You can make your presentations more humorous. Whether
you want to just add a few more laughs or get laughter every 27
seconds, these 21 secrets are for you.
- Understand why people laugh and how to tweak content to
get laughter.
- Discover 4 powerful delivery techniques that can easily
double the laughs.
- Find out a quick way to create humorous lines in mere minutes.
- Learn 7 strategies for adding humor to your presentations.
- Get more laughs from your stories & content with 8 humor
techniques.
Tracks
1 – Why Humor is Important
2 – Why People Laugh
3 – How to Make Content Humorous – Part 1
4 – How to Make Content Humorous – Part 2
5 – How 4 Delivery Techniques Can Double
Your Laughs
6 – How to Get More Laughs – Part 1
7 – How to Get More Laughs – Part 2
8 – Review and Conclusion
My friend Rex, a pro speaker, said, Make them laugh, make them cry, leave them on a high.
Unfortunately, many speakers will instead:
Make them laugh, make them cry, leave them with a question/answer session.
What is wrong with this?
First, The last part of your presentation stands out to the audience. An off topic question may stick out and not your main point.
Second, your presentation ends on a low note. Question and answers sessions tend to be low energy, not high energy.
Third, people may be less likely to buy your products. They may be all pumped up by your closing, but after 15 minutes of questions and answers they are ready to leave.
What's the solution?
Best way handle Q & A in Your Presentation
Let's say I am giving a 45 minute talk with questions and answers. I may structure it this way.
30 Minutes Speech – 90% of speech
10 Minutes Q&A
5 Minutes – Final 10% of speech
The final 5 minutes will leave them on a high and they will walk out with my points fresh on their minds.
During that final 10% I will review and then tell a story or two to drive home the main point. Another tactic is to create anticipation for a story or idea in the first 30, and then resolve it in the final 5 minutes.
However you structure your presentation, remember Rex's advice and Make them Laugh, Make them Cry, and Leave them on a High.
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Study the famous speakers of the past and present and you'll find most use an important public speaking tip. They speak with enthusiasm and passion. Great speakers care about their topic and influencing the audience. We can learn from them and put some fire and passion into our presentation.
Here are three ways to help us speak with passion and enthusiasm
1. Choose topics you care about.
2. Think about how your message will impact the audience.
3. Act enthusiastic. Control your body and the feelings will follow.
You captivate the audience when you deliver your speech. Use this important public speaking tip and speak with passion and enthusiasm.
speaker with 5 speeches under their belt can out speak a trained professional speaker with years of experience and hundreds of audiences, if the inexperienced speaker is applying this next speaking tip.
Speech Preparation Tip #28: Practice, Practice, Practice
Experience and training are essential for public speaking. Experience helps ingrain good speaking habits that will come out in any presentation. However, an amature who gives a well rehearsed speech can give a better presentation than a professional who has not practiced.
Reading and practice will help you take your public speaking skills to a new level. However, don't forget to use a very powerful public speaking tip:
Public Speaking Improvement Tip #27: Watch master Communicators in action.
I'll never forget seeing Zig Ziglar in person. One thing that jumped out at me was his enthusiasm. Whenever I want to update my enthusiasm, I think of Zig. Just watching him helps me improve.
Do you watch the masters of public speaking?
With the age of Youtube, it is now very easy to see master speakers in action. Below are several videos. As you watch them, ask these three questions.
What is the speaker doing very well?
What can I learn from the speaker?
What could the speaker improve on?
You may think this last question is a little odd. Every speaker can improve and watching with a critical eye will help you improve your skills.
"Hi Arlen. This is John. We are looking for a speaker on August 12 in the evening."
"What can you tell me about the event?"
"………"
"Yes, John. My calendar is open. I do have some questions for you."
"Sure Arlen, go ahead."
Speech Research Tip #26: Be a Detective and Research your Audience.
Knowing your audience is essential before preparing and delivering the presentation. This knowledge will enable you to connect with the audience and tailor a presentation that hits home.
I may have the same keynote I give to various audiences, but I tweak it depending on if I am talking to Junior highers or retired seniors.
Back to the phone conversation. I asked John a series of questions to get a grasp on exactly who I would be speaking to. This helped me to create a "Chris" and focus my presentation.
What is the age of the audience?
Why are they at this event?
What is the purpose of this event?
What are they expecting from the speaker?
What can you tell me about them?
These questions enabled me to hit a home run and give a custom tailored presentation.
Five days ago I watched as Tom took first place in the Toastmasters International Speech Contest. He practiced a technique that only a few out of one hundred speakers use.
Speech Delivery Tip #25: Act out your Presentation
During his Speech Tom used several phrases:
"Men took off their suite coats and threw them down."
"Audience rushed out."
"The Speaker pointed at the audience"
Good action sentences. However, Tom acted out every single one. He woound up and pretend to spike a suite coat. He rushed to one side of the stage to give us a visual of the audience rushing out. When he talked about the speaker pointing at the audience, he pointed at us also.
The result? His speech came alive, the audience's attention was held throughout the speech, and it was very memorable.
How can you act out your next presentation? Look through your speech and see what you can act out.
