I found it to be one of the most gratifying and rewarding things I’ve ever done, and among the most memorable public speaking scenarios I’ve been in.

I heard Jerry Seinfeld, say that, generally speaking, most people fear public speaking more than they do death. And Jerry said, if that is true, most of the people at the funeral would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy.

They are difficult to write, but I found that they accelerate the grieving process, so by the time you give the eulogy, your way ahead of everybody else. And you need to be because it is hard hard hard to get through it. I mean without crying. And you see CANNOT cry during the eulogy.

But in the case of a eulogy, there is a fourth goal, and that is to say goodbye to the person in the box or the urn, and, above all to entertain that person.

It’s the weirdest of public speaking because, usually, speeches can be narrowed down to three primary basic goals: to inform, to persuade, and/or to entertain.

I have delivered seven eulogies in my life: my grandfather, my mother, my father, my father-in-law, and three of my very best friends.

Isn’t a eulogy a kind of farewell?

Both