Code:
 
on *:text:*:#a: {
  var %text = $1-
  tokenize 32 $strip($1-)
  if ($nick == jon) {
    ;msg #b %text | halt
    ;^ remarked out as you want only selected statments (see below)
    if (hello* iswm $1-) { msg #b %text | halt }
    if (how* iswm $1-) { msg #b %text | halt }
    if (*bowlingball* iswm $1-) { msg #b %text | halt }
  }
}

i store the original text in %text as it might have colors in it, then strip the colors and tokenize it into $1- as this also removes multiple spaces, this makes ISWM matching real easy.