Even for a speaker as famously gifted as President Barack Obama, business executives are a tough crowd. In my experience, they don't laugh out loud at jokes as easily and carefree as, say, college students and others who might be more prone to laugh, clap, cheer or swoon at Obama's wit. By contrast, the gray-suit crowd is more likely to turn to one another after a good punch line and murmur without a smile: "Funny."