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Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Public Speaking Skills: Simile

Simile is a comparison of two things which, however different in other respects,
have some strong point or points in common. The words like and as will
normally be used when making the comparison.

You might say, Getting this contract signed is as impossible as trying to
smuggle daybreak past a rooster. Contracts and roosters don't have much in
common (which is funny), but in this case the presenter is telling you what they
do have in common. Getting the contract signed and smuggling daybreak past
a rooster are both impossible. You could shorten the last simile by changing as
impossible as to like. Getting this contract signed is like trying to smuggle
daybreak past a rooster. In this case, the audience must make the interpretation
that both are impossible. It's good to make the audience think sometimes
because it forces them to be involved.

A recurring theme with me is that humor surrounds you wherever you go. I
got a great simile out of a child's joke book I acquired (if something is valuable
you acquire it) for 10 cents at a flea market. I now use this line in presentations
all over the country. I do a seminar called Business Lite: Low Cost/No Cost
Ways to Improve Productivity. In that seminar I talk about how employees feel
at work. I say, Sometimes you go to work and you feel like a turtle with
claustrophobia you've got to be there, but you feel closed in.

I like to mix and match many types of humor in one concise chunk. Here's
a simile that I just love.

"If you put his brain on a matchstick, it would be like rolling a BB
down a four-lane highway."

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