THE PERKS OF A FUNNY SPEECH
Who would have thought that ‘funny’ is never to be associated with words such as ‘writing’ and ‘speech’? Well, whoever he is, he must not have been able to deliver a single good speech in his lifetime. This is because a good speech requires humor. Without humor, you won’t get people to listen to you, which is your goal by the way.
Remember that in a communication process, interaction is necessary. You do not want hundreds of passive listeners as your audience. You want them to respond to what you are saying. And you achieve this by providing them an area to respond. That area is what we call ‘humor’. So how does humor work in a speech?
First, humor eases the tension between the speaker and his listeners. It breaks the wall between you and consequently helps the ideas flow smoothly. And you need your ideas flowing smoothly. Just make sure that you don’t overdose your audience with humor that you fail to achieve your sole purpose, which may be to inform, to convince or to actuate.
Second, humor adds up to your credibility. Yes, you heard it right. Humor can actually raise your profile up a notch and change how you are perceived by others, in a positive way. It makes you look like your oozing of confidence and that is what the audience need from someone who lectures them on ‘How to Manage Your Business Right’ or ‘How to Be Successful’.
So now you want to write a good funny speech. But how do you do it? Your dilemma is that you’ve never been a funny person your entire life and since the last joke you made, you have been treated like an alien at work. Well, humor may be a talent or so, but it is also a skill. You have to practice. Search the net for the most hilarious jokes ever. Watch comedies. Try out your first lines on people who laugh at everything. Then, improve yourself constantly.
The essentials of speech writing with humor are just the same as those of speech writing without humor. You choose a topic that is appropriate to you as a speaker, to your audience and to the situation. You do not want to discuss the ‘History of Architecture’ with a bunch of Biology majors. In that case, you won’t be needing humor in your speech to be funny.
Remember that it is most important to consider your audience when delivering a speech and especially, when doing so with humor. A common mistake of public speakers is that they blurt out jokes to entertain and in turn, offend their audience. So, study your listeners before writing a speech. Know their age, culture, intellectual levels, etc.
When you have chosen a good topic, start with the body of your message first. In this way, you may concentrate on how to write your introduction as good as you can later on. Take in mind that the initial part of your speech is the judgment time; the time when your audience is contemplating on whether to listen to you or not. Captivate them with that skill that you’ve just learned and you’re sure to get a million fans in Facebook afterwards.
And last but not the least, the end of your speech shall be one that your listeners will remember even if they experience amnesia. Yes, that is possible. You are one good speaker and you deserve a place in their memories. Bring out your best ‘relevant’ humor and have them smiling for a month. And then you’ll see that you don’t need some excessively serious and formal speech to be effective.
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