They are easily remembered and rarely questioned. Besides, who needs to hear about Lincoln overcoming failure for the umpteenth time?
Practice everywhere.
Talk to your mirror, your pets, your plants. They’re loyal, and not overly critical.
Know your audience.
Use internet research, newspaper clippings, even personal interviews to discover their culture, quirks, and humor.
Take control of the environment.
Show up early, or do a walk through the day before. Don’t let the set-up detract from your message.
Funnel your fear into enthusiasm.
There’s nothing wrong with being nervous – if you’re not nervous, you might not care enough about what you’re about to do.
Give yourself permission to speak.
Your audience is there to hear you, and they are rooting for you to give them information and inspiration to change their minds.
Ignorance is bliss.
If you don’t give the “perfect” presentation, your audience often won’t know – unless YOU point it out to them.
Throw out your notes.
Know your topic and follow an outline printed in large type place where you can easily see it. Use specific notes only for quotes, regulations, and technically specific information.
Smile and have fun!
Humor is key. The best eulogies often evoke uproarious laughter, so why should your audiences die of boredom?
About Author
Rich Hopkins is a speaker, author and coach who teaches his clients to Leap from Acceptable to Exceptional. He has 20 years of business background in marketing, sales, and customer service. He consults with individuals, student groups, non-profit organizations, and corporations. Rich is available for keynote presentations, seminars, training, as well as group or one-to-one coaching. Contact him at: http://www.richhopkinsspeaks.com.
The more the audience knows about you as a person, the more they will care about you and what you have to say.
You’ve done all the hard work. You know your topic. You know your audience. Your words are precisely chosen and your delivery is practiced. You see your introducer walking up to the lectern, and you realize – “I have no idea who this person is!” As they give their introduction, it is clear they don’t know you, either.
Introductions can either set you up brilliantly, or leave you floundering for words as you begin. If you don’t take control over your introduction, you are asking for trouble. Name mispronunciations, unrelated comments, and inappropriate humor are par for the course when an introducer is forced to fend for their self on stage. Often they have been recruited at the last minute, or are too frazzled by managing the event to give you a strong start. Whatever the case, if your introduction is weak, you likely have no one to blame but yourself.
6 Strategies for Great Introductions:
Write it yourself.
This is not a strategy as much as a requirement. Your introduction is the audience’s first impression of you, so make sure its positive, intelligent, and understandable.
Use humor when it’s appropriate (and its almost always appropriate).
Even if you are speaking on a serious topic, the intro is about you. Creating a lighter atmosphere will open the audience up to consider the importance of your subject. Tip: Self-deprecating humor – this is a great time to make the audience identify with you. Be sure the humor is universal, and doesn’t cost you credibility. Run it by a mentor or friend first.
No laundry lists.
Unless you are giving an academic dissertation, the audience is not likely to want to hear about your multiple degrees and other awards. The list is probably in the event program. Tip: Use the unexpected – if you are highly decorated, make a list of accomplishments and hobbies the audience will find humorous. Little known facts bring people closer to you.
End with your name.
“Welcome Johnny Smith!” is a cue to the audience to applaud, and you to get up and work your magic. Of course, most introducers will use your name throughout, just out of habit – but the ending cue is vital to avoid confusion.
Know you introducer.
Find out ahead of time whose introducing you, and send them your written introduction. Be sure to include pronunciations of difficult names or terms, and ask them to read it to you over the phone. Tip: Even if you’ve given it to them in advance, always bring a copy with you, in 36 pt. type, to ensure it makes it to the event.
Be prepared for the worst.
Even when you’ve done all you can, people are unpredictable. Be ready to overcome a bad introduction when someone goes off script, or simply reads it incorrectly. Be ready with a glib remark, or use the introduction you’d had in mind as part of your open.
Use these 6 strategies to preserve all the hard work you’ve put into your presentation. Your introduction is your first chance to win over your audience. When you get a great laugh out of your introduction, you know they are primed for your message. The more the audience knows about you as a person, the more they will care about you and what you have to say.
About Author
Rich Hopkins is a speaker, author and coach who teaches his clients to Leap from Acceptable to Exceptional. He has 20 years of business background in marketing, sales, and customer service. He consults with individuals, student groups, non-profit organizations, and corporations. Rich is available for keynote presentations, seminars, training, as well as group or one-to-one coaching. Contact him at: http://www.richhopkinsspeaks.com.
Humor is one of the most effective tools for connecting with an audience. It builds bonds and refreshes the mind. And although the right words can make people laugh, humor is more than just words. As speakers, we learn that the impact of humor is heightened by how you say it, what you do when you say it, and how you use silence…the pause. The pause adds punch to the punchline!
A Pause Adds Punch to the Punchline...One of the reasons the pause strengthens your laugh lines is that it builds tension. There is a relationship between tension and laughter. It's easier to use comic timing when you understand that relationship. So let's examine the link.
Many humor texts tell us that laughter is a natural stress reliever because when we laugh, muscle tension melts away. It’s an involuntary reflex_when we laugh our muscles automatically relax.
It’s said that even in wartime, laughter is used to relieve tension. After a bomb explodes nearby and the dust settles, soldiers in a foxhole sometimes break out laughing. It’s one of nature’s ways of relieving the stress_a safety valve.
Several years ago I witnessed this safety valve in action. Two women were driving on a San Diego freeway directly in front of me during rush-hour traffic. Traveling at about 50 miles per hour on the rain-slicked freeway, a car to their right swerved into their lane. The driver in front of me jerked the wheel, causing her car to spin around, and around and around_three and a half times! It never left the lane and it never hit another car. The women’s car and all the other cars on the freeway came to a dead stop. But their car was facing the wrong direction_we were hood-to-hood! As I looked both women in the eyes, they burst into uncontrollable laughter. It’s clear that there is a definite relationship between tension, laughter and release of tension.
Let’s look at how the pause relates to the tension principle in delivering your humor. To begin with, if you’re deliberately building tension, which will climax in laughter, a pause will heighten the tension and make the laughter more intense. For example, the late Sid Lorraine, often called the Dean of Canadian Magicians, employed the tension principle to get laughs. Once while performing at the Riviera Hotel in Las Vegas, he was presenting a “pitchman act,” playing the role of a “snake oil” salesman from the wild west. His voice started to crack. The longer he spoke, the worse his voice became, until he could no longer speak_silence! Most people in the audience were thinking “Somebody please give the poor man a glass of water!” He then took a drink of his “medicine” and immediately began talking full-throttle! He had caught the audience by surprise, built the tension, extended and strengthened it with a pause, and then reaped the comic’s reward_laughter.
Years ago, when entertaining a military group in Alabama, I used the “answer man” or “Carnack” technique made famous by Steve Allen and Johnny Carson. This is where the entertainer holds an envelope to his head, gives the answer, and then opens the envelope and reads the question. I decided to build some tension enroute to the laughter.
First came the set-up. “The answer is Oscar Meyer, Ball Park and a fighter pilot.” After opening the envelope, I said, “And the question is…name three hot dogs!” By itself, this was a fairly funny line for a group of Air Force officers, some of whom were fighter pilots. But I used it primarily for setting up the joke to follow.
Holding the next envelope to my head, I said, “The answer is…Oscar Meyer, Ball Park and General Willis.” Pause! The tension built to an audible gasp, people thinking “He’s going to call the General a hot dog!” This especially got a strong reaction because their new commander, General Frank Willis, had taken command only three weeks earlier. Opening the envelope, I said, “And the question is (pause) name three franks!” Pause. Tremendous laughter (and relief) filled the room. I built the tension, used the pause to enhance the tension before the punchline, and then used the pause again to let the punchline sink in.
Of course there are times when tension is not built through words or a story line. Even then, the magical pause can strengthen the punchline. When used before the punchline, a pause sets up the anticipation of “here comes the funny stuff!” Anticipation is a form of tension. The impact of the punchline is enhanced by adding a tension relief.
The pause plays another important role when used just before the punchline. The most important part of the joke is the punchline and more specifically the punchword. The pause focuses attention on this key element. The well-placed and timed pause will help ensure that the audience hears the punchline.
The pause also lets people laugh. Years ago, a friend commented, “I’ve figured out why you’re so funny…you insist that we laugh!” She meant that a confident speaker delivers the punchline and pauses for the laughter because he or she knows it will follow. Novices often deliver the punchline and then nervously race on if the laughter doesn’t immediately follow. So dare to be quiet, allow the audience enough time to respond and your humor will hit the mark.
We also use the pause to let our listeners enjoy the laughter to its fullest. Don’t step on the laughs by interrupting the laughter while it’s building. And don’t wait until the laughter has totally ended to resume speaking. An audio tape of your presentation will tell you if you’re discouraging laughter by resuming your talk too soon.
Additionally, you can magnify a funny line by using the pause to accentuate your physical delivery. For example, you might raise your eyebrows. Sometimes the pause can be used to do a “take”_a physical reaction to the situation. Johnny Carson and Jack Benny were masters of a slow take or glance to the right or left to make a line even funnier. Some stand-up comics pause to extend the laughter by making a slow, sweeping eye contact with the audience, from one side of the room to the other.
Yes, silence adds power to the punchline because it heightens the tension. A brief pause gives the audience time to recognize the humor and then react to it. And it draws attention to your physical delivery. So use silence to strengthen your humor and lift laughter to new levels!
About Author
Copyright by John Kinde, who is a humor specialist in the training and speaking business for over 30 years specializing in teambuilding, customer service and stress management. Free Special Reports: Show Me The Funny — Tips for Adding Humor to Your Presentations and When They Don’t Laugh — What To Do When the Laughter Doesn’t Come. Humor Power Tips newsletter, articles and blog are available at www.humorpower.com.
OUCH was the winning speech of world famous speaker and toastmaster Darren Lacroix. He became the World Champion of Public Speaking in 2001. Its a thoroughly inspirational and entertaining speech.
More than half of your impact as a speaker depends upon your body language.
You probably have control over the words you speak, but are you sure that you have control over what you are saying with your body language?
Body language comprises gesture, stance, and facial expression.
These are all the more important when all eyes of an audience are upon you. When you are presenting, strong, positive body language becomes an essential tool in helping you build credibility, express your emotions, and connect with your listeners. It also helps your listeners focus more intently on you and what you’re saying.
The tricky thing about body language is that you are usually unaware of the messages you’re conveying nonverbally. When presenters see themselves on videotape, they’re often surprised to see that their body language conveyed an entirely different message from the one they had intended. For example, some people actually shake their heads “no” when they say “yes.”
Effective body language supports the message and projects a strong image of the presenter. Audiences respond best to presenters whose bodies are alive and energetic. Audiences appreciate movement when it is meaningful and supportive of the message. The most effective movements are ones that reflect the presenter’s personal investment in the message.
Anyone can utter a series of words; it is the presenter’s personal connection to those words that can bring them to life for the audience. Presenters who care deeply about their material tend to use their entire bodies to support the message. Their gestures are large enough to embrace the room full of people. They stand tall and lean into the audience right from their feet, as if trying to shorten the distance between their message and the ears of the audience. Their faces express their passion while their eyes connect with the audience, focusing on one person at a time.
Gesture.
Do use your hands. They don’t belong on your hips or in your pockets or folded across your chest either or held behind your back. Use them-to help emphasize a point, to express emotion, to release tension, and to engage your audience.
Most people have a gestural vocabulary at their disposal. Anyone can all think of a gesture that supports words such as “short” or “tall;” however, the gestures of everyday conversation tend to be too small and often too low to use in front of a large audience. Presenters need to scale their gestures to the size of the room. The most effective gestures arise from the shoulder, not the wrist or elbow. Shoulder gestures project better across the distance and release more of the presenter’s energy, helping combat any tension that can build in the upper body (particularly under pressure).
Stance.
How you stand in front of the room speaks before open your mouth. Your stance can tell the audience that you’re happy, scared, confident, or uncomfortable. Audiences “read” these messages unthinkingly but unfailingly. Stance speaks. A balanced stance with weight even but slightly forward tends to say that the speaker is engaged with the audience. A slumped stance leaning to one side can says the speaker doesn’t care.
The feet should point straight ahead, not quite shoulder-width apart. When not gesturing, the hands should sit quietly at the sides of the presenter. Letting the hands fall to the sides between gestures projects ease. These moments of stillness between gestures also have the effect of amplifying the gestures. Yes, you can move around, but remember to punctuate that movement with stillness. Constant motion, such as swaying, is a distraction that can annoy your listeners.
Facial expression.
The movements of your eyes, mouth, and facial muscles can build a connection with your audience. Alternatively, they can undermine your every word. Eye focus is the most important element in this process. No part of your facial expression is more important in communicating sincerity and credibility. Nothing else so directly connects you to your listeners-whether in a small gathering or a large group. Effective presenters engage one person at a time, focusing long enough to complete a natural phrase and watch it sink in for a moment. This level of focus can rivet the attention of a room by drawing the eyes of each member of the audience and creating natural pauses between phrases. The pauses not only boost attention, but also contribute significantly to comprehension and retention by allowing the listener time to process the message.
The other elements of facial expression can convey the feelings of the presenter, anything from passion for the subject, to depth of concern for the audience. Unfortunately, under the pressure of delivering a group presentation, many people lose their facial expression. Their faces solidify into a grim, stone statue, a thin straight line where the lips meet. Try to unfreeze your face right from the start. For example, when you greet the audience, smile! You won’t want to smile throughout the entire presentation, but at least at the appropriate moments. It’s only on rare occasions that you may need to be somber and serious throughout.
Bring it all together
While we all want to believe that it’s enough to be natural in front of a room, it isn’t really natural to stand up alone in front of a group of people. It’s an odd and unusual thing that creates stress, tension, and stomach troubles. Being natural won’t cut it. We need to be bigger, more expressive, and more powerful. It takes extra effort and energy. It also takes skill and practice. With so much depending on communication and communication depending on body language, it’s worth getting it right. Work on your body language-gesture, stance, and facial expression-to make the most of every speaking opportunity.
Article is authored by DTM Paresh Joshi for Basharia Toastmasters Club, Abu Dhabi. Author is a talented toastmaster well known for his dynamic and humorous speaking style.
Speech by US Toastmaster Scott Prichard who was placed second runner up in 2011 Toastmasters World Speech Contest. The speech title was ‘Roscoe’s Words‘.
