Weaving humour into a speech can be a real challenge.

In a previous post I recommended that that speakers  avoid using  jokes in favour of self deprecating stories. Recently I had the pleasure of meeting Jan Jack of PerfectVerse who used to be a corporate secretary but is now a professional swriter, speaker and comedian.

Jan  specialises in writing humorous poems for special events and corporate speeches. During our conversation she told be how she had been commissioned by the CEO of a multinational company to help him make his conference speech more entertaining and amusing as he was by nature a serious chap and not known for his sense of humour.

Jan asked him to send her the draft of the speech and then she re-worked it to bring in some humour whilst
maintaining the core messages and intention.  The original was by all accounts pretty dull, as are so many corporate presentations, and so wasn’t very easy on the ear. “I re-wrote it from the listeners point of view” said Jan and proceeded to give me some before and after examples.

With her permission I have reprinted one of her examples here:

With regard to the speech we discussed, I put in analagies; when the gentleman was talking about a company I compared it to a marriage. Not hugely funny but it made the speech more down to earth for those listening.  One example of this:

1.   The original speech said.  “I would now like to give some facts about a stressful incident that has happened in my working life”

I changed it to this  “”Let me now move to my third point, I want to share with you an exceptionally stressful incident that happened at xxxxx.  Can I say here I am a man who is used to stress.  My wife. (pause )  She has a credit card (pause and look away, then look back.)  In my name.”

By all accounts the speech went down well and the perception of the new MD was significantly enhanced.

We don’t all have the budget to hire a professional speech writer when we want to be funny but we can learn from Jans example and write our speeches to be easy on the listeners ear.

And as an extra bonus here is an example of humour from one of Jan’s bespoke business poems.

Are you feeling overwhelmed? Do all your days seem far too busy?
Does your Things to To list reach the floor, and make you feel dizzy?
Do you need an extra pair of hands for all your personal tasks?
Out of Office can help you, and you only have to ask.

I can choose and write your Christmas cards; I’ll act as your PA,
Help with travel, collect dry cleaning, even order that bouquet,
I can source a special venue; I can shop for you online,
I can even sort out personal gifts, if you don’t have the time.

I’m trustworthy, discreet; a real bonus in your life,
You’ll find you can rely on me; your perfect office wife,
But although I’ll give you perfect days; be there to make things right,
Remember – I’m your OFFICE wife; I won’t be there at night!

©Jan Jack’s Perfect Verse 2010

Hows that for a bit of humour!

As a public speaking and presentation skills trainer I am passionate about helping my clients find their voice and develop the confidence and passion to share their knowledge, opinions, hopes, fears, thoughts and feelings with the world.

I came across this short video via youtube and its simple yet profound message just resonated with me.       So much so that I just had to share it with you.   I hope it will mean something to you to.

We have a voice and we should never be ashamed  to use it.

I love to watch and share presentation skills tips and especially great examples of passionate presenters.

Today I am indebted to Nancy Duarte of Duarte Design and author of the fantastic new book “Resonate”  for drawing my attention to this inspiring presentation.   Watch it and enjoy conductor Benjamin Zander’s passion and his command of the audience’s emotions.  WOW!

I guarantee you will learn some great presentation skills tips and be entertained and moved.

Now share your thoughts by posting a comment and starting a discussion.

What presentation skills tips did you get  from watching this video and how could YOU use that in the real world?

In September, my local Toastmasters club is running it’s annual humorous speech contest and I am planning to enter. The problem is I find writing humorous speeches a real challenge. I can often weave a bit of humour into a serious speech without too much difficulty but for some reason, writing a deliberately humorous speech seems much harder.

Last year I entered the competition for the first time and wasn’t very successful. I basically researched a load of numerous stories via the web and attempted to string them together into a speech. Whilst I did get a few laughs, the whole thing was disjointed and contrived.

I think the main reasons for this were:

A) The stories I used weren’t mine

B) There wasn’t a strong storyline linking these various anecdotes together in any logical way

C) I was trying too hard to be funny

When I went to the Division H competition (SE England) to see and hear the area winners I was enthralled with their skills.  The  winner, Chris Billington, gave a hilarious speech without a single joke.   All he did was tell a story related to  a student job he had as a life guard.

In his tale, he described, in delightful detail, the unusual and sometimes bizarre behaviours of men and women in a mixed swimming pool. You had to be there honest!

What I learned from him was:

A) Don’t tell jokes, tell stories instead.

B) Tell your own stories rather than pulling them from the Internet. You will be much more convincing and congruent if you do

C) Don’t be afraid to exaggerate. Some of the funniest comedians on the planet don’t tell jokes They have us in stitches simply by exaggerating the things that real people do and say. So become an observer of people and look for things that make you smile.

D) keep a notebook handy and capture these little moments so that you can use them later on in a speech. Don’t rely on your memory.

So this year I have put together a humorous speech based on the above lessons. I have given it once already and it went down well. I did however get some really useful feedback that the beginning was a bit slow and so I am tightening it up so that I get hook the audiences attention and get them laughing from the start.

Wish me luck for our competition night on 21st September and I’ll let you know how I get on. I might even post a video of the speech and let you give me feedback too.

Let your voice be heard!

Gavin Meikle
The Presentation Doctor

Last week one of the members at Solent Speakers, the local Toastmasters club which I belong to,
gave a very powerful speech on the subject of hope. Afterwards many people commented on how the speech had touched them personally. Why was this? Well partly it was the speaker’s measured delivery, beautiful word picture painting and great use of pauses but there was more to it than that.

What really made the difference was the fact that he dared to share a personal story about how a member of his family had suffered from mental illness and how this had effected him and other members of the family.

This story was powerful and personal and it helped the audience to feel the emotions that he was feeling. Sharing personal stories such as this are not appropriate for every presentation but they are part of the presenters toolkit. All of the best presenters I know make a habit of collecting true stories of the things that happen to them and those close to them. Such snippets can then be used to bring their subjects to life.

My challenge to you is to become a story collector as well as a story teller and also to dare to share some of the more personal and poignant stories from your life in order to help you connect with your audience.

Have a great weekend

Gavin
The Presentation Doctor.

Stories are incredibly important tools for communicating all sorts of information. I have been an “unconscious” story collector now for many years and as a trainer, these stories have been incredibly helpful to my participants in bringing the material I teach to life.

To be honest I tend to take them for granted because I use them without thinking but today their importance was drawn to my attention. It was the final presentations and feedback session from a class of managers who have been facilitating through a monthly series of leadership training modules.

 During the feedback I suddenly realised that stories were a key part of my USP and what makes my training so effective.  Not only do they help to make the topic relevant in the seminar, they also serve as memory hooks which help the participants retain their learning and then apply it in the real world  long after the course is over.

So, are you a story collector?    Do you capture and file away, either mentally or on paper, iconic stories that illustrate key principles.    Do you then weave those stories into your presentation, speaches, conversations and seminars?

If you don’t you are missing a trick!

In this day and age it seems like everybody is looking for the quick fix without any effort.   Whether it’s making money, getting fit, loosing weight or becoming a celebrity.  Andit seems to me that this obsession for instant success is supported and encouraged by adverts for all sorts of products both online and offline which claim to help you achieve success in your chosen field without doing anything!

I find the same think with aspiring presenters.   They want to go on a 1 day course or even just read a book and then start earning big money as a presenter or speaker.  It’s time for a reality check – nobody gets to be a great speaker without lots and lots and lots of practice!

So, if you are not prepared to put in the hours, set more realistic expectations. 

But if you are prepared to practice then the sky’s the limit.   Jack Nicklaus, one of the worlds greatest golfers said “The more I practice, the luckier I get.”     I agree.    I have been speaking in public since I was around 14years old and I still actively seek opportunities to practice.

Last night I attended a meeting of a new public speaking club called Hamwic Speakers- Southampton.  Hamwic have only been going since March but are doing extremely well.   At last nights meeting I was entranced by a wonderful speech by a young man called Rich Watts, who talked about “A trip to grandma’s“.

On the face of it, not the most exciting of topics but Rich delivered a most entertaining and excellent speech in which, by describing in vivid detail, what it was like to visit his grandmothers, from the perspective of his five year old self, he evoked powerful memories and emotions in all of us.

I was particularly impressed with the way Rich matched his energy and pace of delivery to the story he was telling.  At the start his pace was slow and measured as he described the rather boring car journey where he was too small to see much out of the car window but clouds.  Then, when he arrived at his gran’s the pace picked up dramatically as he described zooming into her house (an Aladdin’s cave for a five year old boy!) with his arms outstretched behind him pretending to be a plane.

The pace stayed high as he described how he explored and played and then slowed a little as he started to describe the other family members present.   The pace slowed further as he brought us up to the present day and how things had changed.  How his granny wasn’t as energetic as she had been, how the food wasn’t as home cooked as it had been and so on.   This “gear change”change of pace brought a poignancy and a sense of reflection to this speech that worked beautifully and lead us up nicely to Rich’s take away message.

Rich finished with two key messages, about remembering the importance of Granny and perhaps even more important, remembering (& not losing) the sense of wonder and playfulness we had when we were younger.

I hope this short article has captured the importance of being able to change gear in any speech or presentation in order to be a more effectie story teller and influencer.

In my last post I focused on the delivery side of an impromptu speech but what about the content?   How do I stop by brain going blank and running out of things to say?

Well here are two further technique to help you wow your audience ;

Use the PEP model

• Position – Start by stating your position on the topic – do you agree or disagree?
  
• Explain – Now expand on that by explaining why you hold this view.  How can you justify it?  What evidence support it? What alternatives have you considered and why have you dismissed them?
• Position – End by restating your position confidently and authoritatively.  Some people are good at coming up with a powerful and clever closing quote but if inspiration escapes you try a simple “and so I believe ….”

Paint a picture: See, hear & feel.

Stories and case studies come to life when the speaker paints word pictures that hep us re-create the situation in our heads as they speak. To do this you need to use sensory specific language to bring your words to life.   A good tool to practice this skill is to describe  three things you could see, three things you could hear and three things you could feel (and also things you could taste and smell if appropriate).  This sort of detail really helps your audience see, hear and feel what you are talking about it.

For example, if your story is about meeting someone in the queue at the post office you could describe:

• See – What they were wearing, the looks on the faces of the other people in the queue, the curling posters on the notice boards etc.
• Hear – The muttering complaints from people in the queue next door, the laughter of a child playing at his mothers feet…
• Feel – The mounting frustration as all the other lines seemed to move faster than yours, the firmness of their grip as they warmly shook your hand etc.

Have fun experimenting with sensory word pictures and see for yourself how they can make even the dullest subject come alive.