Public Speaking : Mock Ups

To add some humor to your public speaking engagement you can make fake newspaper articles and headlines and book covers by using your computer software and printer.

To mock up a newspaper article, simply find the column function of your word processor and set the column width to approximate a real newspaper. It does not matter that your are not holding up actual newsprint because you could have simply cut the article from a newspaper and had it photocopied. If you want to actually use a real newspaper, you could go through a lengthy trial and error process trying to shade a piece of laser paper to approximate the color of your newspaper. I guess you could also find some actual newsprint that would feed through your printer.

The easiest way is to simply paste or tape your headline or article on one of the inside pages of a real newspaper and then open the paper so you can read the paste up, but the audience can not really see it.

Humorist and parody writer David Glickman gave me this really funny idea . He uses his color inkjet printer to duplicate the black box and yellow letters that are on the front of all the Dummies series of books. He then pastes his new title over the one on an actual Dummies book. The rest of the cover is so busy that people only focus on the big black box. From a distance you can't even tell it is a mockup. I just used this techniques for a big cable company. The title was, Digital Cable TV Maintenance and Installation for Dummies. It is not too funny to you, but to the targeted audience it was hilarious. You can also mock up fake telegrams and letters from well known people who are not at the public speaking event.