The Books & The Signing Table: Bull makes the post-event book signing an absolute happening. Audiences don’t just walk away with a standard signature—they get a personalized, interactive interaction with a writer who treats every single reader like an old friend. It is a high-volume, high-margin, book-selling spectacle.
- The Search Terms Bull Answers For You: Funny author event speaker, hilarious memoirist keynote, library gala entertainer, humor writer guest lecturer.
- The Bottom Line: Your attendees will laugh until their sides hurt, buy every book on the table, and leave your donors asking when you can book him back.
Our members hate high-brow buzzwords. Give us practical, down-to-earth humor.
Your Goal: You are a regional director or meeting planner for a Midwest trade association (manufacturing, logistics, agriculture, or contracting). Your members work hard, travel far, and have zero patience for abstract, academic theories or high-brow corporate buzzwords. They need a general session speaker who is down-to-earth, deeply funny, and immediately useful.
- Why Bull is Your Match: Bull brings what he calls “Dutch uncle energy”—a warm, authentic, completely unpretentious style that resonates deeply with practical, blue-collar, and mid-market professionals. He skips the lofty “synergy” speeches and tells real, gritty, hilarious stories about managing workplace overwhelm, fixing burnout, and restoring communication without looking at an inbox.
- The “Street-Preacher” Takeaway: Because he leans strictly into instructional storytelling, he doesn’t just entertain—he instructs. He takes complex concepts about teamwork, mental focus, and professional legacy and delivers them through memorable parables that your members will recall months down the line.
- The Search Terms Bull Answers For You: Midwest association keynote speaker, funny trade show speaker, practical workplace humorist, blue-collar conference storyteller.
- The Bottom Line: He breaks the ice on day one, bridges the gap between different generations in your membership, and provides the exact practical tools your board demands.
Is Bull Available for Your Event?
The Perfect Creative Partner
Creative, capable, enthusiastic, energetic and generous, Chris Garlington is the perfect creative partner. He’s a terrific writer and works beyond the call, presenting ideas, feedback and a much-needed slice of humor to help your projects succeed. His “Analog Attorney” column on our website AttorneyatW...
My Go-to Guy.
Bull is my go-to guy when I need a kick-ass presentation. He’s able to stand in front of any sized group, deliver humorous and engaging talks on a myriad of subjects and I’m always asked to bring him back for another talk. Every. Single. Time. Hire this guy. Now.
Brilliantly funny.
Chris is a warm, informative, and brilliantly funny public speaker. I was fortunate to have him speak to several publishing and author groups/organizations I’m involved with and was so pleased at his ability to combine helpful guidance for writers with humorous stories of his own experiences in publi...
Extremely Enlightening.
My short attention span doesn’t allow me to focus for a very long time, however Bull’s talk made me hyper focused on every word. My only disappointment was that it was too short! I cannot wait to hear Bull again. Extremely enlightening.
Outstanding Work.
Christoper created and maintained a campaign web presence and ads for a political campaign. They were outstanding.
About bull garlington
Author. Freelancer. Gumbo tech.
Bull Garlington is an award-winning writer and speaker focused on helping professionals reclaim their authenticity from a digital world that’s trying to eat them alive. His talks do not directly address work-life-balance by paying lip-service to authenticity. These workshops and presentations aren’t a basket of hashtags. They are warm, inclusive, and real.
Speaking for non-profits, small firms, major organizations, and private clubs around Chicago, the Great Lakes region, and the US, Bull’s talks consistently deliver a fresh take on how your team can experience of kind of refresh, learning how to write better, think more clearly, become more creative, and generally enrich their inner lives, developing that one most powerful intangible asset: themselves.
His writing has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and online since before there were cell phones. His 2017 memoir, The Full English, was the IndieFab Humor Book of the Year. His collection of award-winning essays, Death By Children, was the IndieFab 2013 Humor Book of the Year. His current book, Fat in Paris, is currently a Foreword Reviews Indies humor book of the year finalist for 2023. He is co-founder of All American Whiskey, an award-winning whiskey culture site.
Garlington lives in Chicago with his wife, Colleen, and a cat named Jones.
Book a Brief Call with Bull:
Schedule a quick fifteen to thirty minute call to see if Bull’s presentations are right for your event.
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