Closing Comments on Delivery a Humorous Speech
This will give you a little informal practice, and help you decide which route to take in your presentation.- Home
- Delivery Techniques
- Humorous Speech: 14 Tips to Leave Them Rolling in the Aisles
That was fantastic. I am new to Toastmasters and was told, after
my first speech, that I should enter the Humorous Speech Contest.
I learned so much from your post! And it was a huge added bonus
being able to watch your speech as I followed along with the
transcript and accompanying anatomy of the speech. (A few
points about the last three paragraphs: (1) Repetition of the
phrase Last night my wife and I had a big fight. Repetition is a
powerful technique, especially in humorous speaking. (2)
Escalation: locked out of the bedroom; locked out of the house .
. . it gets people wondering what I will say that will top that.
(3) Surprise on the last point she came crawling on her hands and
knees. This is so unexpected that it is funny. But in fact, it is
only a set up for what follows, which is even more unexpected.
) Thank you for your detailed notes and taking the time
to share what you learned.
I loved your speech. I will be appying your suggestions to the
revision of
my humorous speech.
Elisabeth, thanks much for the very kind words. I am glad that
you enjoyed the speech and were able to get something out of it.
Best of luck with your own speeches, humorous or otherwise.
Cheers!
John Following my victories at the Toastmasters District Humorous
Speech and Table Topics Contests in Hamburg, many people have
asked me how I go about preparing for a contest. In particular,
they have asked how I crafted my humorous speech once I got the
idea for the subject. Ive given the matter some thought and
decided that a good way to explain might be to analyze the speech
here on my blog. Hello John,
Thank you for your post on the humorous speech! Delivering the
text of your speech along with red and blue commentary helped me
understand your thinking. We cannot know a speakers mind without
his cooperation. You were brave and selfless to share with us
your mental process. Your speech is a great example of knowing
and speaking to your audience. Ill try your suggestions and
deliver a humorous speech tailored to my club.
It really helped me write several of the jokes for my speech, and
I ended up placing 1st, 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th over several
tournaments. I was looking for some pointers on delivering a
humorous speech because I want to join again this year. I lost
last year in the area level Hi John,
This was great article on humour and so thankful was sharing.
would be very happy if u could share the video of your speech
Once you write your eulogy, youll want to practice it several
times. First, this will help you feel more comfortable. As we
alluded to earlier, eulogies are emotional. Practicing a eulogy
will help you feel more at ease with the emotions you express.
John, that is an amazing speech!!! Its brilliant on so many
levels, its no wonder you won!!! I LOVE the element of surprise
when you talk about your wife crawling to you on your hands and
knees, then we discover youre under your bed. That was the golden
line of the speech for me.
It paid off. Heres the link if you havent seen it:
One suggestion to make your beginning snappier, if you want to
use the mid-life crisis angle. I would drop the first 10 seconds
of preliminary remarks and go straight into something like this:
Last week I had a mid-life crisis [PAUSE] for the third time
[PAUSE] and Im only 31! Does that make sense? Its just an idea,
but its a good example of the power of pauses and the power of an
unexpected concluding remark.
Best of luck with it! Keep us posted as to how you do.
Cheers!
John Humor is one of the simplest ways to go from being a boring
speaker to an engaging one. If youre able to successfully add
humor to your speech, youll be able to connect better with your
audience. I have been fortunate to win the Humorous Speech
Contest twice (for District 11, covering Indiana and northwestern
Kentucky) and along the way Ive learned some important lessons
about making audiences laugh. My improvement hasnt come easythe
journey to becoming an effective humorous speaker is the result
of a lot of practice. Its the direct result of at-tending weekly
club meetings, volunteering for speaking roles to test my use of
humor, and signing up each year to compete in my clubs Humorous
Speech contests.
With this eBook youll write a funny and inspiring speech in three hours or less. With the ideas in this book, you, too can dazzle on stage at the graduation ceremony.
121 Replies to Anatomy of a Humorous Speech
That, paired with the knowledge mourners have of the deceased, will do the work for you. Nobody expects you to be a comedian; they just expect you to pay tribute to your loved one. So guys, the next time your spouse or partner gets angry, there is a way out and its not under your bed. Listen to her. Evaluate what shes saying. And never forget that she just might have a point. (A humorous speech is particularly effective if there is a serious message in it. I wanted to get across the idea that, in fact, we should listen to our partners when they are angry and that they are sometimes right. In previous versions of the speech I had a much more syrupy ending: my wife and did not, in fact, talk to each other that way; we love and respect each other; we listen to each other; and so in that respect, we are like Toastmasters. But I was not happy with it as it brought the whole speech down after all the fun to that point. So, with some great insights from my friends and fellow Toastmasters Alistair Scott (Lausanne Toastmasters), Ben Parsons and Kevin McKenna (both of International Geneva Toastmasters), I reworked the ending, making it shorter and much cleaner.
) Today not much has changed. (The pause after today is important. It sets up the light humour that follows and did get a chuckle. ) But how to give it? Then I had a mad idea. At Toastmasters, we evaluate each other all the time. The next time my wife got angry, Id evaluate her. (One of the keys to delivering a good humorous speech is to pick a topic with which everyone can identify. I had already set the stage for the age old subject of conflict between men and women, but here I added a second element, Toastmasters, because most of the 300 people in the audience were members of Toastmasters. So now I had two hooks that brought together two subjects with which the audience could identify. Of course, the idea of evaluating your spouse when she is fuming is outlandish, but that is what made the speech funny. I took a common event speech evaluations and applied it in an uncommon way. ) Dont worry about writing jokes that will make people laugh. Instead, focus on things that are specific to the person youre eulogizing. The humor in your eulogy will come from the situations you talk about.
The rest of it was great too the Distinguished Couple award wow,
I can only imagine the volume of laughs you must have got. Way to
go!
I competed at my District humorous contest earlier this month and
got 2nd. I thought it was a pretty good speech at the timebut now
I realize I have a lot of room for improvement.
Thanks for sharing this speech with us! Very nice speech, I
cleared my Area Level yesterday, and will be participating in the
Division next week. I used prop as a surprise factor as you did
(taking out only when it was needed). And power of three in my
starting of speech. I am now working on to make my speech more
effective and more humorous (probably removing unnecessary words
and bringing something more humorous). Any advice you will like
to share? Notice what grabs your attention in how others present
their topic, and the ways they use humour this goes for any
speech, not just the intentionally funny ones! I recently
delivered a very funny yet inspirational speech titled A Bit
Short at our Clubs International Speech Contest about falling
short of our goals at the last minute and the importance of going
all the way in order to achieve success. This is an extract from
my Toastmasters Humorous Speech Sample.
My Renaissance Toastmasters club in San Francisco just hosted a
visitor from the Geneva International Toastmasters Club. He
delivered a great informative speech with humor about Geneva
fondue, Vietnamese noodle soup, and democracies.
My best regards,
George Think about what you want to communicate with your posture
that will add to the humour in your presentation. I
watched, I listened, I took notes. (There is
something about the rule of 3 in humorous speaking. People just
find it funny. The idea is to have three sentences or phrases,
each with the same cadence or rhythm. But where the first two are
serious, the third is unexpected. Think of phrases like life,
liberty and the pursuit of happiness or I came, I saw, I
conquered or others. How could you change the last item to make
the whole thing funny? Here, it is one thing to watch and listen
to your spouse when she is angry. But to take notes? It was so
outrageous that it got a huge laugh. )(I got a bigger laugh on
this than I expected 9 seconds and this confirmed my earlier
concerns. I realized that I was at risk of going
overtime.
It was here that I made the decision to cut certain bits
out. You will see where. In the end, I finished in just under 7
minutes and so had 30 seconds to spare. Still, much better to be
in that situation and be able to finish leisurely than to see
that red light flashing and have to rush the conclusion.
) Hey John,
I was LMAO in hearing this speech. I too am a married man and
this speech should be shown to all men who want to evaluate their
wife after a discussion. You brought so much humor to something
that we all have struggled with when it comes to really listening
to our wives. I have also been a Toastmaster and I can honestly
say I would have given you a Platinum medal if one existed in
Toastmaster evaluations of a humorous speech contest.
All the best
JB Here are some tips on how to write a eulogy thats funny but
still respectful. Well also share some eulogy examples that
incorporate humor in an appropriate manner.
) John your speech was not only very funny and incredibly well
delivered, the thing you did best (in my opinion), that won the
contest (also my opinion) was your on-the-fly editing.
Brilliant!
That is one of the best humorous TM speeches Ive ever seen.
Know Your Audience
In my 2009 speech, I compared the delivery of my first child to a
Toastmasters meeting. This would have made little sense to any
audience outside of Toastmasters, but the humorous comparison
(using timing cards to help with my wifes contractions) landed
perfectly with my audience. Know your audienceits particularly
important when trying to land a punchline. Rather than trying to
incorporate the bird itself into your talk which can be
problematic on several levels you could take a toy parrot on a
perch with you on stage. Interacting with the fake bird will
increase the comic value of your speech. Thank you so much! This
article and the video of your speech is a great help for the
development of my humorous speech.
- How to Introduce Yourself in a Presentation with 6 Terrific Tips
- How to Become a Motivational Speaker to Inspire, Impact and Influence
- How to Get Speaking Engagements and Becoming Highly Sought-After
- 11 Tips on Being More Articulate in Public Speaking
- Nervous? How to Calm Down Before a Presentation
Moreover, its the result of continually refining my speeches
based on club evaluations. The tips are amazing. This autumn is
my first time participating in a speech contest (even harder to
be a humorous one). But I am up for the experience and
improvement. So lets see what happens. Think about what you enjoy
in a humorous speech and youre guaranteed that others will find
it hilarious too. Thats the type of content youll want to
incorporate into your presentation. Find Humor in
Everyday Life
I often hear Toastmasters lament how difficult it is to come up
with a humorous speech topic. Some of the best speeches are
inspired by lifes everyday occurrences. In 2013, my wife and I
flew with our two young children to Europe to visit family. The
ensuing chaos on the airplane provided me with more than enough
material to compose my winning speech that year. Think about your
everyday life and things that may have a humorous twist to them.
In 1697, the English playwright William Congreve wrote
those famous words: Hell hath no fury like a woman
scorned. (Starting with a quote is a classic way
of opening any speech. This one was particularly good given the
subject.
And, if you want more help with the entire complicated process of loss, check out ourpost-loss checklist. It was truly rib cracking experience. Im also a toastmaster and for long wondering how to give a humorous speech. I liked the way you analyzed and the inputs. Keep doing it John gave the opening keynote on the second day of our units recent offsite in Geneva, addressing an audience of 100+ attendees with a wealth of tips and techniques to deliver powerful, memorable presentations. I applied some of these techniques the very next week in an internal presentation, and Ive been asked to give that presentation again to senior management, which has NEVER happened before. John is one of the greatest speakers I know and I can recommend his services without reservation. Hi, Mr. John did you memorize your speech word per word? And how do you memorize a humorous speech without looking very rehearsed? Thanks so much for this! I used the EBook last year to write an After Dinner Speech for NCFCA.
F you deliver the eulogy for someone who prioritized
humor, you should try and embody his or her lighthearted approach
to life. Just remember to make it personal and remain sincere and
the rest will follow. Hi Ben,
Thanks for the kind words. Glad that you enjoyed the speech. It
was a lot of fun to do.
I have always been a big fan of good comedy so some of the
techniques are things that I have picked up over time. But there
is also lots of good information on the web that you can read up
on. As for great TM speeches to watch, this one from Andy Dooley
is a must: It offers great insight into what makes a great
humorous speech great.
Congratulations on your own speech and good luck in the Area
Contest. The idea is a good one, but I see what you mean about
the first minute being a killer! Dont worry, I know how you feel.
In 2008 at the Division Humorous Speech Contest, I didnt get a
laugh for the first two minutes. Now, this was in part because I
needed the time to set up the big joke that came afterwards, but
it was still unnerving at the time. When I won and went to
District, I made some key changes to get more laughs
earlier.