Your Speech Coach

One of the best ways to create humor in your speech is to tell a story. You can always find a story: about a happy client, how a product was developed or how a project was carried out. A story draws us in. And then you add details. Details create pictures, sounds and smells that put us in the moment with the speaker. And stories can easily become laugh-out-loud funny by adding exaggeration to those details, so the images and sounds take us to someplace we don’t expect. Surprises are funny!

One of the things I do for my speech coaching clients is to help them add humor to their presentations. Sometimes I do this with them face-to-face, sometime they send me the notes of their speech and I email them the changes. Recently I did a comedy “punch up” to an already wonderful story written by an Endodontist (they do root canals) in Florida. He was preparing to share the story of the reroofing of his office, and the huge list of problems the roof repair caused. His audience for the story was the general dentists that refer patients to him. This Endodontist is a warm, gregarious person, but the story he wrote sounded too much like a rant of complaints and his wonderful sense of humor needed to come through.

I want to share with you, a few of the changes I made to his piece so you can see how you can tweak your next speech to make it funny or funnier.

Change One:

The original opening was dry and not worded to bring the listener in. “I want to share with you my horrendous week in July.” Few people want to hear about someone’s bad day, much less a bad week. Audiences need to open up to you to laugh with you.

So try to draw the listener in by resonating with their lives. I made a change that was not in itself funny, but was designed to get the audience nodding their heads as they identified with the speaker.

My Change:

“Have you ever had one of those bad weeks in your practice where everything seems to go wrong? You know a week when you were ready to send up a white flag and yell “I surrender!” Recently I had one of those weeks.”

To make this bit funny I suggested the doctor raise his hand in the air as if he was raising a white flag and wave it as he yelled, “I surrender!” You can often make an action or object you describe with words in your speech funnier by gesturing and using facial expressions.

Change Two:

He had a simple description of what happened with the AC’s were removed as part of the roof replacement.

My Change:

“On Monday the roofers took the three ACs, which I had just purchased off my roof to redo some electrical work. The resultant holes leave the roof looking like a giant piece of Swiss cheese. It’s summer…which means Florida rain…You guessed it. Swiss cheese is great on a sandwich but I do not recommend it as roofing material.”

Change Three:

He listed the damages to the office.

My Change:

“Monday we come in to the office and we are greeted by a downpour of rain INSIDE the office. We had been thinking of putting a small fountain in the lobby. A tsunami, not so much.”

Change Four:

A description of the wet carpet is tweaked, by adding in descriptive details so the audience can image walking on the carpet themselves. Then some of some of those surprising exaggerated details were added.

My Change:

“The carpets wet enough to pass for creek beds. We pull up the pant legs of our scrubs and wade in. By the afternoon were expecting minnows, bull frogs and large mouth bass.” “I consider adding fishing rods to the patient chairs.” “Hummm I could start another business. “Cruise into our office and get a root canal and fish dinner!”

The creek bed is the first detail and that in itself is a surprise. That could make an audience smile, but adding the fish and bullfrogs goes beyond description to a bigger surprise that will hopefully get a laugh, then once the audience is up you can surprise them again with another detail, in this case the fish dinner. To write this kind of humor list all the things associated with the premise. The premise here was water so I brainstormed a list of water items. To make the delivery funnier I suggested he actually mime walking in and hiking up his pants and pretending to fish.

Change Five:

The fans and humidifiers from Chem Dry, used to dry out the office, are wonderfully described in the original piece by the doctor-as sounding like jets taking off. In this change I take his idea of jets and juxtapose it with the reality of treating patients. Think about what happens when we sit in a dental chair. Now think about what happens when we sit in an airplane and put those two things together.

My Change:

“As we seat the patients, we consider asking them to fasten their seat belts, put the dental trays in the full upright position and give them peanuts and ginger ale after take off.”

In the doctor’s original speech he shares how he has to project his voice over the loud jet noise. I exaggerate that to say.

“I develop a deep airport announcer voice that projects over the noise to both my assistants and patients. By Tuesday, I am announcing regular take offs and landings.”

Change Six:

The doctor describes coming in later in the week to another flood. He makes a wonderful humorous reference to Noah’s ark. I take that a little further.

My Change:

“I then walk out into my hallway to be greeted by yet another flood; I check the parking lot for the ark with animals being loaded two by two.“

To make the delivery of this piece funnier I suggest he walk over to the side of the stage and put his hand out above his head as if he is gazing out the window to see the animals coming out of the ark.

The doctor relates other calamities, fire alarms going off, computer breakdowns, a pest control problem and a loss of internet connections. The last mishap makes he and his wife miss their dinner plans at the club and end up eating at Checkers hamburger joint. I think that is already funny. But you can make comparisons funnier by adding in the details. Let’s just imagine the differences between those two dinners.

“Our wonderful dinner plans at the club change slightly; instead of the beef Wellington at the field club with a view of the water, we eat beef on a bun at Checkers with a view of the parking lot.” “I love how the sun sets on the asphalt.”

I have added throughout the speech a running gag. With each calamity, I give him a new job, with the jet sound he becomes an airport announcer, with the fire alarm he becomes a fireman, with the second flood he becomes Noah, with the creek bed carpet fishing he is a fishing cruise director, the pest problem he becomes a pest control guy. His audience knows he is thinking of retiring so he can stop working so much, so they see the inside joke of having even more jobs.

Change Seven:

At the end of the speech he originally said he was looking forward to another “relaxing” day of work tomorrow.

My Change:

“I am now finally home, dry and looking forward to tomorrow’s new adventure at work. I have already been an airport announcer, fireman, Noah, fishing cruise director, and pest control guy–what adventurous job awaits me next? Who could ever want to retire and miss all this fun???”

Change Eight:

The last change is to the end of the speech. The original ending is good. The doctor talks about his great staff. But the purpose of the speech for the doctor is to connect to the physicians that refer patients to him, so he wants to say something that makes them feel confident in him and his staff.

My change:

“I love what I do and I am blessed with the wonderful patients that I so appreciate you sending me. I am truly looking forward to going to work tomorrow. If you love what you do and have a great team behind you, any environment can be bearable…for a limited time that is! Let’s say less than 40 days and 40 nights. And as you enjoy your labor day, a celebration of occupations, remember to enjoy as I do all the jobs that life brings your way.”

There is nothing like sharing a personal story in your speech that ties in with something hot in the news. It accomplishes several things. It makes you human in the eyes of your audience which helps them connect with you. It let’s them know you are hip and current with your topic, and it insures that your speeches stay fresh and new for you and them.

Having said that you need to be careful of who is in your audience when your share your story.

Recently I have been sharing a story about the effect of the dog food recall on my wonder dog Bo. A few weeks ago I checked the attendee roster of my public speaking seminar and found two attendees were from a company that makes several products including dog food. I went out in the audience and asked them their experience and discovered they were grateful not to be on the list. I asked permission to share their story along with mine with the group and we ended up in this great discussion. What if they had been on the list and I had brashly shared my story?

Because Bo’s special sensitive stomach dog food has been recalled for “reformulating” (I assume that means they are taking the poison out from now on) I took the vet’s advice and I have been feeding him Gerber’s baby food. Yep, you guessed it. What is on the recall list today?, Gerber’s baby food! Guess I will have another story for my next speech.

I was reading a news letter from speaker Randy Gage. He just keynoted at the National Speaker Convention. He had a speaking experience that you may have had or may have with your audience. The majority of the audience loved him; about 10 percent were deeply offended by him.

Here is a truth: When you speak about anything,  you have the potential for disagreement from your audience. And when you share information that goes against the status quo, when you make recommendations that that requires a paradigm shift in thinking, you really are putting yourself out there.

But don’t make the mistake of hesitating to speak with conviction on a controversial issue or make strong recommendations about things that matter.

I recall reading about the high ranking officials and experts that knew about the real risk of imminent flooding in New Orleans before Katrina, but when you read the transcripts of their speeches to the power that be about their research finding and recommendation they tip toed around making a strong stand. They let fear keep them for speaking the truth.

As a speaker you have a responsibility to speak the truth. On a personal level I know there is times a professional speaker on body language and interpersonal communication that I say things that make my audience members uncomfortable, because they know that if they believe what I am saying they have to change.

It’s wonderful to make audiences laugh; it is an even greater gift to help audiences think in ways that can produce positive concrete changes in their lives.

Your job is not just to compile material and merely repeat it back to your audience. Your ultimate job, your mission if you choose to accept it, is to connect with your audience. That means you need to: stay focused on the audience, be aware of their body language, adapt to their needs and keep them with you.
I have said this in many different ways throughout my book. That’s because it is the single most important thing to remember as a speaker. Sometimes you get so caught up in the momentum of the presentation you forget it. I know you worked hard putting the speech together and heck! you only have so much time to give all that great information you put together… but if you’re just pouring it on the audience and they have their umbrellas up it does not matter how much your pour or even how great the data is. They must be with you, paying attention. And don’t think, well they are like this with everybody, or only a few people are really bored. Each presenter sets the standard and the behavior for his or her audience. You are responsible for getting your audience to pay attention. So do it. Be radical if you have to. Sit down on a chair, wave a white flag of surrender, and ask your audience what you can do to help them get this information. Don’t attack them. Take responsibility. It’s your speech. Go get ‘em Tiger!

But you say, ” I am the one that did all the work. I am the one that that stayed up late and spent hours putting together all the numbers. Why shouldn’t I think it’s about me?” Because,  it’s really about them. From the first moment you put pen to paper or fingers to keys, your whole focus and priority is to create and deliver a speech for your audience. Connected to their needs, their interests, delivered with a style and energy to suit and captivate them. I think we sometimes give our speeches as if our audience was a first date. We worry about how we will look, agonizing over clothing decisions and getting our hair just right. We worry about what we will say, and creating the perfect setting and try to sound really smart. But we forget we are doing this all to make a connection with our date. The focus should be on that. So find out about your audience and what they like. Have a ‘Conversation” with them that flows back and forth. Make significant eye- contact and they may just want to go out with you again.

The audience needs to know the structure of the speech. Giving your speech is like giving them directions to your house. The audience will be happier if they know where you are in your speech at any given time, and where you’re headed.

Helping your audience follow your message throughout your speech requires that you build into your structure a certain amount of redundancy. That means that you need to repeat your main points. When you divide your presentation into an introduction, the main body, and the conclusion, you are building in this necessary redundancy.

In the introduction, you “tell them what you are going to tell them”

In the main body, you “tell them”

In the conclusion, you “tell them what you told them”

This kind of deliberate repetition helps your audience follow and remember the main points you are making. You may think that all the repetition is too elementary, but if you want the audience to remember what your have said, no mater how smart that audience is you must give them a roadmap. Remember readers can “reread” text, but listeners cannot “rehear” oral remarks. To design your presentation with planned repetition, you must clearly know your purpose and what you want your audience to know.

Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you’ve told them.

“Do not compare yourselves with others for you will become vain and bitter.” This is a quote from the famous poem the Desiderata that accurately describes the dangers of comparing your speaking style with other speakers. You may see other speakers who have razzle-dazzle PowerPoint slides or run around the room and jumping on chairs and think I’m a horrible speaker because I don’t speak like that.

If you put all your energy to be like somebody else somebody you think is a top banana you may end up only be a second banana when in truth you are a great plum. So discover your plumness. Bring out the best parts of you in your speaking.

Your number one job as a speaker is to be the conduit to connect your presentation to the audience.

We know you are smart. You may have expertise no one else in the room has and you are likely to have more information on the topic that anyone else in the room as well. You may believe that showing the audience how much you know and how smart you are about the topic will make you look your best as a speaker. It won’t. When your goal is to look smart you tend to give your audience too much information. When you know so much, you may want to use all the big technical industry specific terms. You look a lot smarter when you choose the most important information, edit down the material for your audience, and use your knowledge and insight on the topic to simplify processes, procedures, and data for your audience. If you overwhelm and or confuse your audience they will walk out of the room thinking, “what a stupid speaker he didn’t think about my needs.”

Consider this: to create a hand written document that’s legible to a reader you must write each letter clearly without a lot of extra curly cues and fancy pants scribbling, so it follows that to create a speech that is understandable to your audience, you must speak clearly and simply, without a lot the erudite monologues with the fancy pants words.

This week I gave a three day workshop on Presentation Skills. What surprised
everyone is that I did not use powerpoint!!! (Collective gasp….)
And during the attendees’ speeches they learned that they could feel and be
so much more powerful without it. Most importantly, they felt how great it is
to be connected to your audience and not stuck facing your projector and or
screen. My students often say, “But I need the slides for my notes.” That is
not what slides are for. They are visual aids for the audience. Last night I
watched the republican presidential candidate debates and talked about my
analysis this morning as a guest on FOX and Friends on the Fox news network.
Guess what? The canididates did not use slides.
Obviously it would have looked funny if they had. We would have thought,
“Why do they need notes?” ” Why aren’t they looking at us?” ” Why aren’t they animated.?”

For more, there here is an NY Time article on the subject of powerpoint. Use discretion folks.