Talking Body

Fellow speaker,

Key elements of body language onstage are:

• Movement - your body movement 
• Space - using your space 
• Objects - interacting with objects 
• Face - facial expressions 
• Voice - variety and changeability

Talking

Tim

Face out

Fellow speaker,

When using a microphone, World Champion Speaker Craig Valentine suggests holding it way below your chin.  This will allow everyone to see your face clearly.



Facing it,

Tim

And in the end...

Fellow speaker,

To finish a great speech, create a great conclusion.  Some simple, powerful ways to conclude are:

• Thesis-Antithesis (i.e., Not this, but this)
• Triad (any group of three things)
• Tribute to someone else's accomplishments

Ending,

Tim

Five forms of funny

Fellow speaker,

Here are five ways to be funny and use humor and comedy in your speeches:

1. Story
2. One-liner
3. Overstatement
4. Understatement
5. Ironic truth

Funny five,

Tim

Get comfortable with discomfort

Fellow speaker,

To make sure you are pausing long enough for your audience after asking a deep, thoughtful question, pause until you are very uncomfortable.  If you simply pause until you are uncomfortable and then speak, then most likely you have a short pause that the audience will hardly notice.  If, instead, you pause until you are very uncomfortable, you will have a much longer, emotional pause that the audience will pay attention to and use to answer your question in their mind.

Pausing to pause,

Tim

Sound off!

Fellow speaker,

To see whether you are using effective emotions in your story, watch your vidoed speeches with the sound off.  Can you clearly see the emotion of the character in the story?  If not, work on getting deeper into the emotion so it is more apparent when looking at you.

Emotionally,

Tim

Are you free?

Fellow speaker,

If there is a little time before the official start of your session and there is nothing scheduled before you, take a little time to connect with the audience and answer any questions they have.

Pre-time,

Tim

Whoops!

Fellow speaker,

Sometimes things don't go right.  And when the lights go out or a fire drill happens or something else goes wrong when you're onstage, a little humor and comedy can make it more bearable.  For example, if you are giving a speech where the temperature is very cold you can say, "Tonight's show comes from you live, from the Arctic Circle..."

Bearing it all,

Tim

Save me!

Fellow speaker,

If you are telling a humorous story and no one laughs then your humorous story...wasn't...and everyone knows it!  In those situations the tension is high, so it is the perfect time to use a "saver" line to acknowledge that the joke didn't work, to release the tension, and maybe to get a laugh anyway.  Example, you tell a humorous story, come to the end of the story and no one laughs.  You can then, pause, look around, see the lack of reaction and say, "That wasn't the funny part.  The funny part is I actually expected you to laugh at that."

Saving the humor,

Tim

Top this!

Fellow speaker,

You can use a "topper" with your humor and comedy.  The topper is when you say something funny or have a funny reaction, get a laugh and then follow it up with something else funny to get a bigger laugh.  The follow up comment is the topper.  Example from comedian Groucho Marx:
Groucho: "The painting is in the house next door!"
Man:  "There is no house next door." (Groucho has a shocked reaction, then briefly thinks)
Groucho:  "Then we'll build one!" (topper)

Topping out,

Tim

Speaking in character

Fellow speaker,

When you go out onstage, it can be helpful to present yourself as a definite "character" so the audience knows what to expect of you.  To get into character, you can use:

• Costume
• Props
• Voice
• Physical appearance

Charactered,

Tim

Kick the can comedy

Fellow speaker,

The "k" sounds is funny.  Simply putting "k" sounding words in your humor and comedy gives it a better chance than using other sounds.

Cutting up,

Tim

Word is absurd

Fellow speaker,

For a word to be funny it could be:

• Funny sounding (e.g. Jonathan Winters character "Granny Frickert")
• Double entendre (means more than one thing) (e.g. "dough" means something to make bread and something to eat)
• Famous person

Funnily enough,

Tim

Setting it up

Fellow speaker,

Before you make humor or comedy you need to set things up.  According to humorist Mel Helitzer, the best setup happens when you have:

• Truth - base the humor on something real
• Emotion - have a strong emotion to drive the humor
• Details - give enough details so people understand what your taking about

Set up,

Tim

Upfront narration

Fellow speaker,

The most important word in  your speech goes last, which means that any narrating in your speech goes first.  For example, "I said, 'Knock that off right now!' "  Notice that the narration "I said..." comes before the most important words "right now!".  This is because people remember best what they hear last, so the last thing you want your audience to hear is your point.

Upping it,

Tim

Bad grammar ain't no prob

Fellow speaker,

When writing out your speech, write it in the same way you talk.  That means leave in any bad grammar you normally use or, if you're giving dialogue, the people you're talking about normally use.  This way your speech will sound natural and believable to your audience.

Grammatically incorrect,

Tim

Pairing off

Fellow speaker,

You can make humor and comedy by pairing off your jokes into:

• Phrases or sentences (e.g., "Figures don't lie, but all liars figure.")
• Words (e.g., "I love mankind.  It's people I can't stand." plays off of the words "mankind" and "people")
• Numbers ("Don't be afraid of rewrites.  The first draft of Charles Dickens book was called 'A Tale of Ten Cities." implying that with each draft Charles Dickens dropped off a city before he arrived at his book "A Tale of Two Cities")

In pairs,

Tim

One on one

Fellow speaker,

World Champion Speaker Craig Valentine suggests five ways of connecting directly with a member of your audience:

1. Laugh at them - dangerous but it gets a strong connection!
2. Give a story about that person
3. Tell what the person is speaking in dialogue (e.g., "Bob here is thinking...")
4. Talk to them directly (e.g., "What I realized, Frank, is...")
5. Ask them a question (e.g., "Frank, what do you think I did when I got out of that house?")

Connecting,

Tim

Backwards thinking

Fellow speaker,

A reverse is a method in humor or comedy where the set up line is completely the reverse of the punch line.  This is quite often used to give unexpected answers to cliches.  For example, "If at first you don't succeed...quit!"

In reverse,

Tim

Power to the pose!

Fellow speaker,

According to Harvard School researcher Amy Cuddy, simply standing confidently for two minutes before doing anything makes you more likely to succeed.  A confident stance is when you are standing with your arms, legs or both stuck out at your sides.  Amy calls this a "power pose" and she uses the example of Wonder Woman (or if you're a man you can think of Superman) who stands with legs widely spread, with knuckles on hips.  So stand out a couple of minutes before your speech, and you'll stand out onstage!



Outstandingly,

Tim

Creating comedy

Fellow speaker,

Here is a process to create comedy and humor:

1. List groups and subgroups of a subject (e.g., group speaker, subgroup lecturer)
2. List out cliches that relate to the subject (e.g., speakers talk on and on)
3. List out possible play on words (e.g., double entendres, synonyms, antonyms, homonyms, etc.)
4. Create jokes that combine all this information

Joking,

Tim

Pack a punch

Fellow speaker,

To get the best punch line for your humor or comedy:

1. Use as few words as you can
2. Keep key words hidden while setting up the humor
3. Put the funniest word(s) last

Punchily,

Tim

Double your humor

Fellow speaker,

To create double entendres (one word that has multiple meanings) that work in humor or comedy:

1. Focus on one word you want to reform (change in different ways) (e.g., loan)
2. Write out as many words that sound similar to that one word (e.g., lone, alone, groan, etc.)
3. Select the words that have the best chance to be double entendres (e.g., groan, lone, alone
4. Eliminate the words that sound negative (e.g., groan)
5. Write out many play on words using these double entendres (change the spelling if needed) (e.g., never be alone with your loan)

Doubling up,

Tim

Two questions for your audience

Fellow speaker,

Here are two questions you can ask your audience after your speech:

1. What was the most important part of the speech to you?
2. What will you now do differently as a result of hearing it?

Asking questions,

Tim

Reform the split

Fellow speaker,

Use split-reforming to create humor and comedy by splitting one word into two to get a second meeting (e.g., around and a round).

Split up,

Tim

Homowords

Fellow speaker,

There are several ways words can be alike that can be used in humor and comedy:

• Homonyms - words are spelled and pronounced alike but different in meaning (e,g., bow of a ship and bow down)
• Homophones - words are spelled alike but pronounced differently (e.g., bough of a tree and bow down)
• Homographs - words spelled alike but are pronounced differently or mean different things (e.g.,  bow tie and bow and arrow)

Homogenously,

Tim

Reform the norm

Fellow speaker,

Create humor and comedy by reforming common phrases:

• Change around words (e.g., Walter Winchell, drama critic, "Who am I to stone the first cast?"
• Replace a few letters in a word (e.g., "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make him think."
• Use a homonym (a similar sounding word) (e.g., Custard's Last Stand)

Creatively,

Tim

Word play 3

Fellow speaker,

Some word play humor and comedy methods:

• Simple truth - use the literal meaning of  common phrase (e.g., Cheryl Vendetti, "I was trying to get back to my original weight:  seven pounds, three ounces.")
• Take-off - state a common phrase and come to a realistic but unusual conclusion (Steve Landesman, "Honesty is the best policy - but insanity is a better defense.")

Playing,

Tim

Word play 2

Fellow speaker,

Some word play humor and comedy methods:

• Pun - deliberately confusing words and phrases that sound the same (e.g., "What do you call a smelly chicken?  A foul fowl."
• Reforming - altering a predictable phrase to achieve a surprise ending (e.g., That restaurant should be called "That's Inedible!")

Playing,

Tim

Word play 1

Fellow speaker,

Some word play humor and comedy methods:

• Double entendre - use a word that has more than one meaning for comic effect (e.g., "Art Supplies advertisement: I was framed!")
• Malaprop - unintentional misstatement (e.g., Sam Goldwyn:  "Include me out")
• Oxymoron - join two completely different ideas into one phrase (e.g., "living dead")

Playing,

Tim