How to use humor in public speaking

TJ’s Insights

May 24, 2005

New Books, TJ Walker’s “Media Training A-Z”
http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com/mediatrainingaz.html
“Presentation Training A-Z” http://www.mediatrainingworldwide.com/presentaz.html

Jokes Can Still Work

On May 22, 2005 in a feature-length story the New York Times officially pronounced that joke telling was dead. Indeed, for years, presentation coaches like me have been warning client, “don’t tell jokes, especially at the beginning of your speech.”

For most people who aren’t professional entertainers or communicators, I still think it’s good advice. But, still, there is nothing better than a joke that really works to get a positive start in a presentation.

Last night I was watching CBS weather man Dave Price emcee a Public Relations Society awards banquet. Here’s how he started off:

“I’d like to thank CBS legend Mike Wallace and PR guru Howard Rubenstein… (Pause)

So far Price is straightforward and earnest. But then he says:

“For leaving the room the moment I was introduced to speak…” (He says with a sad and surprised look on his face.)

The audience burst out laughing!

Indeed just 30 seconds before, Mike Wallace and Howard Rubenstein had gotten up and walked out of the front of the Rainbow Room in Rockefeller Plaza, in clear sight of hundreds of guests.

Why did Price’s joke “work?”

1. It was quick and spontaneously (or at least it appeared that way). Wallace and Rubenstein really did leave just seconds before and there is no way that Price could have plotted out the joke in advance.
2. It was self-effacing. Price was making fun of himself for being so insignificant that all of the big-shots left as soon as it was announced he would be speaking.
3. He was (mildly) picking on people richer and more powerful than he was. (folks like that)
4. By pausing just so, he created a surprise element to his statement. What seemed like the beginning of an ordinary thank you ended with a curveball. People love surprises.

The previous speaker, 60 Minutes star Mike Wallace also began his speech with a joke. In this case he retold a conversation he had had with one of the other guests in attendance. Propriety forbids me from retelling the whole joke, but it ended with Wallace asking the guest’s wife, “Is he still good in the sack?”

Of course, context is everything. Wallace, who is about five minutes shy of 90 years old, was commenting on another well-known PR counselor who is nearly the same age. Wallace brought the house down for several reasons:

1. People don’t expect a distinguished newsman to joke about sex.
2. If you are nearly 90 years old, anything you say about sex is considered amusing.

I’m not saying you should try this at home folks, but I do what you to develop a keen ear for humor, anytime you hear a speaker use it well.

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Author of Media Training A-Z
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TJ Walker
Media Training Worldwide
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Media Training Worldwide provides more media and presentation training workshops and seminars (54 separate courses) than any other company in the world. Media Training Worldwide also publishes more than 100 presentation training books, DVDs, CDs, and other information products and is the largest presentation/media training publisher in the world. For a product catalog or more information on training services call 800-755-7220 or visit http://mediatrainingworldwide.com/mediatrainingcatalogapril2004.pdf.

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