They liked my presentations so much, that they invited me back for part 3!
Now that’s funny.
In Part 3 on "Writing a Humorous Speech" we covered the ComeDies or Come”D’s” (Comedies, with emphasis on the letter “D.” It’s funnier when you hear it. It’s not funny at all when you read it.)
This is a 5-Step method for adding jokes into your speeches or presentations. Similar to my 6-Step method, that I taught before, but this one is one less step.
Here is the basic breakdown...
1. DISCUSSION: Create an open discussion with your audience where they feel welcome and connected. Here is when you set the stage for the joke with feeling and some common ground (example: I can’t wait to go fishing next weekend.)
2. DANCE: This is the rhythm of the joke/story. Smooth with no dramatic ups and downs. Here is where you set the tone or mood of the listener.
3. DIRECTION: Along with the Dance, this is the path that you bring the listeners down. They feel comfortable anticipating the next statement. They have a feeling of where your story is going. Look deep into your audience. What are they assuming? What are the things that they are expecting? What are the words that they heard that you didn’t say?
4. DELIVERY: You are about to change course in the story. You are about to add a twist. Your Delivery changes as well. Put a pause where no pause was before. Change your voice variation. Change your stance. Change your emotion. A successful joke is more than just the words it is everything that you do or don’t do, verbally and non-verbally.
5. DIVERSION: This is the punchline, the twist, the unexpected line or action that catches your audience by surprise. The Diversion must be Delivered with impact to call attention to the unexpected absurdity of your possible but not probable twist.
I believe that sometimes you must give the same information in many different ways so that “When the student is ready to laugh, the joke will appear.”
Give someone a reason to smile today. And always remember, write 1,000 jokes, 100 may be funny, keep 10, and maybe, just maybe 1 will be hilarious.
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