Do You - As A Speaker - Leverage?
Darren’s quick tip on how to engage the audience was simply ingenious! So much so that this entry was written almost immediately without much editing.
Put simply, it is about leveraging on the moments that the audience has already emotionally connected with.
If the speaker before you did something that causes the audience to erupt in laughter, find some way to bring back that funny act he did in your speech. Or, if the speaker shared a mesaage that created an AHA moment for the audience, find some way to link your speech to that message. In short, tap into what the audience ALREADY love and then ride on the wave.
This is an extremely powerful technique to use in speech contests. My mentor used to tell me to only prepare 80% of my speech and then leverage on my competitior’s “best moments” and use it to fill up the other 20%. This way, it shows my competence in thinking on the feet and also makes it easier for me to engage my audience since I am merely bringing back the moments that they have enjoyed. In the comedy world, this technique is known as the “call back”.
At one of my speech contests, I made use of this technique which solicited a long laugh. About 5 seconds. The speaker before me (now a good friend) spoke about leadership and the importance of self reflection. His prop was the mirror. In one part of his speech, he encouraged the audience to look at the mirror often and acknowledge how good they are. So in my speech, as I was narrating about how I wanted to kill myself up on the 24th storey cliff during my rappelling stint, I brought in the mirror.
“Back on the 24th storey cliff, I felt like a loser and I hated myself. (pause) If only I had JJ’s mirror…”
Here’s another one case in point which happened two weeks ago. I was leading the final session of a seven weeks coaching program. And in that finale, all the participants are suppose to do a show and tell of their results. There was this lady Alice whose project was to memorize 300 words. So in that 5 mins show and tell, the audience tested her on five words. (can’t remember all except one: “chasm”) So after the entire presentation was concluded, I ended with a mini speech that was formed using these five words. I wish I remember what I said.. Haha. Anyway, it left the audience with a sweet taste. And the conclusion was written specially for them. Talk about making your audience feel special!
And then there is my student’s speech contest. Her topic was on the declining birth rates in Singapore. Most of her competitors chose “Can Singapore produce another Olympic Gold Medal?” and “Is Terrorism A Threat To Us?”. In her conclusion, she added a witty remark that won the judges over many times.
“Today, we hear many speakers rave about how we will and we can produce another Olympic Gold Medal. We also hear speakers caution us to the many dangers of terrorism but here’s something for all of you to chew on. If our birth rate continues to go any lower, there won’t be any young talents to train or any Singapore to bomb…”
I can list more but I think you get the point.
The lesson is very simple. As you wait for your turn to speak, keep a look out for AHA moments where you can leverage upon in your own speech. Tap into what the audience already love! It could be a heart warming story that the speaker before you shared - tied it back into your speech. It could be a funny line/act that the speaker did that causes the entire audience to roar in laughter. Call back the funny line or act. It could even be a quote that you notice all your audience jotting down furiously. Use it to reinforce your message. It sure beats feeling nervous and jumpy doesn’t it?
Read on if you are interested to expand on this ingenious tip.
The act of leveraging these moments is quite similar to writing observational humor. In John Kinde’s words, observational humor is structured around what is happening and being said in the present moment. It’s fresh and the audience can readily identify with it. It will kick up the audience response to your humor a notch or two. To understand how it works, go over to his entry: Observational Humor Case Study 8
Cheers,
Eric Feng
Your Public Speaking Coach
Enjoyed your post.
Leveraging an audience as you speak of is on a grand scale what we can and often do when talking to those we have an interest in. We mirror them. We imitate them. In doing so, we build rapport with them.
This helps us build relationships and get closer to those we are interested in. Likewise it will help us get closer to the minds of the audience we want to reach when we speak.
Thanks for the thoughts and examples.
Yes. The power of dropping a fresh line into a speech is amazing. At the Toastmasters Regional Humorous Speech Contest in Atlanta nearly 25 years ago (they used to have Regional humor contests one level higher than district), the funniest speech had almost three times the laughter of the closest competitor. And the funniest line in that speech was an observational comment about the food service at the banquet. The only thing funnier that night was a line delivered during the contestant interviews after the contest and it, too, was a line of observational humor getting 25 seconds of laughter, whistles and applause. Fresh, personalized humor is powerful. And your suggestion to piggy-back on another speaker’s memorable moment is right on target.
Thanks Jon and John for your comments. Perhaps you can share us with some recent examples of call backs can be used.
I’ve posted eight case studies of observational, call-back-type humor in the past 18 months on my blog. Dozens of examples and they’re pretty detailed. What, how, and why. The very best way to develop this skill is to include an Observational Humor segment at the end of every Toastmaster meeting. If a person is not a member of Toastmasters, he or she can enter every business-type meeeting with the goal of creating at least one item of observational humor by the close of the meeting. Usually, everyone has a chance to say something at the close of most meetings and my approach would be to open my remarks with a piece of fresh humor and then segue into my closing comment. We learn by doing.
Hi Eric,
I had often thought about leveraging off others speech in my own speechs, particularly in contests. However, while I have had the nerve to turn my back on the audience, I hve never had hte nerve to use leverage off others material during a competition! i think that there is a fine line to doing it well and doing it poorly.
Cheers
Darren
www.executivespeaking.com.au