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| How To Use Humor In A Presentation: 10 Tips To Get 'Em Rolling In the Aisles |
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If you've read my article Whole-Brain Presenting, you'll know one of the best ways to engage the right-half of your audience's brains is by using humour. However, may presenters are uncomfortable about doing this, seeing it as being 'unprofessional.' The secret is using it effectively without coming across as a second-rate cabaret act. So here's TEN TIPS to help you do it. 1. Give the audience permission to laugh Many of your audience might never have seen you before, and won't know what to expect. If you don't signal your humorous intentions early in your presentation, they will have no idea whether you are going to be serious or fun. Then, when you eventually do deliver a humorous line, they will think to themselves, “Was that a joke?” or “Was I supposed to laugh at that?” Even if they are pretty sure it was funny, they may feel uncomfortable about laughing in case they are the only one who does. Ever been the only person who clapped at something and felt as if someone was going to throw you a fish? People feel the same way about laughing alone. So introduce something that is obviously humorous early on so the audience knows your speech isn't going to be dull and boring. Once they've been ‘granted permission', they'll know it's OK to laugh. The other benefit of getting everyone to laugh early in the speech is that it provides what psychologists call ‘social proof' for the audience. People tend to believe behaviour is correct or can be justified when they witness other people doing it. So if they see and hear other people laughing, they feel OK about doing it themselves. That's why traditional sitcoms always had a laughter track. 2. Using Humour Contextually Unless you are a stand-up comedian, you are not on your feet to tell jokes for the sake of it. So humour should only be used in three contexts. The first is contextually, i.e. if a very quick joke can be inserted seamlessly because its subject matter fits what you are talking about. When talking about customer service, I often tell one story which mentions the fact that I have a dog. I could follow this up with: “He was a lovely dog, we called him ‘Stay.' So we'd shout, “Come here, Stay! Come here, Stay! (Pause for laughter). We don't have him anymore; he went insane". 3. Using Humour to Emphasise or Illustrate a Point The second context where you should use humour is to illustrate a serious point. There are three steps to this.
For example, let's say you wanted to make the serious point that you have to be careful not to misinterpret what is being said when listening to a customer. You might say: Another joke which could be used to make exactly the same point is: “When I woke up this morning my girlfriend asked me, ‘Did you sleep well?’ I said, ‘No, I made a few mistakes’." A third would be: 4. ‘Planned Spontaneity’ The third is when something unplanned or unforeseen happens, and a great opportunity arises for you to look witty by ‘spontaneously’ coming up with a pre-planned line or gag. For example, if you are on stage and a photographer takes a photo of you, you could stop abruptly at the flash, act startled, and ask, “Was I speeding?” If you had a short joke up your sleeve about speeding you could then throw this in as if you had just thought of it, e.g. Or you could stop abruptly, point to someone near the photographer and ask, ‘What was that? Did you just have a really brilliant idea?’ However, the most effective opportunity for ‘Planned Spontaneity’ is when something goes wrong. Most speakers would freeze, cringe or even clam up completely when a bulb on a projector burnt out, the mike failed (or squealed), their marker pen ran out (if they were writing on a flipchart) or (heavens forbid!) they tripped on a trailing wire. The best way to deal with these ‘disasters’ is to plan for them in advance so that you know exactly what to say and do if they happen. None of these are side-splittingly funny, but your objective here is not to get belly laughs, rather to demonstrate to the audience that you are unfazed, confident and on top of the situation, so a line that is even slightly amusing will make you look sharp, cool and witty. For example:
5. Rehearse, Rehearse, Rehearse Practise, Practise, PRACTISE! At least twenty times. Most jokes aren't about the actual words used, but the way they're used. Watch professional stand-up comedians on TV (even better, watch them live) to see how they deliver their material. Try different deliveries, with different timing and the emphasis on different words or phrases. Use different accents (if appropriate). You will find that it can make a huge difference. DON'T just rattle through the joke like a machine gun, without any pauses. A pause in the right place can multiply the effect of a joke tenfold. Remember that the longer the joke, the funnier it has to be. Keep shaggy dog stories for when you're in the pub with your mates. Strip out anything but the essential bits and remember that brevity is your friend. 6. ‘Sell the joke’ Once you have the joke ‘off pat,' work out how you are going to fit it into your material. Professional comedians call this “selling the joke”, i.e. getting it positioned within surrounding material so it seems relevant and flows easily. What sentence (or paragraph) will you need so that the joke flows seamlessly? NB: If there are several speakers on before you, check that someone else hasn’t already used your joke. I have seen very accomplished and professional speakers fall flat on their faces after failing to do this (and then look embarrassingly perplexed when nobody laughed at their ‘best’ material). 7. Punchlines Firstly, memorise your punch line so you could say it in your sleep. How many times have you heard someone tell a joke only to forget the punch line? Impressive, isn't it? Then practise delivering it in several different ways, until you find the perfect delivery. 8. Milking the laugh You should always stop speaking the second you hear the audience laughing. Comedians call continuing speaking while they laugh, ‘stepping on your laugh.' It should be avoided for two reasons. Firstly, it kills the laugh. Secondly, it can muffle or even deter future laughs as the audience becomes wary about laughing in the future lest they miss something you say. So always stop and just grin at your audience ANY TIME they laugh (even if the laughter is unexpected; sometimes the audience will laugh at the ‘wrong' bits. NB: If this happens, just take the laugh; NEVER say ‘Hang on, that isn't the funny part …'). ALWAYS pause after the punch line to give the audience time to laugh. However, there is a bell curve to laughter. You should wait until it has peaked and is about half way down the other side, but never wait until it completely dies down into silence. Use the laughter as momentum for your next line, or leave them laughing and bow out if it is the end of your presentation. 9. Self-deprecation This is a very powerful form of humour that gets its strength from highlighting your own (real or imaginary) weaknesses or idiosyncrasies. People who have the ability to laugh at themselves during a presentation are generally perceived as being secure, confident, strong, and likeable (weak people tend to feel a need to inflate themselves and powerful people don't; if you have the confidence to make fun of yourself, you are indirectly sending the message to the audience that you are secure and powerful). If you plan to do this, make sure the idiosyncrasy is obvious to the audience. For example, there is no point in making a joke about being Scottish if you don't have a Scottish accent, even if you were born there. Some suggestions could be:
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