7 Things comedians can teach you about public speaking

How can you make your message stick, and have a roar of a time doing it? By including a boatload of humour into your presentation.

Make your audience chuckle, snicker, crack up, and roll in the aisles, and they will remember your talk long after you’ve left the stage.

Making your audience laugh will

1. 1. Make you more likeable: Audiences like people who make them laugh! Humor helps you connect with the audience, which means your message will have more of an impact. 
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3. 2. Engage the audience with heavier material: A heavy message can be difficult to listen to for an extended period of time. If you alternate between the heavy and light material, it will keep the audience engaged with you.
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5. 3. Help emphasize your message: if you illustrate the points of your talk with a little humour the audience will be more likely to remember what you’ve said.

And who knows laughter better than comedians?

In an article published by the Open Forum, writer Mike Michalowicz explores how comedians can keep the attention of their audience for an extended period of time: without notes, PowerPoints or Q+As. These ideas will inspire you.

We’ve summarized the article visually to give you the main ideas. (See the original article at “6 Things Comedians Can Teach You About Public Speaking”)

“6 Things Comedians Can Teach You About Public Speaking” by Mike Michalowicz originally appeared on Open Forum on May 4th, 2012.

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