Using Humor in Your Presentations

When designing and writing your professional speaking presentations, consider that people will pay more to be entertained than they will to be informed.  In fact, the highest paid industries are those inside the entertainment industry. Think about sports events, movies, television and music – those involved in the entertainment industry steadily receive trillions of dollars even worldwide.  Humor accomplishes many objectives in your professional presentation.  Here are just some of the things that humor can do for you!

1. Humor helps you connect with your audience. 

Humor makes you more related to your audience as they begin to see that it’s not only about hammering home the information. Humor also draws your audience to you because people are naturally drawn to positive topics of discussion.

2. Humor makes you more approachable and likeable as a speaker. 

Your audience sees you as being more down to earth and they relate to you more as a person rather than an authority that they may want to resist.

3. Humor creates interest in your topic as well as yourself. 

Humor makes things interesting to follow as it breaks up the monotony of instruction or training. In the end, people like to laugh as much as they like to learn.

4. Humor helps to keep the attention of your audience. 

You run the risk of your audience tuning out if they get lost in your presentation. By using humor, it engages your audience because they will want to hear your entertaining stories. It makes it easier to drive home your important message or your training when you’ve got their full attention.

5. Humor strengthens point and ideas you want to highlight in your presentation. 

Funny stories are memorable and can strengthen the point of your message. Television sitcoms are famous for taking real life situations and presenting them in a way that makes them less dramatic or traumatic. By using this same technique in your professional presentations, you can keep your audience attentive no matter what the topic.

6. Humor removes hostility in your presentation.
If there is any resistance towards you or your message from the audience, humor lightens their mood and disarms the negative emotions they may have associated with you or your topic.

7. Humor helps connects pieces of information in your topic. 

Humor can be the bridge that connects the key points of your message together.  Work it into the transitions points of your presentation for a smoother, more engaging flow.

8. Humor helps paint mental images in the minds of your audience. 

Humor often captures your audience immediately – especially when you use funny examples where they can see themselves in those same situations.

9. Humor makes your presentation more memorable. 

People remember when they laugh.  They remember funny stories or funny moments during your presentation much more than the talking points you might typically use. When they relate to your professional presentation as something that made them happy, they will happily recall what you spoke about for longer periods of time.

10. Humor lightens a heavy topic. 

Humor allows you to bring levity to a serious topic. When listening to grave or somber discussions, no matter how relevant they may be to the audience, they tune out quicker to avoid negative feelings.  Of course it must be appropriate to the subject matter, however when you infuse humor, you can hold their attention even when the topic is weighty.

11. Humor can bring in better evaluations and more product sales. 

Humor warms your audience up to you. They may not remember all of what you said, but they will certainly remember how you made them feel while you spoke.  By using humor to endear your audience to you, they will be more open to purchasing your back of the room products while they’re basking in the “feel-good” of your presentation. They will often give you a better review because again, ratings are typically biased toward how you made them feel.

12. Humor will make people happy. 

People want to enjoy your professional presentation. They want to have a good time and they want to be happy. Humor helps you achieve that.

Humor can add so much variety to an otherwise dull, information only presentation. Helping to connect you with your audience, humor is a great addition that can earn you better speaker reviews and increased revenue. Add some spice to your message by incorporating humor!

Personal Coaching Actions Steps:

1. How could you include humor in your current presentations to engage your audience? With funny images? With funny stories? With funny videos?
2. Review your existing professional presentations. Where can you infuse appropriate humorous tactics?
3. Create files for humorous elements on your computer. Collect funny images, videos and even stories so that when you need them, you have an arsenal from which to choose.