What does it take to deliver a funny speech?

The art of making others laugh when delivering a speech can seem like a tricky business. After all, what makes one audience crack up can solicit blank stares and even groans from another.

Of course, there are reasons why it’s fickle and so few people manage to make a serious living out of comedy. It’s an inexact science and can be hard work.

As the 19^th century Shakespearean actor Edmund Kean is reputed to have said on his deathbed:

“Dying is easy; Comedy is difficult”

And yet, used well, there are many reasons why it pays to inject humour into your talks. Here’s just a small selection:

• If your audience enjoys your talk, they’re more likely to listen
• It can help you to reduce or even diffuse tensions when tacking contentious or sensitive issues
• You can use it to enliven topics that might otherwise seem dull
• It can cause your audience to like you
• And, even more importantly, it gives you an opportunity to educate your audience as you entertain

But if you are planning on using jokes to win laughs while sharing important messages…here is my simple advice. Don’t!

How to Start a Humorous Speech and Keep Your Audience Laughing

Avoid the temptation of using jokes as a means to get your audience warmed up at the start (or later)!

As mentioned in a previous post, you’ll find you’re not just gambling audiences will get your gags; you may be disheartened to learn how quickly your best material will be forgotten by most everyone who hears you.

The good news is you don’t need to be a comedian to win laughs.

The trick is to realise that the late raconteur and actor Peter Ustinov was right when he said “Comedy is simply a funny way of being serious”.

And with that in mind, it’s time for today’s expert interview when I delve into tips, tactics, and strategies you can use to create and deliver a funny speech with writer, BBC TV and radio presenter, creator of the Talking Toolbox, and noted after dinner speaker, Jeremy Nicholas.

How to Create and Deliver a Funny Speech

Listen in as we discuss:

• Overcoming fears that the humour in your speeches mightn’t get laughs
• What to do if you don’t think you have a funny bone in your body
• How to find, develop, and polish funny material
• Why it pays to kill your darlings for better results
• A button you simply must push to win more laughter
• When adding more is a terrible idea
• What you can learn from the late comedian and TV compere Bob Monkhouse
• Why you should ditch gag books and go local instead
• How come material that works with near home audiences can fall asunder elsewhere
• The elixir of getting familiar with your audience before you say a word
• And more

Want Audiences to Love Every Minute of Your Speeches?

To learn how you can more readily educate your audiences while you entertain them – so everyone, including you, enjoys the journey – contact me at eobrien@thersc.ie or call me on +35315311196. I’ll be delighted to help.

Interview Transcript

Eamonn: You’re very welcome to the Reluctant Speaker’s Club expert series.

Coming up today we’ll talk about the challenges of winning laughs as a speaker and how to find humor that works.

And I’m delighted to be joined by broadcaster and fellow of the professional speaking association, a specialist in after dinner speaking and author, Jeremy Nicholas, also known as the Talking Toolbox Guy.

Jeremy, delighted to have you here.
Jeremy: Hi Eamonn how are you doing?

Eamonn: Terrific. So for speakers at the outset of learning their craft… oftentimes the notion of figuring out what it takes to get a laugh can seem like a big ask for some people. Why is that and what are the challenges you see most commonly?

Jeremy: Yeah, I think one of the problems that people face is they’re worried are they going to get a laugh. So then they’re not confident and audiences can smell fear. If they think “oh, he looks a bit worried” then they’re going to worry for you and then they’re not going to be laughing with you or at you.

So I always say to people if you’re going to put funny stuff in, you have to find it funny first of all. Then if you pass that test “yes I find that funny”, have you tried that out in front of some one?

Don’t try out stuff for the first time on a stage. Try it out with your friends and your family, and if they’re laughing chances are it is funny. I often go to my local comedy club. It’s called the Bear Cat Comedy Club in St. Margarets which is just near Twickenham, which you’ll know where Ireland rugby beat England.

Eamonn: I know! I think we’ve been beaten there the last few times!

Jeremy: Sorry to have brought that up! But it’s the one part of London Irish people will know, Twickenham, because you’ll come there for the rugby.

And there’s a lovely comedy club called the Bear Cat, and I’m on their mailing list because I’ve been going there for years. I’ve played golf with the promoter, and he often emails me and says Harry Hill is on on Thursday night, but he’s not being billed. Only the regulars know Harry Hill is going to be in there and Harry tries new material out.

Eamonn: Cool.

Jeremy: You only pay ten pounds but you, to an audience of probably about 50 to 100 people, and he’ll come on and he’ll have a bit of paper. He won’t have remembered it, and he’ll do a joke. If it works he ticks it. If it doesn’t work, he crosses it out and goes “I’ll never do that again.” Because what he doesn’t want to do is go to the Edinburgh Festival to do his big Edinburgh show and it doesn’t work. So he tries it out in a small, presumably he does it in other ones as well, but I always see him at the Bear Cat and that’s what speakers should do. Try out your stuff with your mates. If you’re driving in a car on a journey, try out a story, see what sort of response, find out where the laughs are in that story, and then underline those bits.

Eamonn: You’re absolutely right. But ,what would you say to people who think, “Well gee, you know what? I want put humour in, but I just don’t think I’m funny.” Can anybody be funny?

Jeremy: Well yes, if you don’t think you’re funny then probably don’t try because there’s nothing worse than somebody trying and then really not, if you haven’t got a funny bone in your body then don’t. But what I would suggest is tell stories but don’t tell jokes.

Because if you come on and say here’s a funny thing, people instantly fold their arms and think “Well we’ll be the judge of that.”

And then what you’ve done by saying that is you’ve put pressure on your audience and then they’re listening intently because they want to make sure they get it maybe they don’t get it because for cultural reasons or the premise is you would have had to have watched a certain T.V. program to know who the character is or something like that.

So don’t set up that problem for yourself. Tell a story that might have a funny line in it but if no one laughs it’s still in the story and you might just get a spot of laughter.

Eamonn: It’s still going to be engaging. And you’re absolutely right because story telling is actually so much easier and people enjoy it. So the chances of it not working are materially lower.

But when people are looking to find or develop the funny within their stories, what are your top tips about that?

Jeremy: Right so first of all your stories should be owned stories so you must carry a notebook and write them down. Then what I do is I then tell the story into my phone, record it on a voice memo on the phone, play it back and listen to it and think “What are the important bits in that story?” Anything that doesn’t add to the humor or add to the story or set up to something that’s going to happen later just get rid of.

Because it’s like Chekov, the writer, saying if in the first chapter a gun is hanging on the wall, it better be going off in Chapters two or three. You’ve got to have that. So if it doesn’t add anything, what’s it doing in there? So many people put stuff in their stories, “Oh, but that happened.” Okay, but we don’t need to know about that. “No, but that’s where it happened.”

Eamonn: Yes.

Jeremy: Or sometimes people tell things in chronological order, and I’ll say “But we don’t need it to be in chronological, get to the good bit and get our interest, and then tell it in flashback, something like that. But what you’ve got to do is find where the punch lines are, where the bits are that people usually laugh.

So that’s why I always think record all of your talks, and then some bits that you might think are comedy gold, you think, “Oh I’m a genius for thinking of that,” but it gets no reaction.

If I do that for three talks in a row and get no reaction, it’s three strikes and you’re out. Some bits that I don’t like always go down well, always get a laugh and I think it’s a real shame that the audience finds that funnier than that genius bit I wrote earlier but unfortunately the audience are always the winner so that goes in.

So then you’ve got to expand those bits and build them up, find out where the punch line is and when you deliver the punch line, get to the bit that gets the laugh and then stop. That’s the really important bit. Pause, the pause button, I have a…
Eamonn: Yes…because comedy is actually not about timing. It’s about pausing.

Jeremy: It is. And waiting for people to laugh. And if they don’t laugh just keep looking at them until they do laugh and don’t say anything else. I have a system called talking talk box which is 20 tools in a toolbox that make you a better speaker and one of them is the pause button, the most powerful tool in the toolbox because it means that you get the laugh. Because, it means you got the laugh.

And where inexperienced speakers go wrong is if they know there’s a funny line there, they deliver it and then they say a few extra words. As soon as you say a few extra words then people stop laughing because they’re worried they’re going to miss something and there might be an even better bit coming. But it’s usually just the person repeating something.

Eamonn: And you don’t get the cascade effect – which you need – because if somebody doesn’t laugh then it’s not going to happen around the whole room.

Tell me though, thinking more about craft. I’m sure over the years – because you’ve been at this for quite some time – you’ve had many influences. Who would be among your top influences? And what did you learn from them?

Jeremy: Bob Monkhouse, who people remember mainly as a game show presenter.

Eamonn: I remember him.

Jeremy: Golden Shot and things like that, but he, I’ve seen as an after dinner speaker and he’s just brilliant at putting in stories and just having an anecdote for anything that happens. And what he’s very good at and what I try to do is to bring in real things that have happened earlier in the day that people at the event would have seen. I will think of a line off the back of it or a story that’s happened to me to connect it with that and that’s what Bob Monkhouse is brilliant at doing, linking themes together.

If you’re at an event and there have been two speakers before they’ve both mentioned two different things, if you can link those two different things together and do what we call a topper, which is where you do an extra funny line off the back of it then that works really well.

People appreciate that because they realize that you have made that effort especially for them. It’s not a line you’ll ever be able to use again unless you follow those two speakers again and they do exactly the same thing.

Eamonn: And it works wonderfully for the same reason that if you take something that’s topical that’s in the news, people can connect it to something they just know or just learned, and automatically it’s easier for them to grab on to it. So it works.

Jeremy: So I think where people go wrong is they always think about jokes not stories. They’re always printing off lists of Tommy Cooper [sounds like] jokes off the internet. What they’d be better doing would be to get a newspaper, to get some topical stuff or go on a website to find stories in the news at the moment and what can you say to link to that.

It might just be to what we call truth and pain where you just point out something that’s pretty obvious that everyone will have been thinking when they heard that news item. And people in the room will identify with that and you’ll get a little bit of laughter.

So get a newspaper or, if you’re going to a new place, often I’ll speak at conferences and there will be delegates coming in, and this will be familiar to a lot of business speakers, it might be a place you don’t know very well, get a guidebook.

Go on the internet for that place and tell the people something about that place and they’ll really appreciate that you’ve made that effort.

Eamonn: They will really. But are there any particular pitfalls that you would caution people about, where you’d say “Look if you’re going to use humor, don’t go here.”
Jeremy: Yes well certainly if it’s an international audience you have to be very careful that you don’t upset any cultural sensitivities, things that might have seemed quite funny when you were talking to your mates in the bar suddenly are not funny because you haven’t even looked at it from the point of view of someone of a different culture. Also, if it’s an international audience they might not have a clue who you’re talking about.

So if you’re talking about someone who’s on Irish television, but you’re speaking at a conference in Brussels, they have no idea. Even if it’s someone like the guy from the Late Late Show that everyone would know, in Brussels they’ve never even heard of the Late Late Show.

Eamonn: That’s exactly right. And if you’re talking about Gay Byrne…who’s going to know who he is?
Jeremy: Exactly. I have no idea who his is. So if you’re speaking in Brussels what you’ve got to do is you’d better tell a story that would be about a film star. So Tom Cruise you can probably talk abot anywhere.

Eamonn: Yes, yes because he’s universally known.

Jeremy: If it’s a big sports star, it would be alright. But imagine if you’re speaking in America and it’s a big sports star but it’s a soccer star, and America’s not very big on soccer, something like that. So just think “Will people get what you’re on about?”

Eamonn: Yes so if you’re starting basically from where your audience is. So just wind up then, or wind down I should say, if you have learned one thing above all else over the N number of years about connecting with an audience when it comes to your work, what would you put top of the list?

Jeremy: For me, it’s go and sit in the audience before you’re on. Because audiences are not scary when you’ve been in them. People get scared, particularly about using humor. They get scared because they think “Will they like me? Will the audience like me?” Let me tell you there is no such thing as the audience. All there is is a group of individual people, and you are an individual so go and sit in the audience then and think “What are you thinking about that person who’s speaking?”

As a speaker, people get so worried. “What will they think of me?” Most people in the audience won’t think anything of you. They’ll just be interested in what you’re talking about. They’re much more interested in your content. They’re not worried about you, really, and try and chat to a few people as well so that you then have a few friendly faces to pick out.

Eamonn: Exactly. When you smile, they smile back at you.

Jeremy: Yes, and then getting laughter to go around s room if you can just pick a few key people who you know, I can usually tell after chatting to someone just for a minute whether or not they’re going to be a laugher or a smiler. You want to target the laughter because if someone laughs, other people will laugh. If someone smiles, a smile doesn’t tend to go around the room like a Mexican wave because they’re still looking at the speaker and they can’t see that other people are smiling.

Eamonn: Jeremy this has been absolutely fantastic. You’re a mine of information and I really appreciate you joining me today so thank you so much for that.

Jeremy: Thank you very much.

Eamonn: Good, and that’s all for today and thank you for listening.

You’ve been listening to the Reluctant Speaker’s Club expert series and until the next time, happy speaking.