The Ultimate Attention Grabber - Humor

D.F. asks
How do I create my own humor when I am presenting?

First of all, your question could encompass a whole book. I am not in position to write a book, however I will try to give you a few useful tips…

First, make sure that you are being relevant. An inside joke is not funny because the audience will not have the background information. Make sure they know enough about what you are talking about to get the humor.

People are typically amused by things that they are familiar with (again relevance) and things that surprise them. If you can take a familiar topic and twist it to a different viewpoint you can usually invoke some humor.

Self deprecating humor is one of the easiest ways to get a laugh. Make fun of yourself (in a tasteful manner). For example, as a child I was extremely accident prone. I was often in the hospital because I had used some sharp object to accidentally inflict a new gash. I have used this in speeches to describe how I learned how to sew – by watching doctors tying sutures (stitches)…. On me.

That previous example also includes a pause where the … is. A pause is extremely effective for humor. You have to give your audience a chance to visualize a situation before you twist it on them.

Another easy way to come up with humor is tragic comedy. Take a situation that would be considered terrible (e.g. luggage lost at airport, missed exam, broken car, etc) and present it in a humorous manner - perhaps with lots of exaggeration. For example, I have always had problems with time management… I have been known to show up two hours late for a two hour exam.

Now there is a real story of how the whole situation occurred that I missed the exam (and it was the professor’s fault) – but that probably does not matter to the audience.

Lastly, try to group your humor in sets of three. If you have humorous comments that build upon each other your audience will perceive them to be even funnier. A group of 3 humorous comments (separated by pauses) is much more effective than the 3 comments each on their own.

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Copyright © 2007 David Mudie All Rights Reserved

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