Have you experienced the weird atmosphere which comes after a funny story you’ve cracked fell flat on the target audience?

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

Even the most confident speakers may falter when it comes to the skill of injecting humour adequately in their speeches. Not to worry, though, as this entry aims to offer several tips which, I hope, will guide you in adding just the right dosage of humour in the right moment so as to make your stories or punchlines work.

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After one week plus of dry spell, it is time to turn this blog up a few notches.

And I shall start off by sharing with you a video taken by my friend Bo from Massachusetts, USA. (I was interviewed by him on podcast last year for The FAQ Book on Public Speaking - scroll down to interview #11) Possibly one of the funniest table topic speech ever! For the newly initiated, table topic is a speech delivered by a speaker on the spot, so this trains you in your quick thinking skills and organizational ability. However, this table topic session was slightly different. The audience are told that the speaker will be given a particular topic while the speaker was given another. As you can see from the video, the mis-match causes the audience to break up in fits of laughter. This, by the way, is a comedy technique.

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“Would you have quitted drinking?!”

Yes, I know it is the weekend and I am NOT suppose to be blogging. Or at least that was my promise to my mum who thinks I work too hard. In my defense, blogging isn’t work… it’s something I enjoy doing, especially since I know I have an audience. YOU! (grins)

Anyhow, I think you would love this entry! So read on.

Why is humor so important?

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I first got an inkling of why some speakers are paid an eye-popping sum of money from an interview with Tom Antion. (He claimed in the interview that he can easily pocket US $245,000 for one weekend training. No kidding!) For your information, Tom is one of the better known speakers in States who was recently invited to teach at the humor college.

Now, I know what you are thinking… this guy is a professional, Eric. Plus he is considered a celebrity in the speaking industry. Of course he is going to be paid a lot of money.

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It has been a crazy month for us (me and the other four speech coaches - Doris, Danny, Gary and Sabrina!) as we travel around Singapore working with adrenalin pumping kids (or monkeys as some teachers fondly call them by). Our first stop was Yuan Ching Secondary School who have the most adorable teens. Check out some of the pics we snapped along the way.

Check out the L.O.V.E in the air… (grins)

That’s Sabrina monkeying with the kids! Doris is in the far right.. our disciplinarian.

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Hello! It has been a while since I blogged on The Public Speaking Blog. My excuse this time - Chinese New Year! It’s a week long of spring cleaning, shopping for clothes, decorating the house, baking new year goodies and more. And then today is the eve of Chinese New Year where we just had our reunion dinner, very similar to Thanksgiving in America.

In the coming week, we will be visiting all our relatives and friends and it is going to be really tough to get some time off to blog. But I will do my best alright! Meanwhile, I shall share with you an interview starring John Kinde, the very funny man who has a knack for observational humor.

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First of all, don’t tell jokes.

Here’s why.

Jokes are stale and overused. When you tell a joke, there is a 87.3% chance that one of your audience have heard it.

In fact, one time when I attended the Division Humorous Contest at Sri Lanka, two of the contestants told the same joke! It was embarassing for both the second speaker and the audience. Can you imagine if the third speaker tell the same joke?

To make sure that this won’t happen to you and to ensure a higher percentage chance that your audience will laugh, Doug Stevenson, a guru in storytelling advised speakers to tell an imbroglio story.

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I was given special access to Brad Montgomery’s new humor program aptly branded as “The Humor College” to see if I felt the program was worth recommending to you. I finally got down to reviewing the program and here’s what I think about The Humor College.

First Impressions
When I first learned about the humor college, I was sold for a couple of reasons.

The concept itself was already a winner. Brad will interview six heavyweight, top-tier pros and grill them for their best ideas, their best tactics, and their best techniques on how to make your presentations funnier. And how to do it fast. From my experience, that’s the fastest and most effective way to master any skill.

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I just got back from Sri Lanka’s Division Evaluation & Humorous Contest 2007, organized by the Toastmasters International. And again, it was an eye opener.

Sri Lankan is a country famous for many things. For example,

Tea.
Gems.
Tamil Tigers.

But… today, I discover that this country boasts of very talented and witty speakers too.

I also conclude that humor is universal. Things that make a Singaporean laugh will make a Sri Lankan laugh too. For example, dating and marriage.

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In Sept 2005, I did an act of courage.

That’s me in action at the Toastmasters Humorous Contest 2005 (Club Level)

After much hesistation and procrastination, I joined a US Toastmasters club. It was scary especially since I was new in town (Philadelphia). However, it was one of the best decisions I have ever made.

During that one year, my growth as a public speaker shot to the roof.

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