Zig Ziglar says it doesn't matter if you use humor in your presentation unless you hope to be invited back to speak again. I have just spent two days in a required continuing education class. From nine to five for two days without a single joke from the instructor.
If you are a speaker, trainer, instructor, teacher, you need to learn to tell a joke. Why? Humor recharges your audience's attention span. No matter what subject you are teaching, your audience's attention span wears out. If you will stick in a joke or humorous story about every hour, it gives the audience an opportunity to rest from absorbing your wisdom. Why would a speaker, trainer NOT learn to tell a joke? Can there be any doubt that a humorous speaker is better than a humorless speaker? Even at a funeral, a little humor relaxes the audience.
I believe that the reason many speakers never learn to tell a joke is fear. They are afraid that their joke will not be funny. They believe that would be embarrassing. There are some ways to diminish that fear.
Here is a good way to tell a joke with no fear of embarrassment. I learned this about a year ago. I was at a continuing education seminar presentation put on by the Department of Business and Professional Regulation in Florida. The speaker was covering some very technical, very dull material. He was a dull speaker. He knew he was a dull speaker. On his slide presentation, he had a bullet : Insert joke here. When he got to that bullet, he explained that his presentation lacked humor but he was not good at telling jokes so he had one minute movie. He played it. Spontaneous applause! He had three one minute movies in his two hour presentation. Every movie drew applause.
Another way that you can assuage your fear that your joke will bomb is to credit it and telling it to someone else. I once had a real estate instructor that worked for me. Whenever she told a joke, she told the class that I required her to tell a joke every hour. As time went by and she knew her joke would get a chuckle, she probably quit blaming me. There is nothing wrong with blaming someone else that you have to tell this joke.
Know this. Your jokes don't have to be funny. If you tell a joke and no one laughs, so what? Many speakers, because they fear their joke will not be funny, don't tell jokes. That is a bad solution. A better solution is to practice telling a joke. Maybe your first joke with your first audience is not funny. Find another joke. Tell a joke to three or four of your friends. If they laugh, an audience of fifty will laugh.
How can you get started? Find a joke. Tell that joke to an audience. If you have a hard time remembering the joke, write it down and read it to the audience. If it is a hit, tell it in your next class. If it is a bomb, don't tell it in your next class. This is a great test for jokes and stories. If they are funny to one audience, they will be funny to another audience.
Is there a best way to start a joke or funny story. There is no perfect way. Many speakers have a clue for the audience. Zig Ziglar used to say,"There was this old boy down home that ....." Whenever you heard that phrase, you knew there was funny story coming. You could create such a "trigger" phrase or you could sneak up on your audience so they don;t realize there is a joke coming until you are about halfway through the story. I usually start my stories with,"I heard a story about a guy that..."
Many speaking experts advise us not to tell a joke in the first person. It happen to me. When, truthfully, it didn't happen to me. It is an old joke that some members of your audience may have heard before. Many experts believe that this brings your credibility into question. I personally disagree with that. Sometimes the story is just funnier if you tell it as if it happen to you.
Which brings me to my next point. Be careful who is "the idiot" in the joke. If you are "the idiot", that can be funny. If you are speaking to the Banker's Association, do not tell a joke where a banker is "the idiot". Never,never,never tell lawyer jokes. They are not funny. They are always offensive to someone in your audience. This article is not a do and don't list but I just felt compelled to mention that. http://activerain.com/blogsview/4313558/do-not-tell-lawyer-jokes
Where can you find good jokes and stories? Can you find them in old Reader's Digest , joke books, or best of all, ask your friends? Tell your friends that you need a joke for a presentation that you are giving next week. You are bound to hear a winner.
Get over that fear of your joke not being funny. It is not a matter of life and death if the joke is funny or not funny. Your joke not being funny can be funny. I once heard a speaker tell a joke. No one laughed. He looked at his notes. He stared blankly at the audience. He said,"It says here in my notes, pause for laughter.".
Relax a little. Let your audience relax with you. Tell your audience a joke or funny story. If they laugh, use it in the next presentation. Put a joke or two in your next presentation. You and your audience will be glad you did.
www.ronclimer.com
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