Public Speaking - Visual Humor

Regardless of one's nationality and culture, cartoons and comic strips are the most universally accepted format for humor. These pieces of visual humor are seen in newspapers and magazines in most areas of the world. They may be found in newsstands in large cities or in large libraries. It might be fun to collect cartoons and comic strips when you travel so you have a ready supply when you need one for a presentation.

Be careful to avoid cartoons that have political overtones. If you are presenting to a small group, you can show the periodical or pass it around. If you want to use the cartoon or comic strip in a visual, you may need permission from the artist or copyright owner. Always read the caption for a foreign audience and give them time to mentally translate what you say. It may take what seems to be forever (4-6 seconds) for the idea to sink in.

Another good resource for cartoons is Witty World International Cartoon Magazine by Creators Syndicate. Other forms of visual humor that transcend most cultural barriers are juggling and magic. Good resource materials are available on both topics. Speaking With Magic is a book by Michael Jeffreys that not only teaches you simple tricks, but gives you the points you can relate to the trick. Two good magic videos for speakers by master magician Tom Ogden are Teaching and Training with Magic and The Magic of Creativity. I got Michael's book and the two videos from Royal Publishing. For juggling and other magic books, call or write for a Morris Costume's Catalog. There is a small charge for the catalog, but it's worth it.

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Presentation Skills - The Length of the Program

The most important consideration in determining how long a technical seminar or workshop should be is the time required to cover the subject in sufficient detail. Some subjects require two or three days to tackle the complexities of a topic, while that amount of time would be superfluous in others. The burdens placed on the presenter(s) should also be considered. In a single-day program, chances are that one individual can handle the entire presentation. If it is longer, either more presenters will be necessary or more participant activity must be scheduled to ease the strain on the presenter.

In the world of speaking, there are speakers and there are trainers, and the two differ greatly in their content, styles, and goals. Trainers are far more concerned with the accuracy and relevance of the material content than a speaker will ever be and yet, they must be as entertaining and motivating as any other. Technical trainers can seldom count on standing ovations, peals of laughter, or thunderous applause. What you can count on is being followed to the restroom and being asked questions, people standing around waiting to tell you of their experiences on the same topic, and serious questions about the topic you just presented.

Evaluations of trainers by attendees are usually sparse as well. Most trainers have discovered that the attendees have their own agenda when they arrive and their acceptance and satisfaction is totally dependent upon whether or not you live up to those preconceived expectations, whether they are a part of the program or not.

Evaluations will most often be extremely critical of facilities and temperature and will reflect learners' representations of what they think the trainer should be, irrespective of the material content.

Nevertheless, technical training can be one of the most rewarding of all presentations because you may have the opportunity to observe the participants taking "hard skills" with them that they can apply immediately to make their lives and businesses a fuller and richer medium for their personal growth and happiness.

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Humorous Acknowledgments to Tough Situations

There will come a time when you will either be in front of a hostile audience or a hostile question will pop up during a relatively calm presentation. This is a tough situation at best and you have to handle it with kid gloves. Humor can save the day and maybe even help you become President. When a hostile situation arises, you have to be especially careful that you don't antagonize the questioner or group further by making a flippant response. You can use humor to distract the antagonism, but you should always make a serious reply to the question at hand.

Example:
Let's say you are speaking at a stockholder's meeting and you are telling them about all the wonderful new products that are coming out. Then someone yells out, "What about the supreme turkey of a widget you came out with last year?" Now you are on the spot. If you ignore the question you will look like you are hiding. If you use a comeback that attacks the questioner or makes fun of him or her you will turn the rest of the group against you. So what do you do? Use a prepared one-liner or some mildly amusing admission of guilt and then immediately go into a serious response to the question.

"We are donating all those widgets to the Navy because they have a shortage of boat anchors this year [pause for laughter]. But, seriously folks, based on all the available research we had at our disposal the widget looked like it would be a good solid seller for us. Then when the gizmo industry took a big hit, we no longer had a market for the widgets.

Then get back to your agenda.
If you expect to be in a position like the above speaker, try to anticipate the hostile questions that could arise and prepare responses for them. You might not be able to anticipate all the questions that could come up, but by preparing in advance you are giving yourself an infinitely better chance of responding correctly. Another good resource is What to Say When . . . You're Dyin' on The Platform by Lilly Walters.

One of the most famous examples of good preparation came during Ronald Reagan's 1984 bid for reelection. Reagan made a very poor showing as he stumbled through his first debate with the democratic challenger, Walter Mondale. The media jumped on this and Reagan's age and possible senility became a big issue until about two-thirds of the way through his second
televised debate with Mondale. A question was posed to the president that ask him if he was concerned about how his age would affect his ability to do the job. Reagan's prepared two-line
response virtually nailed the lid on Mondale's coffin and squelched the age issue even though he was four years older than he was in the last election. He said, "I'm not going to inject the issue of age into this campaign. I am not going to exploit for political gain my opponent's youth and inexperience." Some say this comment won him his second term of office. That's the power of preparation.

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Public Speaking - Planning To Mess Up?

The great comedian Norm Crosby, who is best known for appreciating standing ovulations when he performs, has made a living out of the ingenious misuse of words. In real life though, malaprops are usually uttered by people who don't even realize their fox paws. A friend of mine who is a fund-raiser for an unnamed, stuffy Washington, D.C., art society, told me of a hilarious incident that took place during a meeting.

The humorless director stood at the conference table in an effort to put an out-of-control meeting back on track and said, "I fear our discussions are tangenital to the issues at hand."

TANGENITAL! My friend looked around at the other attendees who were all fighting back laughter. She had to excuse herself from the meeting to keep from laughing right in the face of the old windbag. A flexible presenter who was truly in touch would have 1) realized her mistake, 2) laughed at herself, and 3) used that unplanned comic relief to get everyone's attention so that she could regain control of the meeting. Someone really experienced would make the mistake on purpose.

I have learned, in my years of writing comedy skits, that many times the mistakes are much funnier than the planned program. Now I plan mistakes when appropriate. To make this more foggy, I'll explain in one sentence. I learned that when I plan something and then I mess up the plan, the plan becomes funnier than the plan I planned to use, so now I plan to mess up the plan so the plan is planned to be funnier than a plan that is not planned to be messed up. Get it? Good, because you need to hear loud and clear what I'm writing here so you bunglestand it.

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Presentation Skills - Stress

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Public Speaking - Quotations

Quotations are safe to use because if the quotation is not funny, it doesn't matter since you are just reciting it. You did not write it. It can still be used to make your point. You can use the power of the name of the person who did write it. People will be more likely to laugh or at least chuckle if a famous person made up the quotation.

If you are not sure to whom the quotation belongs, it does not matter at all. Unless I am absolutely certain who said something, I always give myself an out. I usually say I BELIEVE it was ____________ who said. This keeps me out of trouble for attributing the quotation to the wrong person. Sometimes I say, My great, great grandpappy used to say, or My old aunt Maude used to say. However, if you know for sure who said something and their name carries
weight, go ahead and use it.

There are literally thousands and thousands of notable quotations available to you. Check the bibliography for the names of some quotation books I use and look in the Internet section in Chapter 16 for searchable quotation web sites. Here are just a few examples of some of my favorite quotations:

* Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened. - Winston Churchill
* I am a friend of the workingman, and I would rather be his friend than be one. - Clarence Darrow
* I never made a mistake in my life; at least, never one that I couldn't explain away afterward. - - Rudyard Kipling
* Get your facts first and then you can distort them as much as you please. - Mark Twain
* Many of us spend half our time wishing for things we could have if we didn't spend half our time wishing. - Alexander Woollcott
* He is more apt to contribute heat than light to a discussion. - Woodrow Wilson

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Presentation Skills - Record Your Presentations

You will find that this testing process is continual even after you start using your material in front of live audiences. If you pay close attention, you will notice that when you say something in a slightly different manner it may get a better response. If you can remember how you said it, you can say it that way next time too. This is how a story or a piece of material evolves and gets better all the time. It is very difficult to remember, however, exactly how you said something during your presentation. That is why most pros tape record whenever they can.
I try to at least audio tape every presentation I give. It is amazing how much you can learn by doing this. You don't have to get fancy either. I started with a $15.00 recorder. I just sat it on a table near the stage area. If you can afford a higher quality recorder and microphone that is even better, but it is not necessary. Video tape is even better and, with the decreasing costs involved, a camcorder and microphone are within reach of most serious presenters.

If you are starting with audio tape only, you won't have to worry about your body language, posture, or stage movement. All you have to do is listen to what you actually said, if it was humorous, and how the audience responded. I used the term actually in the last sentence, because many presenters think they said one thing, but the tape proves they said something completely different.

If you really want to learn the most from audio taping your presentations, have the tape transcribed. I know this is a pain in the neck, but you won't believe how much you will learn until you do it. You will see on paper all the ums and ahs, extra noises and words and syllables you uttered. Most people are in shock when they look at a transcription of what they actually said during a presentation.

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Public Speaking - I Can't Heeeeere You!

Although this may seem obvious, make sure the audience can clearly hear every word you say. Most jokes and stories depend on key words. If you slur a word, the audience may miss the whole idea of the story (remember you need a good sound system too). Besides enunciating clearly, you must use the microphone properly. Hand held microphones must stay with you when you turn your head from side to side and must be directed toward the mouth of anyone you are conversing with during the presentation.

Larry Wilde, the author of more than 50 humor books, tells the story of the time he was auditioning to take over the television show Let's Make a Deal when Monte Hall retired. In the opening of the show he was supposed to engage in small talk with an audience member. He went up to someone in the first row and said, "Hi! What's your name?" Although the audience member answered him, there was dead silence in the sound booth. The sound men were actually
laughing at Larry because he neglected to hold the microphone near the mouth of the audience member for the response. You might think this is common sense, but try it out and you will see that it is not as easy as it looks. It takes practice to do it smoothly.

If you are at a lectern, you should know how far your lips need to be from the microphone. Hopefully you checked this out before the presentation started. If that was not possible, you can watch the introducer or speakers that are on before you to get a feel for the proper distance.
When using a handheld or lectern microphone be very careful in pronouncing words that have the letter "p" in them. This letter tends to make a popping sound that is very distracting. If you are using a handheld microphone, you usually can significantly reduce the "p" sound problem if you hold the microphone at a slight angle. If the microphone is fixed on the lectern, you can
de-emphasize the word with the "p" or turn your head slightly away from the microphone.

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Public Speaking - Connecting With the Audience

Audience members assimilate information in three different ways. Some people hear the information, some see the information, and some feel the information. Although most individuals switch their emphasis frequently, one style usually predominates for a given individual. The styles of information transfer are called respectively auditory, visual, and kinesthetic.

For you to connect with the most audience members, you should include information throughout your program that appeals to all three of these styles. People that are primarily visual assimilators may be daydreaming throughout the portions of your presentation where you are using only words to convey your information. They will perk-up when you use a visual aid such as an overhead, flipchart, or prop.

People that are kinesthetically oriented are looking for those words that describe feelings and that evoke emotions. They will also wake up and come to attention if you have them come up on stage with you and you shake hands with them or put your hand on their shoulder (not in Asia). Auditory assimilators might just love to hear you talk or they might like to hear a recording of JFK or some type of music.

When you plan your program so that auditory, kinesthetic, and visual elements are interspersed throughout, this will increase your chances of connecting with all the audience members and decrease the chance that old Mr. Sandman will come knocking on their heads.

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Presentation Props - Advertisements

You can concoct fake ads, or use real ads that are funny in your presentation. They can be read aloud, projected, or distributed as handouts. I got an idea for a funny ad from an attorney friend of mine who was hired by a legal temporary service. I used the following flier as a fun way to keep my practical joke company's name in front of clients who were involved in the legal profession.


Watch for funny ads that relate to your business or presentation topic in magazines and other periodicals. Cut the ads out and photocopy for distribution as a handout or make them into slides and overheads.

Jay Leno has a series of books called Headlines I, II, and III. Besides having really funny headlines from newspapers and magazines, the books have lots of blooper advertisements along with commentary from Jay. My favorites are the funeral monument company that advertised a lifetime replacement guarantee and the sporting goods store that advertised a Back-to-School special consisting of high-powered rifles.

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Public Speaking - Tips For Television and Video

MEN

* Wear knee-length socks.
* Always keep double breasted jackets buttoned. Single breasted jackets can be opened, but not too wide.
* I SAY AGAIN Wear Makeup. TV lights can penetrate several layers of skin. You can't possibly shave close enough to prevent whiskers from showing without makeup.
* Don't forget makeup on receding hairlines or bald heads.
* Trick: Run the thin part of your tie through the loop in the back of the main part of your tie then clip the thin part to your shirt below the loop. This will keep your tie perfectly centered without the tie clip showing.


WOMEN

* Don't wear vivid red lipstick or lip gloss. Stick to softer tones and dab lips with a little powder.
* Consider dress shields if you perspire easily.
* Make sure your hair will stay where you want it. You don't want to be fooling with it while on the air.
* Make sure a lavaliere or lapel microphone and transmitter can be attached to your clothing.

- Lillian Brown has written the best resource I know of on the topic of appearing on
television. It's called Your Public Best: The Complete Guide to Making Successful
Public Appearances in the Meeting Room, on the Platform and on TV (Newmarket
Press: New York 1989).

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