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May 2012 Newsletter

Hook on to Humour in Your Stories!

Humour is the cheapest, most abundant gift you can give to others, so why not grant this gift to your audiences?

Opening:

It may interest you to know that you don’t have to be a stand-up comic to hold an audience's attention; however, using humour, as long as it adds to and re-enforces your message, is an essential ingredient (especially if you ever wish to get paid!)

Promise:

Just like speaking, humour is a process that you can learn in 3 ways:

• picking up and using new tools
• frequent practice (in front of real audiences)
• time!

The more you practice with the right tools, the more comfortable you become, the more effective you become as an ‘edu-tainer.’

Roadmap:

This month, we’ll look at:

• Tips for using Humour
• Don'ts in using Humour.

In This Issue

• Humour: Do's and Don'ts for using it effectively

• Humour Resources
  to help you make your audiences laugh! Special: 25% OFF Darren's resources!

Quotations of
the Month from
3 World Champions!

"When you humorize,
you humanize."
~ D. LaCroix

"When I speak, I try to make my audiences T.A.L.L. —
Think, Act, Laugh,
and Learn."
~ C. Valentine

"Use the 4 H's in your
speeches: Head, Heart,
Humour, and have a
Heavy-hitting message."
~ E. Tate

You may be thinking...

"But I’m not funny!"
"I don’t know how to tell jokes!"
"I’ve never been able to make my audience roll in the aisles with laughter! Can I still be funny and make people laugh?"

Do you need to be a born comedian? NO!

Do you need to be a joke teller? NO!

Do you need to have your audiences falling off their chairs in laughter? NO!

Even if you don't have them rolling into the aisles with laughter, you can definitely learn to be entertaining and, with extra effort, even funny!

WHAT is humour? Humour is the ability to appreciate and express what is funny, amusing, comical or even ludicrous. Amusing audiences by making them smile is a degree of humor.

A Few Humour Tips

• Uncover it, rather than add it... in your personal everyday stories, in your characters and in their dialogue. (give funniest lines to another character, not yourself)
  .
• Act and react using your emotions! Reactions create Humour! (Body is Language!) Don’t talk and tell, share and show... gestures, facial expressions, vocal variety in projection, pace, pitch, pauses.
  .
• Give the Visual before the Verbal... facial and body reaction precedes the delivery of the line... then be quiet!
  .
• Remember Comedy Stems from Tragedy!
  Share your 4 F’s: flaws, firsts, frustrations, failures, your own embarrassing moments (self-effacing humour) This humanizes you by making you similar to your audiences
  .
• Use Unexpected Twists especially by using power of 3’s
  People laugh when their minds are tricked…derail their original thoughts that you planted.
  .
  "I was so nervous about the trip, I took a blanket, a flashlight and... PAUSE... my mother!!"
  ~ D. LaCroix
  .
  "I love Toastmasters; they're so attentive, so supportive and so... sober." ~ D. LaCroix
  .
• Read the Audience's Minds... it works! I know!
  Plant information in their minds that you know they’ll be pondering or figuring out, by saying: i.e. "I retired in 2002 and 32 years of teaching." Pause, look at them and tell them what they're actually thinking by saying: "OK OK I know what you’re thinking" (because you know they are!) "...you’re doing the math... carry 1...take away 3, she must be..."
  .
• Use odd numbers and be specific (funnier than even and approximations: i.e. "11 ½" is funnier than "about or around 12.")
  .
• Use appropriate timing, delivery, pause before stating the punch line
  .
• Smile... that gives them permission to smile back
  .
• Allow them the time to laugh, when they are laughing (don’t step on their laughs)

Don'ts in Humour

• Don’t "throw in" a joke to "loosen" them up!!
• Don’t recycle jokes and stories
• Don’t laugh throughout your story, especially before delivering the punch-line
• Don’t deliver a story too quickly or not loudly enough
• Don’t slip out of character when telling a story
• Don’t step on your laughs – allow them the time to laugh
• Don’t use bad language
• Don’t use sexist, racist, religious humour... be politically correct!

What humorous, stories do you have to share? Recall them, share them, have fun and take the audience with you!

Practicing in front of live audiences will help you understand what makes them laugh and when they will laugh — it’s learned through trial and error!!

Humour Resources

Are you ready to learn how they make people laugh, so that you can too?

Get 25% OFF of Darren's resources when you use my Kathryn code: KM25
(No other discounts apply. Discount cannot be combined with other special prices.)

	Get More Laughs by Next Week™ (15-CD Set) World Champion of Public Speaking Darren LaCroix teaches you the process of making people laugh! You'll get templates, exercises, and formulas to put it into action on your very next speech. Click for details!
	Learn How the Pros Make ‘em Laugh (4-CD Set or MP3 Download) In this 4-hour program, you will get practical tips, helpful techniques, and usable methods that will improve your presentation skills and make you sound like a pro! Click for info!

I leave you with a lesson from Darren:

"When people laugh, they relax, when they relax, they learn, when they learn, they remember."

Do YOU want people to remember what you said?

Join me next month when we examine and discuss the letter "I" as it relates to another
storytelling skill.

Until then, Happy Speaking!!