How to Use Humor in Public Speaking

Video Transcript

"Hello! My name is Scott. I am name tag guy from hellomynameisscott.com, on behalf of Expert Village. We are here to learn about public speaking. In today’s episode, we are going to focus on using humor in your talks. Humor is your audience’s digestive system. In other words, it is what it makes the message a lot easier to swallow. I am sure there are a million points we can talk about in terms of humor. But I am only going to share five of them with you. Yep. You know that is funny. I meant to say five, Oh! It is a little example. Alright.

#1 Humor does not mean jokes. In fact, I strongly suggest, stay away from jokes. You know what… there is so much humor in our daily lives that are a lot funnier than some jokes the audiences heard a million times.

#2 Humor is always appropriate, with some exceptions. Every speech I have ever given has always had humor in it, because what people learn with pleasure, they never forget.

#3 Be funny, early and often. Now this is the key because laughter…its nonverbal agreement of your message. And it has to be important because, it keeps people alive and awake. Try to get a laugh every couple of minutes at least.

#4 Non-verbals. Gestures, emotions… just because you are you talking, it does not mean you cannot be funny. Anything you do not say can still be hilarious. Think about Jim Carrey, Conan O’Brien… they do not have to say anything, they are funny. Okay. You see how I stared at the camera. See you can do that. These are nonverbal examples.

#5 Lastly, screw-ups. I will vow to you that some of the best laughs that I have ever given in my professional speaking career had been screw-ups. Check this out. I gave a speech a few years ago, at Wayne State University in Detroit. On the way into the college, I saw a big billboard that had Eminem on it. Now not the candy, I am talking about the rapper Marshall Mathers, Slim Shady, right. So see this billboard, it caught my attention, and I was telling that story to the audience. It is a total Freudian slip, but instead of billboard I said, bullet. It was an accident, it came out terrible, and they died laughing. Because they thought I was making a joke about the Detroit’s crime rate, and long story short… it was great. We could not stop laughing. All of these examples are perfect ways to use humor to your advantage. "