Presentation Skills: Finding Humor for Specific Industries

If you are looking for stories and humor in a specific industry, you must work a little harder than you would have to find general humor. Certain professions like medicine and law have many individual books, newsletters, and articles written about them. But if you are a plumbing executive, or you are speaking to the plumbing industry it is unlikely you could go down to your local public bookstore and find a plumbing joke book.

Start a file right away for industry-specific information you find. A good place to start looking for information to fill this file would be in a trade journal for the specific industry. Almost every industry you can imagine has one or more associated trade journals. If you're looking for humor, sift through back issues to find humor you can use now. Virtually no one remembers cartoons and jokes more than a month or so. Watch for industry newsletters so you can extract usable material. Check company bulletin boards regularly for funny signs and postings.

Call others in the industry to look for stories or incidents that would be of interest to your audience (remember to give credit). Collect everything you can collect that is interesting and industry specific and soon you will have the best collection around. Don't forget our friend the Internet. Anytime I need humor on something really specific, I simply type the keywords (ex. plumbing humor, or water humor) into one or more of the major search engines. Something is bound to come up. You must be ready to do some sifting though before you find some usable material. Here are just some of the lines I came up with for the plumbing engineer group I was speaking to. Note: these are the people who figure out how much water it takes to flush a toilet hahaha

My wife's an earth sign. I'm a water sign. Together we make mud. - - Rodney Dangerfield

The shower is the greatest invention. I don't like to take a bath. I don't like to wash my face in the water I've been sitting in.-- Lewis Grizzard

How come when you mix water and flour together you get glue ... and then you add eggs and sugar and you get cake? Where does the glue go?-- Rita Rudner

Getting married is a lot like getting into a tub of hot water. After you get used to it, it ain't so hot. -- Minnie Pearl

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Public Speaking: Help Me Write A Eulogy

I've created a document that will help your create a smashing funeral speech that will honor the dearly departed. See it at http://www.instanteulogy.com/

Public Speaking Tips: Wake 'Em Up!

Want people to remember you and talk about you in the hallways? Well, I mean talk about you in good way. Use some outrageous skill or opening that grabs 'em by the brain. My friend Mike Stahl breaks six solid concrete blocks. Jim Ziegler memorizes the name of each participant in the room.

I'm not strong enough or bright enough to break blocks or memorize, so I shoot confetti or fire in the air. You could do a beautiful painting quickly like Conni Gordon might do, or you could ride in on a horse for all I care. Just do not let them stay in their comas. Wake 'em Up!

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Public Speaking Tips For Humor

Don't signal your punch line. If the humor in your punch line depends upon the words ruptured camel, don't say the following: Did you hear the one about the ruptured camel?

Don't EVER repeat a punch line! Once the surprise is revealed, the joke is history. I'll repeat this, but I don't want to hear you repeating any punch lines. Let me repeat. Don't EVER repeat a punch line. Don't EVER repeat a punch line. NEVER repeat a punch line. You'll be shot by the humor firing squad if you repeat a punch line. OK. I'll let you repeat one, but only under certain circumstances. Here's the exception. If you had a joke or punch line that bombed miserably, you can call it back later to make fun of yourself.

You must absolutely, positively memorize your punch line. You should be able to awaken out of a deep sleep in an earthquake and, without hesitation, deliver your punch line accurately. Give all the facts necessary for the joke to make sense. The humor is lost if you leave out the necessary details.

NEVER, EVER explain your joke. If they don't understand, it's your fault for telling the wrong joke to the wrong audience. The hypnotist says, 'You're getting sleeeepy.'

Use the fewest words possible to get to the punch line. Brevity is truly the soul of wit (never use a worn out cliché either). The longer the joke, the funnier it must be.

Don't walk around too much when telling a joke or story. I walk, but I stop when important points are being made and when I'm delivering a punch line.

If you use notes, highlight or mark upcoming jokes or stories so they don't sneak up on you. They will need special emphasis.

Practice! Practice! Practice! I tell a joke or story 30 to 50 times in practice before I use it in a presentation.

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Public Speaking: Storytelling Tips and Tricks

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Public Speaking: You Must Have a Good Sound System

If it is hard to hear, people won't listen. When speaking in public you must have an excellent sound system because some of the time you will be speaking while your audience is laughing. Stand-up comics need good sound too, but they are a little different because they tell a joke, then people laugh (they hope). They tell another joke, then people laugh. A good public speaker will be rolling right along making points, showing product features, telling stories, and dropping one-liners and must be heard all the while.

A humorous speech demands a better sound system than a serious speech. In a serious talk, words can be missed and the main message can still be very clear. In humor it doesn't work that way. If key words are missed in a joke or story, it will ruin the humor. No one will laugh and you will look like a giant goober.

The need for a thorough sound check is another good reason to be in the room early. You need to check the microphone to make sure it works. You need to check to see how far your mouth should be from the microphone. You need to know how loudly you should talk. Realize that during your check the audio level should be very loud. People will absorb the sound once they get into the room.

Make sure the sound system is carrying to all parts of the room. If someone is speaking prior to you, try to go to the back of the room to see how he or she is coming across. If you have someone at the presentation with you, have them signal from the back of the room if changes are needed in the public address system after you have started.

If the amplifier controls aren't handy after you have started, you can adjust the sound by changing the distance between your mouth and the microphone and/or increasing or decreasing the loudness of your voice. Try not to use the latter method too often so you don't strain your vocal mechanism.

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Public Speaking: Could She Use Some Training?

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Even Beauty Queens Need Good Presentation Skills

Guest post by Diane Diresta

You say you don't need presentation skills? You're not a public speaker? Think again.

Beauty pageants aren't just about beauty. Did you know that the interview is 40% of the grade? That means if a contestant flubs the presentation there's a good chance she won't win the crown.

It's no different in business or the workplace. I've known very bright, competent people who lose instant credibility because of an inability to communicate or speak in public.

But don't take my word for it. See for yourself.





Diane DiResta is CEO of DiResta Communications, Inc., a New York City consultancy serving business leaders and entrepreneurs who want to communicate with greater impact — whether face-to-face, in front of a crowd or from an electronic platform. DiResta is the author of Knockout Presentations: How to Deliver Your Message with Power, Punch, and Pizzazz, an Amazon.com category best-seller and widely-used text in college business communication courses. For a free audio course visit: http://www.diresta.com

Public Speaking: Listen To Everyone

When you are speaking at an event that has multiple speakers, try to listen to as many of the other speakers as you can. In particular, don't miss the keynote or general session speakers. By doing this you are able to add a polish to your talk and to the event as a whole. It also might save you some embarrassment.

I'll never forget many years ago I was doing a breakout session for a big real estate company. We then went to the closing general session an hour later, the big shot keynote speaker made a fool of himself by using material I had gone over already. People were looking at me and winking. There were only two concurrent sessions going on and it would have been really easy for the keynoter to stop by and check out the breakouts, or at least find out what I and the other breakout session speaker were going to be talking about. Besides listening to as many speakers as you can, make sure your material is really unique which will help guard you from embarrassing situations.

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Public Speaking: Motivational Speaking

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Public Speaking Training: Make 'em Wonder

I suppose most of my readers know by now that when I'm speaking in public I push the limits most of the time to make sure my audience stays awake. It should be no surprise to you then that I will attack another common old style snoozer technique (and I know I will get letters from educational theory folks, but that is OK) . . . that is, telling the participants what you are going to cover during your presentation.

I say let 'em figure it out as you go. If they think they know where you are going during a public speaking engagement, then it is easy for them to 'zone out' since they 'think' they know what you are going to say. The way I do it is to make them wonder, 'What in the heck is he going to do next?,' which forces them to stay alert to find out.

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Public Speaking: Make Your Handouts Last Longer

If you want your public speaking handout material to be kept forever, you must give each audience member a reason to keep it. I do this by strategically adding important reference material to EACH PAGE of the speaking handout. This material was picked specifically for that day's audience.

The reference items could be important phone numbers, web site addresses, book titles, or even humor that applies to the audience*s industry. The reason the information isn't put on one page at the back of the handout is because that page could be torn off and the rest of the handout thrown away. Don't forget to put your contact information on every page of the handout too.

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