Using humour in your speech...

In an earlier blog, I spoke about the importance of getting off to a good start when making a speech and promised to expand more on how to use humour effectively to this end. The rewards are great when you can extract solid laughs from your audience early on. Laughter releases endorphins that help us relax and put us in a feel-good mood… and this is exactly where you want your audience to be.

Let’s look at why experienced speakers use humour. I think cultural anthropologist, Mahadev Apte sums it up well: "Laughter occurs when people are comfortable with one another, when they feel open and free. And the more laughter there is, the more bonding occurs within the group."

Speakers use humour firstly to relate to the audience (breaking down the “me vs them” barriers). A positive response to the humour boosts his/her confidence because laughter makes the speaker feel accepted as part of the group (as opposed to feeling exposed and alone in front of strangers).  And I cannot stress enough that confidence is what you need most when making a speech or toast.
You need humour for nothing more… you are not Stuart Taylor. Don’t try to be a stand-up comic. So how do you increase your chances of delivering your joke perfectly? Well, here are my TOP FIVE TIPS:

1. Make it relevant. The value of your efforts will quadruple when your humour has relevance to the occasion. For instance, at a wedding, a mother-in-law joke will deliver better results than a blonde joke. When your joke is relevant, it is also easier for you to make it flow naturally into the rest of your speech.

2. Personalise your joke. In other words make it sound like a personal experience. For example, if the joke goes: “A wealthy man and his best friend went on a fishing trip to Miami…” Then change it to: “My windgat uncle Kallie and his friend Mike, went fishing in Langebaan…” (Remember, you want to relate to the audience).

3. Avoid long jokes. Only tell long-ish jokes if you know that this is your number one hit! Two punchy one-liners in quick succession are usually far more effective than a 30-second joke.

4. Pause for effect. Don’t just rush through your joke. Pause at appropriate times to achieve one of two things: to let your words sink in, and to create anticipation.

5. Practice at home. Test your jokes on different family-members and ask for feedback. In this way you may learn how to improve the delivery of your jokes and increase your chances of doing it flawlessly on the day.

Now I know (and I hope you remember) that you are not a stand-up comic, so in the medium-term, I will work on a list of good, funny lines you can use next time you speak in public. Keep on smiling…


Posted on: 13 January 2013

Lance Kenned aka Mister MC

Master of Ceremonies, Cape Town, South Africa