Public Speaking Tricks | Dominate The Podium

If They’re Laughing, They’re Learning

Posted on 06. Jan, 2009 by Crazy J in Humor

Where do I start? Oh yeah,  If They’re Laughing, They’re Learning

I guess I need to start somewhere, so I thought I’d start out by referring to something that actually got me started with Stand-up Comedy; “Public Speaking”.

Now, many of you who know me today don’t realize that I used to travel throughout the States and Europe, training various Network Marketing organizations. A very enjoyable but none the less challenging task.

While as a speaker at business conventions of this kind, you usually already have the audience on your side, for they are noted for being hungry for the information you are going to provide to help them get rich, but they still want and need great content and a bit of a performance.

That’s when I started studying Comedy, because I discovered something very important and this is now my speaking mantra:

“If They’re Laughing, They’re Learning” 8

I found time and time again that the presentations where I made the people laugh most were the ones that were remembered longest. Around 14 years ago I did a speech which I titled : “Let Go of Your Peanut”8 (more on that in a later post) and people still approach me that heard that seminar back then and praise me saying they can still remember what I said because I left them laughing so hard that they were in tears. 14 years later!
That is the type of impact you want to leave. Encase your message with humor and people will remember it longer.

Now mind you, using humor isn’t always possible. War talks, funerals and divorce proceedings are places where using humor could backfire on you. But then again you could go out with a laugh. Talk about “killing”.

Traveling internationally and speaking to audiences in foreign countries creates an additional challenge. Many don’t understand English and on top of that their sense of humor is different. I tried on several occasions to be funny in my presentations but found that people in places like Istanbul, Budapest or Brussels just might not get it. I’ll cover performing internationally in another post.

Well that’s it for today. While I was studying comedy and public speaking, one of the resources I found helpful was a book from Paul Evans called “Instant Speaking Success“.

In his book he covers:

# How to speak with confidence and clarity
# How to find the message only YOU can share
# Giving the audience exactly what they want
# The secrets to passion and why it is key
# Using humor to draw the audience to you and build instant rapport

So I can definitely say that I was able to glean a lot of helpful lessons from this book.
You can check it out here: Instant Speaking Success

So Nuff Said!
Cheers, Smiles and Laughs,

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Tags: Humor, intercultural, seminars, speaking, teaching