About now most books have a bibliography that’s none too exciting. Rather than follow suit with what’s normal, here I have summarized many of the tips in this book and added some more from many of the ten-thousand-hour comedians I met over the course of my experiment or drew wisdom from along the way. The following are eighty tips that should help you brush up on your funny before your next public speaking gig.
1 Draw Upon Your Own Real-Life Experiences
“The safest humor involves personal stories, because they are guaranteed to be original and unheard, they can be practiced and perfected, and they are highly personalized to your style,” says Alan Weiss.
2 Speak about What You Like
Tell the stories that you already tell around your colleagues, friends, and family. Work to build them into your talk. If you don’t like what you are talking about, nobody else will either. Complete this sentence: (Your Name here) is always talking about . . .
3 Find the Key Point to Each Story
Where is the funny anecdote, interesting bit of knowledge, or the entertaining part? Work to cut out unnecessary words and re-tell the best stories using the following rule of thumb: Three lines with no funny are too much.
U.K. comedian Jimmy Carr says, “Writing comedy isn’t really about writing; it’s more about editing. It’s about what you don’t say. What are the fewest words I can get down here in order to get to the funny bit?”
5 Think Fails and Firsts
“So many people ask me for help creating a funnier speech,” says Darren LaCroix. “They want to know where to ‘find funny.’ I suggest starting by looking in the mirror! Start by looking at your fails and your firsts. The first time you did something wrong. Audiences love the humility and openness.”
6 Play with Your Pain
“To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain and play with it,” Charlie Chaplin said. While he likely didn’t mean customer pain points, the same wisdom applies.
7 Listen and Repeat
“Many funny things are said and done in your presences that are wholly original and can be used as a humorous illustration in your stories or speech,” says Pat Hazell. “I overheard my kids arguing during a candy exchange after Halloween that was a wonderful message about value in negotiations. My oldest son Tucker said, ‘I hate dark chocolate!’ To which his brother responded, ‘It’s still candy, you got to respect that.’ I use the dialogue verbatim because it is so pure and to the point.”
8 Start a Funny Story File
As you begin to take notes and observe the world around you while looking for humor, you’ll find it gives you plenty of opportunities to find it. Every time you think of something funny or you have an observation or something that you think will be useful, make sure you write it down. If you have a smartphone, use your notes section or an app like Evernote. You’ll be surprised just how quickly you forget these thoughts.
This rule is a basic structure for jokes and ideas that capitalizes on the way we process information. We have become proficient at pattern recognition by necessity. Three is the smallest number of elements required to create a pattern. This combination of pattern and brevity results in memorable content.
10 Feed Your Stories into the Joke Structure
Note the Rule of 3:
1. Introduction/Setup: Introduce your topic remembering, “Brevity is levity.” No more than three lines before the funny.
2. Punch Line: Key funny part to your story. Try and keep anticipation to the end if possible. Often the best jokes are when the key funny part only becomes apparent with the very last word.
3. Taglines (optional): Additional jokes/comments that build on the initial joke.
11 Take the Train Off Track
The punch line shatters the intentionally built-up interest and expectation. According to corporate humorist John Kinde, “A funny line is sometimes said to be like a train wreck. You know where the train (your train of thought) has been, you think you know where it’s going, but then you’re surprised when it goes off track.”
12 Jokes Are: 1, 2 . . . 4!
“They look like they’re about to establish a pattern but then break it just when it’s about to become one,” says Rajiv Satyal. “In this example, you think I’m counting but, when you hear ‘4,’ you realize I was doubling the numbers. It makes sense in retrospect. (But they’re not 1, 2 . . . 7! That would just be random.) Jokes work due to the element of surprise. Too many business presentations are stuff people already know (1, 2 . . . 3!) or stuff people don’t know what to do with (1, 2 . . . 7!). Give ’em something both memorable and fun.”
There is always a tension in the room as the audience tries to figure out a little bit about you and decides if they want to listen to you. Getting a quick laugh can be a great way to lighten the mood.
14 Develop an Opening Line
As any 100-meter sprinter knows, it’s much harder to win if you get off to a weak start. The first thirty seconds of your presentation can set the tone for the rest of your talk as easily as the sprinter’s time off the block. Rehearse this thirty seconds the most.
15 Acknowledge the Obvious
If you’re visibly nervous, have a fresh stain on your shirt, or if there’s anything unusual about you physically—anything that the audience might fixate on at the start—now is the time to address it, get a laugh, and move on so the audience can focus. Acknowledging the obvious is known in comedy as “calling the room.” It means vocalizing exactly what’s going on in the room or what people are likely thinking.
16 Think Fun Over Funny
“Making people laugh is only one type of humor; getting them to smile is another,” says Andrew Tarvin. “When starting out, focus on making things fun as opposed to making things funny.”
17 Take a Bar Exam
Unlike conference rooms, bars are friendly, social places. People expect stories told there to be succinct and entertaining. That’s why IDEO marketing lead and Mortified co-producer Annette Ferrara tells designers to “take a bar exam.” Go to a bar with a colleague—or imagine you’re in one—and tell your story using only napkin drawings as your visuals. Have your friend repeat back your story to see what’s sticking and what’s not. Refine and repeat.
“A sense of humor is an attitude in how you approach your work and life. It is a skill that can be developed.”
–Jeanne Robertson
“There has to be tension for a punch line to land,” says Zahra Noorbakhsh. “Tension sets up the desire to see a problem—however big or small—get resolved. If you can identify what is making your audience restless, anxious, or uncomfortable, you can work backward to find the joke that chills them out.”
19 Use the Art of Misdirection
“The beautiful thing about a business presentation versus stand-up comedy is that the presentation audience can be misled into a funny line much easier,” says Cody Woods. “Due to the many boring presentations they have been subjected to, they are suspecting it less. Use this to your advantage.”
20 Put the Word the Joke Hinges On at the End of the Sentence
“For example, if the fact it’s a cat is the surprise or twist, don’t say, ‘There was a cat in the box’ Say, ‘In that box was a cat.’ That way you’re not still talking when they’re meant to be laughing,” says Matt Kirshen.
21 Use Metaphors and Analogies Combined with Hyperbole (Exaggeration)
“Figure out the pattern of something you’re criticizing, and then choose a metaphor that makes that look ridiculous,” says Brian Carter. “For example, I might teach that trying to do organic social marketing without ads, maybe hoping for it to go viral, is like trying to drive a car that only other people can fill up with gas when they feel like it and hoping they will. Exaggerating anything makes it funnier. So I could exaggerate the previous example and say that it’s like the Star Trek Enterprise trying to fly to a new star system without any dilithium crystals and hoping that some Klingons show up and give them some. Now, I just made those up and they’re probably horrible, but that illustrates the process (Trekkies get it).”
“Aim for charming and enjoyable instead of hilarious.”
–Doug Kessler
22 Paint a Picture for Others to See
“Comedy is in the details, but you don’t want to overdo it,” says Reggie Steele. “Just enough to set the scene. Talk to people as if you’re talking to a blind person or you’re doing something for the radio. Details matter.”
23 Use Current Media References Where Possible
Creating material that relates to topics that are current in the mind of those in our audience is another easy way to get a laugh. Nighttime television hosts like John Oliver, Stephen Colbert, and Jimmy Fallon are masters of this, and their popularity heightens the chance that your crowd already will be familiar with poking fun at fresh topics.
24 Tell a Joke
If people laugh, a joke has already added value. “It helps if it segues into a point. But it doesn’t have to,” says Rajiv Satyal. One of his favorites that’s both hilarious and yet clean enough for a corporate presentation: A guy joins a monastery and takes a vow of silence. He’s allowed to say two words every seven years. After the first seven years, the elders bring him in and ask for his two words. He says, “Cold floors.” They nod and send him away. Seven more years pass. They bring him back in and ask for his two words. He clears his throat. “Bad food,” he says. They nod and send him away. Seven more years pass. They bring him in for his two words. He goes, “I quit.” One of the elders looks at him and says, “That’s not surprising. You’ve done nothing but complain since you got here.”
“I’ve never had that joke miss in any context,” says Satyal. And it’s easy to tie it into something going on at a company, such as a reorg. (Every place is always doing a reorg.)
25 Start Strong and Finish Even Stronger
Start with your second-best part. Leave the best until last.
“To truly laugh, you must be able to take your pain, and play with it.”
–Charlie Chaplin
26 Run Through Your Presentation in Fast Forward
Saying the words out loud as quickly as possible is a great technique to identify words and parts of your talk that may trip you up the day of your talk.
27 Don’t Bring Visible Notes Onstage with You
Podiums are becoming a thing of the past as most organizers realize they create a barrier between the speaker and audience, so sooner or later you’ll have nowhere to put notes. It’s best not to rely on them at all, but if you must have something, be sneaky about it. Write a few notes on a water bottle label or a napkin. Notes should stay in your back pocket throughout. If you don’t have a back pocket, get creative. Visible notes show the audience that you’re not fully prepared and also force you to break flow and eye contact.
28 Avoid Going Blank Onstage
Use the “memory palace” memorization technique. “To do this, it is useful to have the image interact with the environment,” Richard Sarvate says. “For my sushi joke, I picture a sushi chef. If I put him in the elevator in the lobby of my apartment, I picture him mashing the buttons on the elevator in frustration. Now that he is interacting with the environment, it’s a lot easier to visualize and recall. It’s useful to make the image bizarre in order to make it more memorable. For my Mexican-Indian joke, I picture Krishna wearing a sombrero. A ridiculous image, which is almost tougher to forget.”
29 Close Your Wardrobe
President Obama, Albert Einstein, and Steve Jobs are all known as proponents for the ease of selecting the same items for all public appearances. Having standard speaking attire means one less thing you have to worry about. It also makes your video reel clips easier to stitch together.
30 Wear Dark, Sweat-Proof Clothing
Presenting in front of an audience takes energy and focus, which means you will perspire. Instead of feeling uncomfortable with visible sweat stains, dress for success. Make sure your presentation wardrobe includes fabrics like 100 percent cotton, linen, lightweight merino wool, jersey, chambray, rayon, silk or moisture wick fabric.
31 Don’t Wait to Work the Room
Try and introduce yourself to as many people in the room as possible before you start to speak. It helps break down that initial barrier that a stage can create. Don’t wait until you have already addressed the audience to start working the room.
32 Avoid Stage Fright
This is your body’s way of telling you that it is ready. The thought of negative consequences triggers glands to secrete the hormone ACTH. This hormone results in the release of adrenaline into your blood and that’s what causes these uncomfortable feelings. This is essentially your body’s most alert and heightened state. It means you’re ready. You want to focus on embracing this feeling. When you feel it, be happy. It means your body is in its peak condition to face a challenging or worrying situation.
33 No Drinking or Other Substances Prior to Your Talk
You want to fully embrace your heightened state of alertness.
34 Watch the Three Speakers before You
This allows you to build on their success and call back to their jokes. It also makes you are aware of any overlapping examples and helps avoid unnecessary repeats.
35 Stretch First
Just before you go on stage, put your hands above your head in a full stretch. This will help calm your nerves.
“Stories are the creative conversion of life itself into a more powerful, clearer, more meaningful experience. They are the currency of human contact.”
–Robert McKee
Don’t leave your introduction to chance. Always supply one in advance. Many hosts or emcees try to improvise humorous interludes themselves. Don’t let their laughs be at your expense. The only time the introduction should ever mention your name is at the very end. This is the audience’s cue to applaud for you.
37 Let the Host Sell You
Have the host list your achievements, why you are qualified to be there, and why the audience should listen to you, so you don’t have to. This allows you to start with a story rather than a chronological self-promotional ordering of your achievements, however big or small.
38 Get Onstage Fast
As soon as the host introduces you (hopefully with a round of applause), quickly make your way onto the stage. You should be in position to commence speaking as soon as the applause dwindles. If, for any reason, you need to set up or adjust some items at this point in time, it’s a great moment to ask the audience for a round of applause for your host or previous speaker.
39 If the Energy Is Down, Bring It Up
“If the host didn’t introduce you with a strong round of applause, this is a good time for you to ask the audience to offer a round of applause,” says Sarah Cooper. “Feel free to ask for a round of applause for the presenter, the host, some of the presenters before you, the sponsor or organizers of the event, and even one for the audience themselves (even though they think they’re clapping for themselves, it still feels like they’re clapping for you).” Applause also follows the Rule of 3. It gets the audience into the habit of applauding and laughing.
“As a creator, it’s your job to make an audience as excited and fascinated about a subject as you are, and real life tends to do that.”
–Ricky Gervais
Outside asking for applause if it is needed, start your talk in the action. Don’t say, “I am happy to be here,” “Great to be here,” “It’s my first time in this city,” “There are so many of you,” “Wow, what a great day,” et cetera. Get to it.
41 Smile and Make Eye Contact
Connect with as many people as you can in the front rows for the duration of the first thirty seconds and as much as you can throughout the rest of your talk. This helps you to engage as many members of the audience as you can on a personal level. If you look like you’re enjoying it and you look happy, chances are other people will start to as well.
42 Speak Up, Not “Ah,” “Eh,” “But”
It sounds straightforward enough, but make sure you speak loud enough for people to hear you. You need to reach everybody in the room. The added benefit is that by speaking at little as 20 percent louder than normal, you will reduce the amount of filler words (“ah,” “eh,” “but”) you tend to use. It’s hard to say “eh” or “em” with this higher-than-normal tone. This feels strange to do but sounds perfectly normal to your audience.
43 Don’t Eat the Microphone
This should fall under the “instinct” category, but you can’t be sure with people these days. Don’t underestimate what your nerves might drive you to do. New presenters tend to keep it a little bit too close to their mouth. Keep it a good distance away from your mouth; ideally, keep it down by your chin. If you are really nervous, leave the mic in the stand until you get a few early laughs and feel more confident. Then once the nerves have calmed, move the stand out of the way.
44 Trust Yourself and Your Material
If you look like you know what you’re doing, people will believe it and that confidence is infectious. Remember, people are fundamentally good at heart. Nobody wants to see a speaker or performer doing badly. They want to see you succeed. Give them reason to think you will.
Make eye contact with a friendly face in the audience and hold for three seconds at a time. (Any longer gets creepy fast!) Only move between faces at pause points in your talk—at a new sentence, sentence break, or pause point. Avoid standing there spraying your words around the audience. This will give you better camera footage every time.
46 Speak Instead of Preach
Be conversational on stage and avoid preaching. This relaxes the audience and makes it seem more of a spontaneous discussion.
47 Add Attitude
Use words like weird, amazing, scary, hard, stupid, crazy, or nuts. Try to incorporate these words into your opening setup or statement. This will help people focus on you and pay attention quickly. If you want people to be passionate about your topic, show them some passion.
48 Try and Use the Present Tense
Avoid “I was walking and I saw.” It should be “I’m walking and I see.” Even if the event happened many, many years ago, you want the audience to be living that moment with you as if it’s happening right now. Create the scene for the audience as if it’s unfolding in front of their very eyes.
49 Use Inherently Funny Words
Believe it or not, some words are funnier than others and can be amusing without any given context. Quoting Neil Simon, “Words with a ‘K’ in it are funny. Alka-Seltzer is funny. Chicken is funny. Pickle is funny. All with a ‘K.’ L’s are not funny. M’s are not funny.” Simpsons creator Matt Groening proclaimed the word underpants to be at least 15 percent funnier than the word underwear. Pants are funny.
“The end of laughter is followed by the height of listening.”
–Jeffrey Gitomer
50 Work in References to the Local Area Where Possible
By simply referencing certain affluent areas, calling upon local sporting rivalries, or recognizing challenges or issues pertaining to specific parts of town, you demonstrate that you have a special understanding of and interest in your audience’s location.
51 Screen Your Jokes
“Presentations have an extra advantage over most traditional stand-up sets—a giant friggin’ screen that the audience is staring at the whole time you’re onstage,” says Speechless Live creator Sammy Wegent. “In a world where funny Photoshopped images, memes, and GIFs dominate our devices, visual humor has never been bigger. So don’t just say funny things in your presentation. Show funny things, too.”
52 Make the Image/Video the Proven Punchline
Search sites like Reddit, Imgur, and Pinterest are a great source of funny content that is already socially proven. The key is tying this image to your topic and using it to reinforce a point. Use the same joke structure with images and videos as you would with regular jokes: Set up your image with an introduction that builds anticipation. The image becomes the punch line and should be enough to solicit a laugh, and then you have a chance to keep people laughing through taglines, your additional comments on the image or video.
53 Don’t Speak for Too Long
Comedians know their strongest material and know that the best nights are the ones when they do just that. If you are not confident in your ability to speak for forty minutes, ask for less. How about I speak for twenty minutes and allocate twenty additional minutes for Q&A? Conference organizers will seldom rebuff this.
54 Don’t Finish on Q&A
Never finish your talk with a questions and answers section. Say, “Now I am going to take a few questions before I make my conclusion.” Save a slide for after the Q&A that lists the main points from your talk (ideally three), then deliver your parting words of wisdom.
“Speak with your hands in front of you, not flopped down to your side,” says Matt Morales. “Pretend you’re double-fisting a couple of drinks that you’re going to spill if you put your arms down. Or just double-fist a couple of beers. Granted, that might not make your presentation better, but eventually you won’t care anymore.”
56 Make Sure You Are Fully Visible
If there’s a podium, try to get out from behind it. If there’s a mic stand, once you’re comfortable, take the mic out and move the stand to one side. Often the audience needs to see you to fully trust you.
57 Mind Your Face
Your expression is incredibly important from the moment you step on stage to the moment you walk off. Remember to smile. Make eye contact with as many people as you can. Try and build connections.
58 Know Your Audience
This can really help you tailor material and certain jokes to that particular crowd’s interest. It can be advantageous if you can get a list of attendees before your conference or presentation and determine where the majority has come from, their average age, job titles, et cetera. If a lot traveled to be there, come from a specific company, or hail from a particular country, it’s good to reference this in your presentation and work in some jokes when you can.
59 Be the Host with the Most
If you are acting as the event MC, only reveal the speaker’s name with the last words of your introduction. For example, “Ladies and gentlemen, our next speaker is the founder of some wacky startup, an award-winning writer, and occasional low-quality Elvis impersonator. Please give a huge welcome for [their name here].” Saying their name last and only mentioning it at this point builds anticipation and gives the audience their cue to applaud.
“The brain doesn’t pay attention to boring things.”
–John Medina
Conversational interaction between two characters gives us the chance to bring the scene to life on stage and put the audience directly into the action. If you can do different voices or different accents or speak another language, work it in. Unless you are really, really good at it, keep it simple. As a guiding principle, think family members before foreigners!
61 Do Something Memorable
“This can be good or bad. But memorability is more powerful than likability,” says Sammy Obeid.
62 Use Callbacks
Callbacks bring together everything in the end. This is where you go back (call back) and reference items that have had a good reaction or response from the crowd. This can be one of your jokes that worked, or a joke from a previous presenter that got a big laugh.
63 Use Improvisation
Improv often gets the biggest laughs as it appears to occur truly in the moment and creates an in-joke between the speaker and the audience. The most effective comedians combine stand-up, storytelling, and improv techniques. The best business presenters should, too. Don’t be afraid to go off script once you have gotten a good, scripted start.
64 Use the Stage
If you have a large stage area to work with, use it to reach people. Connect with them by walking toward them and covering as much of the stage area as you can. Be careful not to nervously sprint around the place. You don’t want to distract them or take away from what you’re saying.
“Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the single candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.”
–Buddha
When you come to the punch line of your joke or the important laugh line, step forward and raise your voice. This combination really emphasizes a point and will further engage the audience. It also gives them their cue to laugh.
66 Don’t Forget to Pause
Timing, rhythm, and pauses become really important. A proper pause can help create curiosity within an audience. Give them a chance to catch their breath, build tension, and then, BANG! You burst into the laugh line. Small changes in delivery like raising your voice at the end of a sentence have a big, big impact. Comedians say there is no substitute for stage time to improve timing. While this is true in part, what mainly happens over time is that one masters the delivery of tested stories and laugh lines.
67 Let Them Laugh
Once you get them laughing, shut up, allow them time to laugh and enjoy the moment. Only start to speak again when the laughter starts to dwindle to just a couple of people.
68 Keep All Material and Stories Clean
As a rule of thumb, if what you are talking about is below the waistline, leave it out.
69 Never Ignore Interruptions
If it’s annoying you, it is probably annoying the audience as well. Just make sure it’s actually happening before closing off any unwanted intrusion. Always be polite unless you really, really have no other option. Remember, you control the audience.
“A sense of humor is part of the art of leadership, of getting along with people, of getting things done.”
–Dwight D. Eisenhower
Often the best way to deal with an intrusion or comment is simply to repeat that comment. If it was an obviously stupid question, by simply repeating it and pausing for effect the audience will likely laugh spontaneously. To add easy laughs, intentionally mispronounce or misinterpret one of their key words.
71 Don’t Pet the Hamster
New and experienced speakers alike tend to couple their hands nervously in front of their body almost as if they are petting a hamster. Leave the hamster at home and consciously catch yourself every time you stroke the imaginary little fur ball.
72 Command Attention
Next time the audience is still chatting or not quite settled, stop and ask them to clap if they can hear you. Once a few begin to clap, keep it going until those who were talking shut up and join in. They will. Like birds flocking together, people naturally behave as a group. They will assume you said something interesting worthy of applause, fear they missed something awesome, and join in. Now you reset and start again. It never fails. “Clap if you can hear me.”
73 Trust Your Funny Bits
“Your jokes are funny, so have confidence in them,” says Brandon Scott Wolf. “Deliver your punch lines emphatically, and then give the audience a moment or two to process what you said so they can laugh.”
74 Keep Boring to Yourself
“Don’t put something out there that bores you. If it bores you to tell it, you can bet it will bore your audience to hear it,” says Sal Calanni.
“Nothing will work unless you do.”
–Maya Angelou
75 Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance
Over-preparation will help you be ready for anything. The knowledge and confidence that you can handle whatever comes your way on stage will assuage some of the fear you might be feeling. With calm nerves, rehearsed delivery, and material you know through and through, you will look better on stage than you could ever hope to without consistent practice. After all, as Steve Martin says, “Persistence is a great substitute for talent.”
76 Never Run the Clock
Practice your timing and aim to never, ever go over the allocated time limit. If there isn’t a set time limit to go by, make sure that you impose one on yourself. This forces you to go back and strip out unnecessary words or information and be a minimalist. Use the fewest words with the greatest impact.
77 Know Your Section Times
Break down each talk into components, record them, and know how long it takes to tell each (e.g., intro, pitch, additional details, numbers component, lessons, and main takeaways). Knowing the associated times for each part will help you craft the perfect performance and facilitate quickly making changes if your time slot is cut.
78 Stay in Permanent Beta
Video- or audio-record every time you’re on stage and review it. Be pleased but never satisfied with every performance. The idea of being in Permanent Beta, that there’s always room for improvement, is a perspective that will set you up for success.
79 Enjoy Yourself
Have fun, play, and be creative. If you’re having fun, others will, too.
“The whole object of comedy is to be yourself. The closer to that you get, the funnier you will be.”
–Jerry Seinfeld
And last but not least, from Irish comedian Dylan Moran:
80 Don’t Rely on Potential
“Don’t do it! Stay away from your potential,” Moran says. “You’ll mess it up. It’s potential; leave it. Anyway, it’s like your bank balance—you always have a lot less than you think.”
As Mark Twain said, “The human race has only one really effective weapon and that is laughter.” That type of arms race may be one worth all our time. Most presentations are really boring. By applying these tips, yours will not be.
These eighty tips can be obtained free at http://www.7comedyhabits.com/80tips. If you know anyone who could really use them, please do share!