When you are telling a story, anecdote or joke to an audience, it is imperative that you have a message point that is being brought to life. Unless you are rich and famous, nobody cares about the minutiae of your life unless it reveals lessons that are applicable to all.
If your joke makes an important point, then it doesn’t have to by hysterically funny. Without the point, you are just another amateur at open mic night and that can be painful.
The reality is that you don�t have to be a natural born comic or even the class clown to develop a reputation as a humorous speaker. It�s really just a function of hard work. If you speak on a similar subject on a regular basis, the trick is to occasionally say something that strikes you as amusing or funny. If it is funny to you, it might be funny to someone else. The, if you get a laugh, make a note of it. If it works with one audience, it might work with others.
On May 22, 2005 in a feature-length story the New York Times officially pronounced that joke telling was dead. Indeed, for years, presentation coaches like me have been warning client, “don’t tell jokes, especially at the beginning of your speech.â€
For most people who aren’t professional entertainers or communicators, I still think it’s good advice. But, still, there is nothing better than a joke that really works to get a positive start in a presentation.
Last night I was watching CBS weather man Dave Price emcee a Public Relations Society awards banquet. Here’s how he started off:
I don’t recommend that speakers tell “jokes.†But humor is great and getting people to laugh is fantastic when you are a speaker. But if you are going to tell a joke or a story that your audience can figure out is supposed to be humorous, then you need to deliver the humor relatively quickly.
According to a new survey from LaughLab (as reported in the June 2007 Men’s Health Magazine), a humor think tank (whatever that is) in England, found that the ideal length for a joke is 103 words.
From the April 26, 2007 Democratic Presidential Debate
NBC’s Brian Williams: “Senator Biden, words have, in the past, gotten you in trouble, words that were borrowed and words that some found hateful. An editorial in the Los Angeles Times said, ‘In addition to his uncontrolled verbosity, Biden is a gaff machine.’ Can you reassure voters in this country that you would have the discipline you would need on the world stage, Senator?
BIDEN: “Yes.†(LAUGHTER)
WILLIAMS: “Thank you, Senator Biden.â€
Many people feel the need to put humor in their presentation. Indeed, if you can make people laugh and prove a point at the same time, that is always a wonderful thing.
But humor is hard. It’s really hard. Jokes or observations that make our friends or family laugh may keep an audience stony-faced. If you do have the need or desire to bring humor to a presentation, then please give yourself plenty of raw material.
Jerry Seinfeld told CNN’s Anderson Cooper that only one out of ten jokes “works.†This is Jerry talking about his own material! That means even Jerry Seinfeld bombs 90% of the time!
Frequently, I will see a speaker finish a presentation with a strong closing.
He/she summarizes the main points and then brings it all together with a bang. Furthermore, the speaker then answers the audience’s questions thoughtfully and skillfully.
But then…
“Are there any more questions?†“OK, well, thanks for coming and goodbye.â€
The once great presentation just ended with a thud. It’s as if he just completely ran out of gas. Suddenly the speaker’s final statement is undermined by the manner in which he abruptly left after the question and answer session.
It started out like any other day of presentation training. I was working with four executives on how to be a better public speaker. About 15 minutes after we officially began (and 30 minutes after the time when trainees were supposed to show up), James walked in. The fact that he was very late and missed the opening wasn’t the disruptive part. It was that James sat in the front row, two feet in front of me, with his eyes closed, and he did this all morning. I all but asked him if he’d like pajamas and a cot so that he could really stretch out and go to sleep. I felt like asking him if my talking was interrupting his sleeping. But I didn’t.
1. Nobody sits on the front row in the room when you speak.
2. You realize that dull humming sound is not coming from your PowerPoint projector; instead it is the heavy breathing/snoring from Smithers in the third row.
3. Everyone comes in 15 minutes after they know you were supposed to start your presentation.
4. People are fighting to see who can sit in the back row of the room
5. Audience members are bringing in not one, but two cups of coffee.
6. You are at the end of your allotted time and you realize you still have 92 slides to go.
During the question and answer session that many presenters face after their speech, a dilemma often occurs. Do I try to be as substantive as possible and answer the question thoroughly and specifically? Or do I go for laughs and keep it light and short?
Great presenters try to bring in both elements in every answer. Yes, you need to deliver the substance, but don’t go on for so long that you crowd out other questions or bore the audience. Yes, you need to bring a sense of humor to your answers as well. Humor is often easier during a question and answer session because your audience gives you credit for being spontaneous. Since they are asking the questions, they assume you don’t have prepared material. So anything you say during Q&A time seems fresher, more interesting, and more spontaneous, even if it isn’t.