Delivering humorous speeches involves a lot more than simply having good material. Take some time to incorporate these tips into your presentations and watch the fun and laughter factors rise.

In Fun

Sigmund Freud wrote: “The most favorable condition for comic pleasure is a generally happy disposition in which one is in the mood for laughter.”

This concept is called “in fun.” If you want your audience to laugh, they must be in fun. You, the speaker, must be in fun. The emcee or program coordinator must be in fun. The whole program should be designed in fun. Do anything you can to be sure your audience knows that it’s OK to laugh.

Time Of Day

The first speaker of the day for an early morning program should not expect hearty laughter. People are not conditioned to laugh a great deal in the early morning. Many won’t even be awake yet. Use more information and less humor. It’s important for you to know when not to expect hearty laughter. It would be a waste of time to use your best material at a time when laughter normally wouldn’t be expected. The poor response also brings your energy level down. Many consider brunch and lunch to be the best times of day to expect a responsive audience. In the afternoon people are starting to get tired so don’t expect laughter to be as intense.

Male/Female Makeup of Audience

All-female audiences tend to laugh more easily and louder than all-male audiences. Audiences that consist of more than 50 percent women are good too. The presence of the females provides a good buffer and makes it OK for the “big-ego” men to laugh.

Size

No, I’m not talking about how much you weigh today. I’m saying that the size of your audience has a direct effect on the types of humor which are most appropriate. Members of small business groups tend to be too self-conscious to laugh much. Use short one-liners. Don’t use any long stories or jokes. In larger groups it’s OK to stretch to jokes and short stories.

Pre-Program Research

The more you know about your audience, the better able you will be to pick the humor that will get the greatest response. Your research before the program will also allow you to uncover the group’s inside humor.

Seating

The best seating arrangement for laughter is semicircular theater style. When audience members are seated close together on a curve, they can look to their left or right and see the faces of each person in the row. This togetherness allows laughter to pass immediately from one person to the other. Contact NSA member and seating expert Paul Radde for advanced seating information.

Choose Funnier Words

Your word choice can be the key to creating a successful witty line or a dud. In particular, words with the “K” sound in them are funny. Cucumber is funnier than mushroom. Cupcake is funnier than pastry. Turkey is a funnier word than loser.

Deliver The Punch

Some humorists will disagree, but I say deliver your punch line to one person and make sure that person is going to laugh. You must punch the line out a little harder and with a slightly different voice than the rest of the joke. Lean into the microphone and say it louder and more clearly than you said the setup lines. If the audience does not hear the punch line, they aren’t going to laugh.

Deliver the punch line to a person you know will laugh, so that others will be positively influenced to laugh. How do you know if a person will laugh or not? Pay attention to those who have been laughing, those nodding their heads in agreement with you during the program, and those you identified before the program.

Pause

Pausing just before and just after your punch line gives the audience a chance to “get” the humor and laugh. Absolutely do not continue to talk when laughter is expected. If you do, you will “step on” your laughter and squelch it quickly.

Make It Relevant

If you make all your attempts at humor relevant to your presentation, you get an automatic excuse from your mother if your humor is not all that funny. If your humor is received as funny, so much the better; but if it isn’t, at least you made your point. Audiences will be much more tolerant if the humor ties into the subject at hand. Use this formula:

A. Make your point.

B. Illustrate your point with something funny.

C. Restate your point.

Vary The Types

The above formula would get boring and redundant rather quickly if you used the exact same type of humor every time for part B. By varying the type of humor in B, you can go on virtually forever, and no one will recognize that you are using a formula. I have identified more than 34 different types of humor to plug into the formula. You could use one liners, jokes, humorous props, funny stories, magic, cartoons or other funny visuals.

Rule Of Three

One of the most pervasive principles in the construction of humorous situations is the “Rule of Three.” You will see it used over and over because it’s simple, it’s powerful, and it works. (See, I just used it there in a non-funny situation.) Most of the time in humor the Rule of Three is used in the following fashion: The first comment names the topic, the second sets a pattern, and the third unexpectedly switches the pattern, making it funny. Here’s an example from a brochure advertising my seminars:

In the “How to Get There” section

From Washington, D.C., take Route 50.

From Baltimore, Md., take Route 95.

From Bangkok, Thailand, board Thai Airways.

Look Funnier

I have been accused of being too “corporate-looking

humor, Internet Assn of Information Marketing, internet marketing, netaim, public speaking

Share This

Networking is all about making new connections: creating a web of friends and acquaintances by meeting new people, introducing yourself, and allowing your friendship to benefit you both, intellectually, economically, and, if you are lucky, financially. Networking is important to everyone, whether they are involved in making a business work, marketing a product, or even simply finding a job.

The art of networking, however, is not as easy to learn and master.

Networking requires a rich investment of time, money, and effort - the return on this investment, or ROI, is brought about by making the right connections in the right places, and is rooted in following well-outlined goals.

Networking will not only allow you to make more friends. It can get the word out on what services you can contribute. It can also expand your business to even more clients. But just how many calling cards can you give out before you finally see a great ROI? How many conferences do you have to attend before your ROI spells big profits? How much more money can you afford to shell out before your ROI puts the cash back into your pocket?

How can you easily increase your ROI from networking?

To be able to easily increase your networking ROI, you have to know what you want.

Ask yourself these questions: why am I networking? Am I making sure that my business stays stable? Do I want more people to know about my product or service? Do I want more people to buy my product or avail of my services? Am I in between jobs and need to find a better deal than the last one? Do I want a job that will allow me to earn money easily on the side, even with my present, demanding job?

Any good venture will end great if you start it right. Know why you are networking, and focus on your goal. Focusing on your goal will ensure that whatever strategy you will use in networking, you will reach what you aim for.

Remember that networking means making yourself or your product credible to more and more new people every time. This, however, does not mean sacrificing quantity over quality. It may sound clich

internet marketing, internet network marketing, MLM, network marketing

Share This

What makes people buy? Many of you may be thinking it could be the price, or maybe it’s some new item out on the market that they don’t have. It could be some kind of new innovation perhaps a MP3 player. What ever it is people will decide whether they want to open up their wallet and hand over the money. In some cases they won’t want to open their wallet, so what’s the difference between those who buy and those who don’t?

One huge overwhelming thing the relationship you have with your prospects. People want to buy from someone they know and like especially in the world of internet marketing.

This is why so many of us use autoresponders. What do autoresponders do? Collect names and form relationships. Peroid. It is said that someone needs to see your information 7 times before they will buy. I think that applies to seeing your emails, postcards, etc.

The second thing that makes people buy is a strong call to action in a form of a response device. Many people have the fear of closing a sale or just asking for the order. I remember several years ago, when I felt awkward asking people for money. Over the years I have realized that this ridiculous, and since then I have gotten over it.

A strong call to action is important. You need to tell the reader exactly what you want them to do, and how to do it and when to do it.

A deadline is the third reason people buy. People need to have boundaries and should be told that a special item is only available for a limited amount of time.

Presenting scarcity is another important weapon in the arsenal of sales. If people think they can’t get anymore after a certain number of sold they will be inclined to buy before the product is sold out.

Another important item to keep in consideration is price. Your price should never be cheap, because people really do think that you get what you pay for. If it’s a cheap price then what type of value could there be. It’s also a great idea to always test your price. You might surprise yourself and find that raising your price may sell you more products.

So be open and flexible, realize that part of your duty is find out what your buyer wants.

(c) CG Groth Inc.

buy products, internet marketing, marketing, product sales, sales, small business

Share This