How often have you heard man start a speech with a joke? Too often probably. Speakers with minuscule touch tend to tell jokes just to get a laugh in the hope the audience will warm up to them. The jokes are often irrelevant to the topic of their speech.
Experienced speakers know there are good ways to add humor to a speech or presentation, including:.
Using funny stories and anecdotes--not jokes--in your speech
Everyone has had bad experiences that come to be funny with the passage of time. They make great stories Remember that today's tragedy is tomorrow's funny anecdote.
If you don't feel comfortable talking about yourself, borrow stories from other people. It's proper to as long as you credit the source.
Collecting Stories from your audience
"Jollytologist" Allen Klein tells how he'd often ask his audiences "How do you spell relief?" "L-A-U-G-H" was his answer. Then during one of his presentations, an audience member cried out, "D-I-V-O-R-C-E." It was hysterical. Klein now relates the story as part of many of his presentations.
Creating a fun atmosphere in the room before you speak
Since I'm a old news anchor and sportscaster, I sometimes arranged for the man introducing me to show some of my worst on-air bloopers in video clips (there was plentifulness of material to draw from). The bloopers always got citizen laughing, and also let them know I wasn't afraid to laugh at myself a little--a great way to connect with them right from the start.
Self-denigrating humor
In the 70's, President Gerald Ford was skewered normally on Saturday Night Live about his lack of grace. Ford struck back by production fun of himself good than the Snl writers ever could.
He told his audiences about the night he met his wife Betty, and how he wanted to dance with her "in the worst way." Then he'd say, "And Betty later told me I did just that--dance in the worst way."
Ford also said he had to come to be the town on his college football team because town was the only position where he didn't have to move my feet.
If man as prominent as a old president can poke fun at himself, the rest of us can too. Self-denigrating humor is a noteworthy tool.
Using interesting props in your speech
I'd sometimes bring along "Ifb" to use as a as a prop. An Ifb (which stands for "interruptible feedback) is an ear piece Tv reporters use when they're doing live reports from the scene of a news story. The Ifb allows them to hear what the citizen back in the studio are saying to them as they're being introduced, and also allows them to hear questions the anchors might ask.
I would sometimes show a blooper clip of what can happen when something goes wrong with an Ifb. The clip showed a female reporter stuttering and stammering during a live report. She sounded truly smashed. She wasn't.
It turns out man had unintentionally pressed the wrong button back in the control room, and the reporter was hearing her own words in her Ifb about half a second after she spoke, which, take my word for it, is extremely distracting. For about 15 seconds, she battled and tried to be as expert as she could, but the harder she tried, the funnier she sounded. She ultimately ripped the Ifb from her ear and continued her report.
The clip always got the audience howling.
Borrowing humor
The Internet is a great place to find one liners and funny quotes. Personally, I borrowed often from Yogi Berra ("When you come to a fork in the road, take it..."), Will Rogers ("when Democrats want to form a firing squad, they get into a circle...") and many others.
Buying humor from citizen who sell it
There are professionals who will write funny stuff for you, and they're ordinarily not expensive. You can also check your local comedy club and hire man who's probably pretty good at writing one liners. Or do a hunt for "humor writers" or "humorists" on the Internet.
Steve Allen once said, "People would rather be entertained than educated." But if you can entertain and educate at the same time, you have the makings of a great speech--without ever telling a singular joke.
Add Humor to Your Speech Without Telling Jokes
