Public
Speaking: Using Humor & Comedy
Have
you ever heard the old saying "always open
with a joke"?
That
can be a complete disaster!
If
you "open with a joke" and they find
it not-funny or worse, offensive, you may not
be able to recover from that.
You
will have ruined your seminar right from the very
start. You might as well just go home.
On
the other hand, humor - if done properly - can
be a great tool in your presentation. When people
laugh, they feel good and it gets them "on
your side".
If
you are naturally funny, then working in humor
is going to work for you.
On
the other hand, if you're not naturally funny
and you try to force it, you're going to be heading
for disaster because the crowd will see you as
fake.
Here's
the two best ways to use humor - and safely -
in your seminars and public speaking engagements:
The
first way is to simply put up funny slides on
the screen. A well-placed cartoon with a funny
caption can have the crowd rolling on the floor
laughing.
But
even if they just chuckle, that's okay.
The
other way to use humor - and in my opinion this
is the best possible way to use humor - is to
simply use funny quotes.
Funny
quotes are best for two reasons:
1.
It's not YOU saying it!
2.
You can whip them out fast and easy.
Memorize
at least three funny quotes. Then at the appropriate
time in your seminar talk, you can use one of
them.
Funny
quotes are better than telling jokes or funny
stories for 2 reason:
1.
Quotes take less time.
2.
Quotes are safer!
You
never know if people will pay attention to your
story or even get the humor of it, or if you're
not good at telling stories you're going to blow
it and leave out something critical.
And
jokes are just plain risky, you never know who
you're going to offend.
But
even if you say a funny quote that someone finds
offensive, it's easy to recover from that, you
just say:
"Boy,
I'm glad that so-and-so said that and not me!"
And
even that will probably get another laugh!
So
when it comes to humor, take the safe way and
use funny quotes! Go find three right now and
memorize them right away.
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