President's Tip of the Week

How to Add Humor to Any Speech (Part 2)
(6/16/09)

Source: Toastmasters International

It’s coming, folks! August 27th will be Gilbert’s Humorous Speech Contest and Evaluation Contest. To help you prepare for the former, read the article written by Joe Cooke, ACB found at the link above. Here’s a summary of his second point that I skipped last week:

Method #2: New Material

Cooke describes 3 steps for creating your own humorous material:

1. Choose a topic. For example, “Parenting.”
2. Choose an attitude. Cooke suggests sticking to some basic “attitudes,” and provides four specific ones that are easier to work with: Hard, stupid, weird, and scary. For example, “Raising kids is hard.”
3. Create a twist. Here is Cooke’s example of creating a twist:
   “Traveling with kids is hard! You gotta be tough, you know? We just got back from Disney World. We spent all day walking and it was hot and it was like, ‘I need a drink of water, and ‘I’m tired,’ and ‘I need to go potty.’ Finally, my six-year old put her hands on her hips and said, ‘Dad, quit whining.’”

Here are some additional tips:

• The Rule of Three: Three is an inherently funny number. Take 3 things and substitute the third for something unexpected.
• Acting Out: Take your humor up a notch by acting it out.
• Survive the Joke: If the joke bombs or the audience doesn’t “get it” for some reason, have a phrase prepared to save the joke, such as “Maybe that one will catch you on the way home."