Public Speaking Course:
Humor Placement
Your probably wondering by now where to place all of your funny
material.
You weren't wondering? Well, I'm going to tell you anyway.
Pretty much everyone in your audience will expect you to start off your
presentation with a story or joke. You may want to postpone your funny story until the
audience has resigned itself that you will be giving them a rare case of sleeping
sickness and then you can surprise them with your funny joke. A
good rule to remember from your public speaking course is "Don't
be afraid to do the unexpected." Humor is one of the best attention
getting devices to get your audience's attention.
In order to start figuring out where to put your humor, you need
to
find out how much time you are required to talk. Divide that time into
equal sections. If the percentage of humor is going to be low, you might make
a funny comment each six to eight minutes. If the percentage of
humor is to be really high, you could make a humorous comment every
minute. Going through this process tells you roughly how much humor
or
other attention gaining devices you need to accomplish your goals
effectively.
Planning ahead for each presentation is taught during your public speaking course.
I'm assuming by now that all the humorous material you have chosen is totally relevant to your audience and your topic. If it is not, throw it out
now and start searching for something to replace it that is relevant to your
audience. You must have
fresh humor for every presentation, not canned humor, or canned speeches.
Next, you should be ready to place the humor in your program. A good
public speaker doesn't make the mistake of forcing humor and other material
to fit. It makes no difference if one segment goes several minutes longer
than another or if you don't hit the funny bone exactly every six to
eight minutes. Just use that time length as a guideline. All you have
to do now is decide if you want humor in your opening and/or closing. When it comes to professional presentations, preparation will
be a big factor in your ultimate success.
Finally, the third aspect has to do with 'planned spontaneity.' This term seems like an oxymoron,
or contradiction in terms, doesn't it? It just means that you use
prepared remarks that only appear spontaneous to the audience. During the course of a presentation, windows of
opportunity for witty remarks may come and go. They are usually related to 'expected/unexpected' happenings during the presentation, or
questions from the audience. Let's say you are writing on the flipchart
and your marker runs out of ink. Your window of opportunity is now open. You might jump through the window and say, 'I guess I've come
to
the dry part of my presentation' Window slams shut. Everything is fine.
You look like a quick wit and a pretty good NO ZZZZZs presenter, all
of this is part of what you will learn in my public speaking course.
What if you waited until you located a new marker to say the same
line? The window had already slammed shut 30 seconds ago and now you
are trying to jump through. You lose. The spontaneity is gone and so
is
the impact (except for smashing your head into the glass). What do you
need to know in order to be sure you will be ready when a window opens?
Many situations that can happen during your presentation can be
anticipated beforehand. If you are using a slide projector,
the bulb might blow. You may be interrupted by a loud noise. Your microphone might squeal, etc. Prepare comments in advance so you can
remember them immediately when needed. If you let too much time pass between the incident and your comment, you're better off
just saying nothingt. It's too late to make it funny now and you would
just look like your a little slow.
Questions (see Funny Question and Answer Sessions
article on this
website) from the audience can be treated the same way. Dealing with
awkward questions with pleasant humor should be practiced while taking
your
public speaking course. If you've been presenting your material long enough, you
can probably guess most of the questions that come up. Prepare
a witty answer to each question and use it when the question arises.
Then go on and give your serious answer. Be careful when using this
technique your witty answer doesn't make the person asking the question
feel stupid.
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