How to Use Humor in Speeches

If you receive feedback on your speeches, you may see comments like "material was too dry" or "material was factual but boring." If you have a serious subject or a technical topic, it can be difficult to make your speeches interesting to your audience. Humor is one tool public speakers rely on, and it is one of the most effective ways of presenting material in a memorable way. Here is how to incorporate it into your speeches.

Know What is Funny to Your Audience

Humor is unique to each person. What one person finds funny, another person may find irritating or worse yet, offensive. The best way to avoid offending or annoying your audience is to know what will make them laugh.

First, think about the people in your audience. Consider the approximate age and gender. Know why they chose to hear you speak. For instance, many people attend conferences and seminars for work. Insider jokes or humorous stories relevant to the industry will be a hit.

Avoid Negative Humor

Certain topics are off-limits to all audiences in professional environments. Don’t make fun of your audience or tell off-color jokes. Don’t use subjects that spark emotion and opinion as the subjects of your jokes, such as religion, race or politics.

Don’t make the subject of your jokes about specific groups, such as men, women seniors or college students. Don’t tell "dumb blond" jokes, or you risk alienating some or all of your audience.

While it’s okay to use yourself as the focus of your jokes, do so in a positive way. You can tell the funny story about how you messed up a sale to show you understand what the audience is feeling, but don’t put yourself down just to be funny. Know the difference between having people laugh at you and with

you.

Talk about What You Know

Make sure you make the subject of your jokes something you know a lot about. The jokes should be relevant to the subject of your speech, but if you use a general icebreaker, make sure it is something you’re familiar with.

Another important factor is to speak clearly to ensure your audience understands the entire joke or they may miss the punch line. People with heavy accents can learn how to speak more effectively by working with a speech reduction coach. They will learn how to enunciate better, so that everyone understands what they say. A joke can fall flat if the audience misses an important part of the story because they couldn’t understand what you said.

Finally, remember that humor isn’t the point of your speech. Use it to break up a heavy subject or to get the audience involved. But don’t let humor become your focus or take away from the purpose of your speech.

When handled correctly, humor can make you stand out as a speaker. Learn what it is, when to use it and how to reign it in when you speak, and you’ll receive rave reviews from your listeners.

Claudette Roche is a dialect coach in the Vero Beach, FL area. She teaches foreign and American accents to actors and business persons/executives. In 2010 she was named as one of The Top 5 Voice Coaches by Hollywood Weekly Magazine.

Claudette Roche is a dialect coach who teaches accent coach.