Public Speaking Tips - How to Inject Humour When Writing a Speech

We all like funny people. As such, when speaking in public, it is important to use humour to bridge and build rapport with your audience. For sure it is not easy task, still, it is very much impossible to inject humour into your speech to make other laughs.

How to Use Humour?

If you are in doubt about your humour, don't use it. In this case, you'd better use speech writing services. Nowadays there re a huge number of professional speech writing services, so you can find the best for you. Please remember that not every speech requires humour. It is also not necessary to use humor to break the ice with the audience. However, if you wish to use humor, then follow the guidelines below.

The guidelines are:

Personalize your humor to poke fun at yourself or someone who is popular or well-known in the event.

Find the "in" jokes for the audience. You will instantly receive a warm response for that.

Especially, when you are a foreign speaker, please check with the organizer and research for the "in" things or jokes.

Avoid ethnic or cultural jokes, try to be sensitive about this segment of the people. Humour has to be clean and understood by all.

Tell short humorous story is more effective than a long story. Speak slowly and clearly, and make sure it is loud enough to be heard.


The Best Humour Targets

1. Superiority Figures

Anyone who holds a position of authority, such as bosses, government officials, teachers, or rich people are perceived as leaders.

America has a culture against authority and therefore speakers use humour to target at authority. In the Asian context, they respect the elders and authority, therefore not many Asian speakers dare to use humour to target at the authority.

2. People Related To The Speaker

People such as wives, children, in-laws, neighbours, and business associates.

Here are a few examples:

Take my wife, for instance, she always asks questions.Usually when I come home late, she will say, " What time is it?. Why are you back so late."One evening when I returned home at 9.00pm. She said, " What time is it? Why are you back so early?"My wife is a woman of few words. In the morning before I leave for outscore work, she would say: " Come home early."In the evening when I return home, she would say: "Lock the door."

How To Tell A Humourous Story Effectively

Tell a story in the fewest words possible. Remember more words are not better. In fact, more words can be more cumbersome and verbose. Remember KISS - keep it short and sweet.

Rehearse the story until it becomes second nature. It means that you have to practice and practice to ensure smooth delivery.

Personalize your story and put yourself in the story. It sounds real and the audience will believe you.