Public Speaking: Really Look at the Results to Improve

By guest Terry Paulsen, Ph.D., CSP, CPAE

When you are speaking in public, don't be so enamored by the words coming out of your mouth that you forget to eliminate those that are not necessary. Few people are upset by speeches that end a little early. By reading your transcribed messages instead of just listening to your own voice, you will find it easier to eliminate unnecessary content, sharpen faulty grammar, and rework key phrasing. While you're at it, you may find new and spontaneous stories, humor lines, or phrases that worked!

Don't leave such successes to chance; work on perfecting the content for future talks. Write down new material in a journal or computer file. The palest pencil mark is better than your best memory. Don't script every word, just keep working and reworking your material.

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Public Speaking: Speech Topics

Talk only about what you know about and your credibility in your public speaking engagements will skyrocket.

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Public Speaking: Alliteration

When you are speaking in public, humor need not be knee slapping funny to be effective. Here is a mild form of humor to add to your public speaking engagements. Alliteration is the repetition of the same first sound or the same first letter in a group of words or line of poetry.

You find alliteration used in advertisements and titles all the time because it tends to catch your eye and ear. One of my humorous public speaking topics is titled 'Pranks for Profit: Confessions of a Paid Practical Joker'. It has four 'p' sounds.

Here is an example of a positive message delivered with alliteration:

'We (B)agged the (B)aldridge award (B)ecause our (B)rainy, (B)eautiful (B)usinesspeople are the (B)est.'

In a negative message you can soften the blow of the message without appearing frivolous or uncaring. Example:

'The strike by one of our suppliers has put a (C)runch on our division. Even though we are (C)runched, we are still (C)reative. We are still (C)redible. And we will (C)onquer this problem.'

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Public Speaking Training: Timing

Timing in public speaking is one of the most important aspects of humor and NO ZZZZZs speaking. Not only is timing involved in an individual piece of humor, it is also involved in the placement of that piece of humor in the overall presentation. Timing is also involved in spontaneous reactions to 'expected' unexpected developments during the presentation.

Jack Benny said, 'When you are speaking, timing is not so much knowing when to speak, but knowing when to pause.' He should know, because he delivered one of the funniest and most famous lines in the history of comedy after an extremely long pause. He was being held up by a robber at gunpoint. The robber said, 'Your money or your life!' Jack didn't speak a word for an extended period of time. The robber became impatient and said, 'YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!!' Jack finally replied, 'I'm thinking.' His persona as a cheapskate, coupled with a long pause indicating he was having trouble deciding whether to give up his money, or die was hilarious. A pause lets the audience catch up and draw pictures in their mind. It is the audience's signal to imagine.

In public joke telling, a pause just before and just after your punch line gives the audience a chance to laugh. Absolutely do not continue speaking when laughter is expected. Laughter is hard to get and easy to discourage. Hold eye contact a little bit longer than you think you should when delivering punch lines because time is hard to judge when you are pumped-up for a speaking engagement.

The size of your audience will affect your timing. Your presentation will take less time to deliver to smaller audiences. Smaller audiences should mean quicker laughter. Conversely, presentations will take longer for big crowds in large public arenas. Your pauses will be longer to compensate for the wave effect created because of the physical distance between you and the back row of the audience.

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Public Speaking Humor: Acronyms

You can use acronyms and abbreviations as a form of humor during a public speaking engagement. An acronym is basically a form of abbreviation where the letters of the abbreviation form a new word, i.e., HUD means the Department of (H)ousing and (U)rban (D)evelopment. There are many acronyms and abbreviations that are universally known such as the IRS and the CIA. There are many more that are unique to your audience. All you have to do to make them humorous for use in your public speaking engagement is to change one or more of the words that go with your well-known abbreviation or acronym.

Here are some examples:

IQ Idiot Quotient

CPI Consumers Poorhouse Indicator

IRA Individual Rest-in-Peace Account

TQM Totaled Quality Management

With a little thought, it is very easy to customize acronyms and abbreviations to your audience. Now, here are some examples and explanations from a custom public speaking engagement I did for a hotel franchise:

OCC in the hotel industry means Occupancy Rate. I changed it to Oh! C'mon Clinton because certain taxes were being proposed by President Clinton that would affect their industry. I always try to connect with the audience by mentioning the topics that are foremost on their minds. This gives you the greatest chance of succeeding with an item of humor.

ADR to hoteliers, means Average Daily Rate. This was changed to All Dated Rooms which is something no hotelier wants to hear. This would mean a fortune would have to be spent to upgrade and modernize the rooms.

IOC was the name of the group I was addressing (International Operator's Council). This was changed to I'm Ordering Chinese and I'm Out of Coffee. These phrases aren't particularly funny in themselves. They were coupled, however, with the fact that these people had just completed rigorous and exhausting inspections by the Franchisor. That is what made it funny.

ANA This is one of my generic favorites. ANA represents Al Nippon Airlines. I mention that it is a good thing that this company had an American advisor before they used this acronym because the original version was . . . ANAL (this is revealed on an overhead projector just after a pause following the word was). This gets good laughter. I extend the humor with the line, 'How would you like to see that on a 747 coming at you?' This gets even bigger laughs. For the hotel speaking engagement the acronyms were on an overhead transparency and were displayed using a reveal technique (where individual overhead lines were covered until it was time to reveal the funny version. You don't have to project acronyms to use them in a public speaking engagement. You could also print them in handouts, or just tell them out loud.

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Public Speaking: Tax Humor

Of course you can't take it with you, and with high taxes, lawyer's fees, and funeral expenses you can't leave it behind either.

Benjamin Franklin had an axiom, "A penny saved is a penny earned." But that was before the sales tax was invented.

A dime is a dollar with all the various taxes deducted.

The reward for saving money is being able to pay our taxes without borrowing.

Our beloved country has made remarkable progress. Now politicians have arranged to spend taxes before they collect them.

A political promise today means another tax tomorrow.

We may need tax reform, but it seems we need a lot of spending reform too.

The futility of riches is stated very plainly in two places: the Bible and the income-tax form.

In Russia the people have only what the government gives them; in America the people have only what the government does not take away from them in taxes.

If science says nothing is impossible, how about a mechanical taxpayer?

Science has increased our life span considerably. Now we can look forward to paying our taxes at least ten years longer.

Space scientists have made an analysis of the lunar soil. It shows that corn can't be raised on the moon, but it's great for raising taxes.

At no time is it easier to keep your mouth shut than during an audit of your income-tax return.

Our government could raise unlimited revenue simply by taxing sin.

Being a success today means the government takes away in taxes what you used to dream of earning.

An American can consider himself a success when it costs him more to support the government than to support a family.

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Public Speaking: Create A Character

Tom in his early days of comedy.

You can either make up a character or imitate someone for lots of fun and laughter.

We've seen famous examples of performers creating characters. Roseanne Roseannadanna was the brainchild of the late Gilda Radner. Jim Carey invented Fire Captain Bill. Steve Martin created a Wild and Crazy Guy. You can also imitate your uncle Harry or someone you ran into in the supermarket. None of these characters are difficult to perform because you are not acting as an impersonator of a famous person that is real.

Being an impersonator is hard because your imitation of Bill Clinton's voice and mannerisms will be judged against the real Bill Clinton. Making up characters or imitating unknown people like your aunt Maude is easy because your performance can't be compared to anything.

You can either stay in character for the entire length of your performance or you can pop in and out of character. You can also have a dialog going on between yourself and the character. You can even dress up as the character if you want to.

Be careful when using a strong dialect of an ethnic group to which you do not belong. You could be perceived as making fun of the group. Also, if you are going to be doing a dialect at least practice enough to do it well.

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International Public Speaking: Think Global

The world is getting smaller. Now, it is no big deal to put us on a plane and expect us to address an international audience twelve hours later. Or we might face a U. S. audience made primarily of people from Japan, or India. A handy and inexpensive source of international background information is the Culturgram published by the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies, which is part of Brigham Young University, in Provo, Utah.

Each Culturgram is a four page newsletter, updated every August, that gives you an easy to understand overview of the country of your choice. It includes customs and common courtesies, along with information about the people and their lifestyle. References are also included for additional resources.

Currently 168 Culturgrams are available. Prices range from $6.00 for a single copy to 50 cents for bulk purchases. Call (800) 528-6279 for details.

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Public Speaking: Caricature, Cartoons and Comic Strips

When certain prominent features of something or someone are highlighted and other features are diminished, that is called caricature. Studies have found that it is easier to identify a political leader from a caricature than from a real photograph.

You can use caricatures of yourself in your own promotional material or in your programs to make fun of yourself. You can do the same thing to make fun of your competitors or your competitor's products by amplifying whatever feature you want to emphasize.

Caricature artists are not too hard to locate. Many times you can find them by looking in the yellow pages under the categories of entertainment or party planning because they frequently perform at parties.

There are three ways to use cartoons: first, you can tell the audience about a cartoon you saw; second, you can cut the cartoon out of its publication and show it; and third, you can make up a cartoon yourself.

I saw a cartoon once where a lady was holding a gun to her purse. The caption said, 'Give up the keys!' I use this example in my Business Lite Seminar when I want to illustrate the use of humor to help ease the tension in embarrassing situations. (I have also used this line many times when I am with a woman who is fumbling through her purse.) When I tell the audience I saw a cartoon, it helps them paint a mental picture of what I am describing with words.

Describing a cartoon is an easy method for using cartoons without having them physically available or needing audio/visual equipment to show them. Showing a cartoon is a more powerful way to convey its humorous message. This is especially true in international audiences where the visual aspect takes on a greater significance. In a very small crowd I might hold up the cartoon or I might pass it around. In larger audiences, the cartoon should be projected (don't forget to get permission from the copyright holder) so everyone can see it clearly. I like this method better anyway because I can control when it pops up on the screen. I want everyone to see the cartoon simultaneously so their laughter will be cumulative. Try to fill the frame of the visual with your cartoon or comic strip. You will create a greater impact.

The third way to use cartoons is to make them yourself. When I first started teaching this subject I could not take advantage of this method unless I hired an artist. Things are different now. There are a number of inexpensive computer software programs available which can be used, one of which is Corel Draw. This program has 25,000 pieces of electronic clip art, many of which are cartoons. I can make custom overhead cartoons for my speaking engagements. All I do is pick an applicable cartoon, add a custom caption for my audience.

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