Using Humour in Speeches and Presentations

Doesn’t time fly? Another fortnight gone and its Speak Easy Toastmasters meeting night again.

Over the past number of alternate Thursdays we have been looking at various skills in making a speech or presentation.

This week we look at another very important skill, the use of humour.

Humour is a great “ice breaker”. It shows especially, if you are in a position of authority over your audience that you are indeed human and you don’t take yourself or the occasion too seriously. Humour is also a great tool to win over audience, people pay more attention to a speaker who uses humour and of course humour keeps a presentation from becoming boring not to mention that an audience will be more likely to remember your message if you use humour to illustrate it.

But, caution is needed when using or attempting to use humour, as used incorrectly it can backfire. Let’s have a look at a few simple rules for using humour in a presentation.

Firstly, humour has to fit the content and tone of your speech. If humour doesn’t fit your speech then don’t use it.

Don’t tell an unrelated joke at the start of our speech, what is a lot more effective is a humorous story that introduces the theme of the talk.

You must also consider not only the age of your audience but also their cultural background and their mood when choosing humour for your speech as not all audiences respond the same type of humour. I.e. references local characters or restaurants would not be understood outside your area.

Needless to mention, off colour humour is not appropriate around children and audiences who would be offended by it. Be careful here.

The best way to use humour is to illustrate a point and the best humour comes from your own experience. Talk about a humorous situation you had and what you learned from it. Your audience will be drawn to your story because it is personal and real. They can also relate to similar experiences they had. Using your own experiences will make you speeches fresher than if you culled jokes out of joke books.

Humour is an integral part of Toastmasters. It is a skill that all Toastmasters aspire to use confidently in all our presentations. It is what makes a Toastmaster stand out from the crowd when delivering a speech or presentation.

Two speech contests in Toastmasters are devoted to it, The Humorous Speech Contest and The Tall Tales Contest and also a number of training manuals.

So tonight, November 1^st, why not come along to our Toastmasters meeting in the Hibernian Hotel and see for your self how easy it is to gain the confidence to stand before an audience and deliver a truly memorable speech.

Best of all though, you will have fun learning and by joining Toastmasters International you will be a member of an international organization with over two hundred thousand members in ten thousand clubs in over ninety countries.

So come along tonight, Thursday, November 1^st to the Hibernian Hotel in Mallow at 7.50pm where the members of Speak Easy Toastmasters will be delighted to meet you and show you what we do. Don’t worry, guests at a Toastmasters meeting are never asked to speak so you can just sit back and enjoy the evening.

We will be in the capable hand of Toastmaster, Marie Fitzpatirck and handing out the topics to the members will be Liam Flynn and speakers on the program are Dennis Taylor, Joe Hassett, Anne Buckley, Pat Sexton and Vivien Buckley.

So see you later; you’ll be glad you came.

Further information on Speak Easy Toastmasters can be had on our website www.speakeasytoastmasters.com