There is something almost magical that happens when your audience laughs with you. You know that they’ve been using their listening skills and there is a connection that is formed for that brief moment that allows both of you to share an experience. Forget presentation tips, the more times that you can make that laugh connection happen during a presentation, the deeper your ability to connect with your audience will be. Since this is such a big part of the importance of public speaking, the big question is what can you do to get your audience to laugh more…?
Go After Authority
Since you are trying to connect with your audience, one thing that you can do that is almost guaranteed to generate some laughs is to poke fun at the folks who are in charge. Now be careful here because these are probably the very people who asked you to come and speak.
We all have mixed feelings about the people in charge. We like it when a speaker calls them out on something or makes fun of them. It’s statements like this that the entire audience can rally behind. Gently making fun of the people who are in charge is a way to create a shared experience that everyone can participate in.
It’s All About Involvement
Taking the time to customize a funny story or situation can get an even bigger laugh from your audience. The reason is because you will have found a way to get them involved in your speech.
Humor that they can hear and laugh about is ok. However, if you go the extra mile and customize it using either locations that they know about or people that they are familiar with, then they’ll feel as though you’ve included them in your speech. When you do that, it always turns out to be funnier.
Can’t We All Just Be Funny?
As we go through life, we do a lot of talking. What this means is that you will occasionally stumble over a line or a story or a quote that the people that you tell it to just find funny. It’s no more complicated than that.
When you discover these gems, use them! You don’t have to worry about trying to classify them or try to explain why you are going to use them. Since you already know that they work, just go ahead and use them!
What All Of This Means For You
One of the most difficult and rewarding things that a speaker can do is to get your audience to laugh with you. The ability to do this multiple times during a speech is how we are able to tap into the benefits of public speaking and is a skill that we all need to be always working to develop.
There are three ways that we can go about improving our ability to connect with our audience through laughter. If we use our speech to poke fun at authority figures, we’ll tap into a shared feeling with our audience. Getting our audience involved in our speech will make it easier for them to laugh at what we say. Finally, if you have a line or a statement that is just funny – then use it!
Not every technique is right for every audience or every situation. Make sure that you know who you’ll be talking to and take the time to tailor your humor so that you’ll create multiple opportunities to connect with your audience during your next speech.
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World Public Speaking Skills™
Question For You: Do you think that it is ever possible to make fun of authority figures if they are in your audience?
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Note: What we talked about are advanced speaking skills. If you are just starting out I highly recommend joining Toastmasters in order to get the benefits of public speaking. Look for a Toastmasters club to join in your home town by visiting the web site www.Toastmasters.org. Toastmasters is dedicated to helping their members to understand the importance of public speaking by developing listening skills and getting presentation tips. Toastmasters is how I got started speaking and it can help you also!
What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
As speakers, we want to make our audiences laugh. The trick is to find ways to get them to use their listening skills and to make them really laugh – a wry smile just isn’t going to do it. In order to make this happen, we need to have the skills that it takes to < title=”How To Be Funny” href=” http://www.rinkworks.com/funny/ “>really deliver a punch line that will generate some laughs. Let’s talk about how to make that happen.