Bill Gates spoke in Las Vegas on January 7, 2007. Arriving almost four hours early guaranteed me a seat about 100 yards from the speaking platform. Thank goodness for big-screen projection. The crowd and the lines were something like a Rolling Stones concert. Except there were more geeks. About an hour from the start of […]
Read More...Lights, Camera,… HUMOR! The Rule of Three
Fellow students of humor, stand up and make ’em laugh! I say “fellow students” because through teaching others and making techniques and concepts graspable I, too, gain more clarity. I’m still on my own ever-changing path of humor mastery. Many of you have heard me speak in person. One of the favorite things that I […]
Read More...Humor for Selling Products and for Selling Your Message
Twenty to thirty years ago, humor was commonly used to sell low-priced products. We remember Mr. Whipple squeezing the Charmin and Clara Peller asking “Where’s the beef?” Today, when you watch TV, you’re likely to see humor being used to sell automobiles. Over the years, advertisers have gained a greater appreciation of the value of […]
Read More...The Call Back
Every year the World Championship contest is an amazing event. Lance, the 2005 World Champion, was wonderful! He connected with the audience and executed his speech perfectly. Lance’s message was simple and crystal clear. And a speech well worth studying! My favorite line, however, came from one of the other contestants, Rowena Romero. During her […]
Read More...When They Do Not Laugh—What Do You Do?
by John Kinde The eyes of your audience are fixed on you. You deliver your best new humor line. They stare at you in silence. It has happened to all of us. It will happen again. What do you do? The conventional wisdom from experienced professional speakers is valid. Pretend you were serious. Humor, properly […]
Read More...A Humorist Adapts Fripp’s Presentation Principles
An article on public speaking and presentations by John Kinde and Patricia Fripp As one of my humorist speaker friends John Kinde, well-known for his Humor Power newsletter says, “Great speaking skills give you the illusion of competence. The flip side: Poor speaking skills give you the illusion of incompetence! If your presentation skills are […]
Read More...Show Me the Funny!
If there’s one thing I’ve learned in 30 years of studying humor, it’s this. You CAN learn to be funny. Some people think you need to be born funny, the class clown. I’m a laid-back, serious, Norwegian from North Dakota and I’ve won humorous speech contests at the Toastmasters District level four times and three […]
Read More...Creating a More Powerful Speech
If you want to improve a speech, you need to record it so you can analyze it. This means making an audio recording, or better yet a video recording. And also making a manuscript of what you actually delivered to a live audience. Then you’re able to do an in-depth review of your speech content, […]
Read More...Less is More
As Shakespeare wrote in Hamlet: “Brevity is the soul of wit.” Brevity makes strong structure. The punchline is the payoff. Traditional wisdom is that the shortest distance between the setup and the payoff is best. When a story has a long set up before getting to the joke, it’s said that the punchline is carrying […]
Read More...Public Speaking Tips for Webinars
Add Impact When You Present Through Webinars No matter what you level of public speaking experience, whenever you open your mouth, whether you’re talking to one person or a thousand, you usually want to get a specific message across. Anyone who sets out to present, persuade, and propel with the spoken word faces pitfalls. And, […]
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