How many times have you heard someone start a speech with a joke? Probably too often. Speakers with limited experience tend to tell jokes just for laughs in the hope that the audience will warm up to them. Jokes are often irrelevant to the topic of your speech.
Experienced speakers know that there are better ways to add humor to a speech or presentation, including:
Use funny stories and anecdotes, not jokes, in your speech
Everyone has had bad experiences that become funny over time. They make great stories Remember that today’s tragedy is tomorrow’s funny story.
If you don’t feel comfortable talking about yourself, borrow stories from other people. It is acceptable as long as you credit the source.
Collecting stories from your audience
The “jollytologist” Allen Klein recounts that he often asked his audience “How do you spell relief?” “LAUGHTER” was his reply. Then, during one of his performances, an audience member yelled, “DIVORCE.” It was hysterical. Klein now tells the story as part of many of his performances.
Create a fun atmosphere in the room before speaking
Being a former newscaster and sportscaster, I would sometimes ask the person introducing me to show some of my worst mistakes on air in video clips (there was a lot of material to dig out). The bloopers always made people laugh and also let them know that I wasn’t afraid to laugh at myself a little, a great way to connect with them early on.
self-deprecating humor
In the ’70s, President Gerald Ford was regularly criticized on Saturday Night Live for his lack of grace. Ford responded by poking fun at himself better than the SNL writers.
He told his audience about the night he met his wife Betty and how he wanted to dance with her “in the worst way”. He would then say, “And Betty later told me that I did exactly that: dance in the worst way.”
Ford also said that he had to become the center on his varsity football team because center was the only position where he didn’t have to move his feet.
If someone as important as a former president can make fun of himself, the rest of us can too. Self-deprecating humor is a powerful tool.
Use interesting props in your speech
Sometimes he would bring “IFB” to use as a prop. An IFB (which stands for “Interruptible Feedback”) is a headset worn by television reporters when reporting live from the scene of a news story. The IFB allows them to hear what people in the studio are saying to them while they are being presented, and it also allows them to hear questions the presenters might ask.
Sometimes it would show a blooper clip of what can happen when something goes wrong with an IFB. The clip showed a female reporter stuttering and stuttering during a live report. She sounded absolutely devastated. she was not there
It turns out that someone inadvertently pressed the wrong button in the control room, and the reporter was listening to her own words on her IFB about half a second after she spoke, which, take my word for it, is extremely annoying. For about 15 seconds, she struggled and tried to be as professional as possible, but the more she tried, the funnier she sounded. She finally ripped the IFB out of her ear and continued to report on her.
The clip always made the audience howl.
borrowed humor
The Internet is a great place to find one-liners and funny quotes. Personally, I often borrowed from Yogi Berra (“When you come to a fork in the road, take it…”), Will Rogers (“When the Democrats want to form a firing squad, they stand in a circle…”) and many others.
Buy humor from people who sell it
There are professionals who will write fun stuff for you, and they’re usually not expensive. You can also check out your local comedy club and hire someone who is probably pretty good at writing one-liners. Or do a search for “humor writers” or “humorists” on the Internet.
Steve Allen once said, “People would rather be entertaining than polite.” But if you can entertain and educate at the same time, you have the ingredients for a great speech, without telling a single joke.
