How to Use Humor in a Speech Opening
Aug 24, 2023
How to Use Humor in a Speech Opening
How to you use humor in a speech or presentation opening (Part 2 of 5). Many options exist to grab your audience’s attention when public speaking but I do not recommend telling punchline jokes. https://www.alexanderlyon.com/ http://www.alexanderlyon.com
Content
0 -> I have often heard professional level
3.149 -> speakers say you should start your
5.13 -> presentation with a joke that attention
8.189 -> grabber is critical and I want to
10.019 -> disagree with this advice I do not
12.96 -> recommend telling a setup punchline
16.139 -> style joke the kind that a stand-up
18.449 -> comic would tell and there are a lot of
20.76 -> reasons why not at the same time I am
22.939 -> 100% in favor of using light-hearted
26.55 -> humor in a presentation and I do it
29.34 -> often when I do professional level
31.34 -> presentations and when I teach in
33.21 -> college so there are some differences
35.16 -> here but I can give you a really
36.45 -> straight ahead way to add humor without
38.55 -> the big risk of a punchline style
40.98 -> joke so let's take a look hi I'm Alex
48.51 -> Lyon and this is communication coach
50.37 -> we're here to help you increase your
51.42 -> impact and lead your team's to higher
53.219 -> levels of excellence a lot of bad advice
56.91 -> out there in my humble opinion about
59.579 -> telling jokes has attention grabbers
62.09 -> here's the most common situation that I
64.979 -> have seen the speaker tries to start off
68.369 -> with a joke that they have created and
70.5 -> then nobody laughs and then instead of
73.71 -> just moving on they start chuckling
76.32 -> nervously to cue people that that was a
79.08 -> joke the audience may or may not chuckle
82.049 -> nervously and it's an incredibly awkward
84.74 -> situation now think about this this is
87.509 -> the first moment of your presentation
89.729 -> and you completely bombed and they're
92.22 -> nothing but crickets and nervous
94.079 -> laughter this is not the way you want to
97.47 -> start our presentation it's really high
99.6 -> risk and really low reward so I am
102.72 -> against the stand-up comic style setup
106.11 -> and punchline one-liner jokes now having
109.71 -> said that I'm gonna sound like I'm
111.09 -> contradicting myself but I am NOT
113.04 -> there's a lot of ways to add humor to
117.119 -> your attention-grabber without the big
119.43 -> risk so let's look at three easy ways to
121.89 -> add some light-hearted humor and still
125.34 -> grab your audience's attention the first
127.5 -> way is to deliberately quote someone
130.5 -> else that's funny now by quoting them
133.75 -> directly by saying as Jerry Seinfeld
135.7 -> once said or as George Burns once said
139.24 -> then you may even have the piece of
142.06 -> paper in your hand and read the
143.71 -> quotation what you're doing there is
145.72 -> you're drawing people's attention to
147.22 -> what that other person said and it takes
149.2 -> the attention off of you as the joke
151.209 -> teller so you know they have a funny
153.31 -> line that kills it's already been tested
155.77 -> their stand-up comics they probably
157.3 -> worked on it for years to get it just
158.709 -> right and now you're both you and your
161.35 -> audience focusing on that little line
163.81 -> that little humor as an object that
166.63 -> you're both looking at so the attention
167.95 -> is not on you and if it bombs which they
169.57 -> usually don't because if they're funny
170.95 -> they're funny because it's hardly been
172.54 -> worked out then what you do is you get a
174.85 -> little chuckle you get a little laugh
176.26 -> but if it bombs then it's not really on
179.2 -> you it's on George Burns it's on Jerry
180.82 -> Seinfeld I was saying to my wife the
182.47 -> other day you know Jerry Seinfeld said
184.48 -> in his bit my parents just moved to
187.12 -> Florida now they didn't want to move to
189.25 -> Florida but they're 65 and that's the
191.68 -> law my wife left huge I'm always trying
194.709 -> to make my wife laugh but she laughs
197.5 -> when I tell Jerry Seinfeld jokes and I
199.06 -> think it's because you can hear the
200.44 -> comedian telling the joke in your mind
202.51 -> as the person shares it and it
204.31 -> transports you a little bit more than
205.84 -> hearing me Alex lying as the speaker
207.91 -> tell my one-liner joke so quote someone
210.19 -> else that's funny
211.03 -> use a quotation that's a great attention
212.799 -> grabber no problem the other way you can
214.75 -> add humor is by telling a light-hearted
216.82 -> story and the way to make a story
219.459 -> light-hearted and by the way I have a
221.26 -> whole nother video on how to tell
223.06 -> stories as a tension grabber grabbers
225.34 -> I'll put that link in the description
226.959 -> below is you add a little bit of a goal
229.329 -> to the person in the story they're
231.4 -> trying to reach a destination achieve
233.68 -> something and that way your story gets
235.959 -> humorous because the obstacles along the
238.06 -> way prevent them from reaching that goal
240.16 -> and it becomes pretty light-hearted
241.63 -> pretty funny that's the whole reason why
243.76 -> a movie like Dumb and Dumber is funny
246.16 -> because it's a roadtrip movie where
248.14 -> these two guys are trying to get from A
250.06 -> to B from Providence to Aspen to see
252.01 -> about a girl and everything that can go
254.44 -> wrong does go wrong on their way and so
256.75 -> all these mishaps become very humorous
259.69 -> because you know there's a goal in mind
261.25 -> that is preventing and they're being
263.53 -> prevented from getting there so adding a
265.66 -> little bit of a humorous goal to your
267.889 -> can make that story more lighthearted so
270.11 -> you can tell the story it's not a
271.099 -> punchline but it adds just a little bit
273.05 -> of a chuckle a little bit of a smile to
275.3 -> your audience's experience and the third
277.699 -> way is really easy and that is to show
280.099 -> something visual on the screen that you
282.8 -> know is funny so maybe there's a cute
285.259 -> picture maybe there's a little bit of a
287.15 -> joke even on the slide and you don't
289.58 -> have to tell it you just have to say
290.75 -> something and then show the image and
292.37 -> people chuckle you've probably seen
293.99 -> speakers use humor this way it's a very
296.539 -> low-risk way because when you were
299.12 -> looking at the internet or doing your
300.65 -> reading you came across it and you
301.969 -> laughed or somebody forwarded it to you
303.62 -> and you laughed everybody thinks it's
304.969 -> funny everyone knows it's funny and so
306.439 -> you share it in your presentation it's
307.849 -> almost guaranteed to get a smile so I am
311.659 -> 100 percent telling your own setup
314.659 -> punchline style jokes but I am also one
317.93 -> percent in favor of using light-hearted
320.689 -> humor and these are three low-risk ways
323.419 -> to do it without worrying about nobody
326.81 -> laughing and just hearing those crickets
328.879 -> chirping that's a really hard way to
331.189 -> start your presentation and trust me
332.629 -> I've seen a lot of people crash and burn
334.55 -> and they just completely fall apart
337.129 -> because they're trying to do it that way
339.139 -> so a question of the day what are your
340.879 -> suggestions for adding humor but not
343.31 -> jokes to your attention grabbers in your
345.86 -> presentations I would love to hear your
347.509 -> comments and your questions in that
349.039 -> section below so thanks god bless and I
352.25 -> hope you grab your audience's attention
353.719 -> really well in your next presentation
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6sm47j-Am4
