Or, do you have the belief that you are, simply, not funny at all?

As the cliché saying goes, laughter is the best medicine and people today are drawn towards humor like bees to honey simply because cynicism has been ingrained in today’s culture. Thus the value-add of humor in public speaking. While, this may be the case, a lot of people out there find themselves lacking the skill sets to pull off punch lines effectively and effortlessly.

Though humor is commonly believed to be an elusive art to master, I think otherwise.

The great comic Jim Mendrinos once shared,

“In order to be funny, you got to first know what makes you laugh as this will give you obvious clues to what makes other people laugh.”

There are many forms of humor, ranging from normal banter to exaggeration techniques.

Hence, make an effort to build a humor bank!

It will be great to start off by observing yourself and the people around you. Jot down the comical instances which occur – there has to be noteworthy ones each day! You will never know when these instances will come in handy as ammunition for your speeches. Also, be willing to watch stand up comics. Not because you are trying to be a stand up comedian when you speak - that would be inappropriate. Rather, you can see how their use timing, intonation and facial expressions to deliver humor.

On the day of your speech, get to know the audience!

As Scott Friedman of Advanced Public Speaking Institute suggests,

“the more you know about the audience, the more opportunities you will have to play with them”.

Understand the dynamics of the audience, as this will make it easier for you to relate to them through your language, tone and the framework of your speech. As mentioned above, different people find different things funny. So, knowing your audience allows you to cater your humor
to the intended group in mind properly – chances are that knock-knock jokes are unlikely to work for adults as opposed to primary school children!

Also, be sure to know the intention of the speech and what you intend for the audience to get out of listening to you. Time is a precious commodity these days, and implanting suggestive and timely, yet relevant humor, will be a very effective way to make your speech more memorable without having to drone on and on with examples.

Establish and maneuver your speech around this purpose, bearing in mind what works for you, as well as the target audience, in creating your stories or punch lines.

1. Don’t use recycled jokes and stories, the faux pas of public speaking. As you have probably experienced this yourself while listening to speeches before, hearing familiar stories countless times before are bound to elicit groans instead of laughs.

2. Don’t laugh at your own jokes while reciting it — self-control is important! The best way to pull off a punch line is always with a straight face. This will catch the audience off guard and intensify the humorous effect.

3. Don’t give the audience too little time to savor your punch line. Let them digest and laugh before you move on! This will allow the audience to catch the subsequent stories after that.

4. Don’t ever explain your jokes or punch lines! If the audience fail to get the joke, move on. Explaining the joke will not help matters, especially when the funny moment did not, have not, and will not come. To lighten the tense mood at this instant, though, some self-effacing humor may work. (read the rest HERE)

(ht: Public Speaking Blog)

"SherwoodSherwood Schwartz , creator of such nostalgic TV shows as "Gilligan's Island " and "The Brady Bunch " was once asked why his shows began with theme songs that set up the premise of the show. ("Just sit right back and you'll hear a tale..." or "Here's the story of a man named Brady...")

His response was, "Confused people don't laugh."

I think there's much we can learn from uncle Sherwood about context and creativity. When we're creating, our goal is communicate something - even if that something is ineffable. Without context, we're relying on the individual to fill in the vacuum. (Vacuum's always get filled, no?) This complexity can lead to confusion and misinterpretation of our intent. In the world of high art, this isn't necessarily as much of an issue because the goal is to evoke and fade into the cultural fabric, but when we're creating for a client, this can be the key determining factor of success or failure.

Do your "punchlines" have context? Are people wasting their neurons trying to understand why a millionnaire, a scientist, a farm girl, a movie star and "the rest" are frolicking around on your island?"

You say that humor increases productivity, reduces conflict, and fosters change. Is this a joke?

Humor is healthy, especially the way it reduces stress. Humor is the opposite of fight-or-flight emotions -- especially fear and anger. I can't be laughing with you and angry or afraid of you at the same time.

How does it encourage creativity?

Humor makes us think more flexibly. People who think funny do better on creativity studies. To put it really simply, humor loosens up your brain to think of more possibilities and be more open to the wild and wacky ones. There is a guy at the State University of New York at Buffalo named Roger Firestien who has a center for the study of creativity. When he teaches brainstorming, he says you should put a joker in the group -- somebody who will come up with preposterous ideas. Very often that will stimulate people to come up with ideas that will work. Let me give you an example. A bunch of paint engineers were moaning and bitching about how hard it is to get paint off a house. One guy says, "Why don't we just put gunpowder in the paint and blow it off the house?" That led people to think, "What could we do that would be the equivalent of gunpowder?" They came up with a chemical they added to the paint and when you wanted to remove the paint you did a light wash with a second chemical over the first one. That didn't blow it off the house, but it allowed it to drop off.