A speech can be interesting, informative and highly entertaining without being humorous. Most speakers are invited because they are well informed on a specific subject and it is of interest to the audience, the listeners do not necessarily expect to be entertained. For entertainment they would hire an entertainer. However, humor has a number of great benefits in helping the speaker to be more effective in achieving the overall purpose of their speech. Read More→
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Archive for funny speech writing
Thursday,
December
10th,
2009
Stop. How funny was the last speech that you gave? What – you were talking about how best to diversify a 401k basket of investments in order to incorporate more foreign exchange funds & there’s nothing funny about that? Wrong. You’re not trying hard enough. Stop being not funny.
Learn To Be Funny From A Politician
Every speech counts. Especially if you are trying to get elected. If there was any group of speakers who needed to find a way to get people to remember them & their message, it would be politicians. They have three goals every time they give a speech:
• Promote their policies
• Boost their accomplishments while minimizing their opponents
• Impress people with their moral upstanding character & leadership skills
Politicians know that humor is a powerful speaking tool. They use it to both make a point as well as to illustrate that point for their (or your) audience.
In the end, it’s all about getting votes. You’re probably not running for anything right now, but why waste a speech?
Why Humor Is So Powerful When You Are Speaking
Every speech that you give is your next chance to change the world. Adding humor to your speaking style isn’t something that you can put off until “sometime,” you’ve got to do it right now.
The reason that humor works so well comes down to five basic “levers” that every audience has. Gene Perret who won several Emmys for his work in television has spent a lot of time researching what these levers do to an audience:
Humor Makes You More Likable:
I don’t care how much of a jerk you are in real life, if you start to work more humor into your speeches your audiences will start to like you better than your family does. Perret points out that it’s really hard to laugh with a person if you don’t like them – make your audience laugh and they’ll love you forever.
Build Credibility Using Humor:
Who are you to talk to anyone about anything? Somewhat amazingly, audiences associate the ability to be funny with wisdom. When you can joke with your audience about 401k plans, they’ll settle back and say to themselves “gosh, if he can joke about this stuff then he must know it really well”. Whether or not you really do know it really doesn’t matter any more after this.
Get Respect Using Humor:
Some of the worst speeches that I’ve ever had to sit through were ones where the speaker was too full of himself / herself. I quickly tuned them out – I don’t have time for blowhards. When you kid around with your audience you’re telling them “I’m one of you.” When they understand that you “get” them, you will have hooked them and they’ll pay attention to you for the rest of your speech.
Make People Want To Listen Using Humor:
When you say something funny, people laugh. If they’re not listening, then they miss out. Nobody likes to miss out on something that’s funny. When you work humor into your speeches and people start to laugh, then all of those other people who are busy reading email and sending text messages will start to look around and wonder what they are missing out on. Very quickly those iPhones and Blackberry’s will go away and you’ll have their attention.
Make People Remember What You Say Using Humor:
Stay home if you are going to give a speech that nobody is going to remember. Why bother? What humor does is it creates the possibility that people will remember the joke, and if they do then there’s just a chance that they might remember what your point was that you made the joke about.
Final Thoughts
Stop wasting my time. If you want to get up there and give a dry, lifeless speech that has no humor in it then you may as well stay at home and just send me an email with your main points.
If, however, you want me to walk away thinking that you know what you are talking about and remembering what you said, then that’s another story. The only way that that’s going to happen is if you start to work some humor into your speech. No, you don’t have to turn into a stand-up comedian; however, you do need to make me crack a smile or at least chuckle. Get me to do that and you’ve spent your time well.
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Dr. Jim Anderson – http://www.TheAccidentalCommunicator.com
Do you give speeches today, but want to learn how be more effective? Dr. Jim Anderson believes that great business skills are no substitute for poor presentation skills. Dr. Anderson will share with you the knowledge that he has gained while working to improve the speaking ability of both individuals and teams of speakers for over 20 years. Learn the secrets of effective speakers and really connect with your audience during your next speech.
If you want to follow Dr. Anderson on Twitter, he can be found at: http://twitter.com/drjimanderson
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Dr._Jim_Anderson
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Categories : Humor in Speaking, Professional Speaking
Friday,
December
12th,
2008
Even if you are not a humorist, or maybe especially if you are not a humorist, if you can add a little humor to your speeches you will reap some major rewards. Humor can loosen up the audience, get them to like you, engage them, and actually improve the audiences learning and retention. Many people don’t think they are funny, but by using the following seven tips you can add humor to any presentation.
1) Use humor you find funny -
This one seems obvious, but in your quest to add humor you may try to think of lines that your audience will laugh at. While it is important to consider the audience, you must first start with things you think are funny. If you try to tell a joke or tell a story that you don’t think is all that great but you think the audience will like, chances are it will bomb. Find the intersection between what you find funny and what your audience will find funny.
2) Use humor you would use anyway -
This point builds off of point #1. If you are thinking about telling a story (funny or not, quite frankly), think about whether you would ever tell that story in that way to your friends or family when you are just hanging out. If the answer is yes, and you think your audience will like it, then go with it. If not, let it go, no matter how much you think the audience may enjoy it.
3) Watch funny movies and TV -
It’s very hard to *be* funny if you don’t feel funny. Exercise your funny bone by watching TV shows and movies that make you laugh. Not only will you be in a more playful and fun state, but you will learn a tremendous amount about comedy structure and timing, even if accidentally.
4) Ask “humor questions” -
The one thing that separates comedians from the rest of the “normal world” is that comedians process the world by constantly asking themselves, “what’s funny about this?” It may be so ingrained that they don’t realize it, but that’s what they do. Good, bad, happy, sad, whatever; their first response to everything is “what’s funny about this?” Start asking that question a lot. Not only will you start finding more humor you can use, but you will also be training yourself to be a more naturally funny person (and yes, that is possible!)
5) Pause -
You can have the best material in the world, but with bad timing it still won’t get a laugh. Comedic timing is an art that can take years to master. To start, just remember to pause at the moments when you expect the audience to laugh. It doesn’t need to be too long a pause, but give enough time for the audience to catch up and laugh. What if the audience doesn’t laugh? Well, that leads us to…
6) Don’t care if you get a laugh -
Perhaps the hardest tip of all. Watching a speaker or comedian not get laughs is uncomfortable. Watching a speaker or comedian be flustered or bothered by not getting laughs is deadly. You are not a comedian, so if you don’t get a laugh, that’s ok. Just keep going as if everything is a-ok. Chances are, if you don’t get flustered the audience won’t even notice. The best way to do this is to tell your jokes in the context of stories. That way if you don’t get a laugh you just keep telling your story.
7) Commit 100% -
Humor takes commitment. If you are uncertain about a joke and don’t tell it with full belief that the audience will laugh, the joke will fall flat. (this is why points 1 & 2 are so important). Some speakers have the self-delusion, “if I act like I don’t think this is a great joke and people don’t laugh, then I won’t look as bad.” That never works. Tell your stories and jokes with 100% confidence, and you are much more likely to succeed.
Use these seven tips and watch as your speeches and presentations quickly get bigger and bigger laughs!
For more tips on how to develop better presentation skills and to be a great speaker, get your free copy of the MP3, “Improv for Speakers” and the special report, “The 6 Steps to Using Improv Comedy to be a Great Speaker.” Sign up now at: http://www.improvforspeakers.com/freeaudio
Also, check out the one hour audio, “The Fundamentals of Being Funny as a Speaker” here: http://www.avishparashar.com/humorcd.html
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Avish_Parashar
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Categories : Humor in Speaking
Tags : being funny, funny speech writing
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