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Two fundamental truths about humorous speeches
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Hi Reader Last week, I interviewed Raj about his experience competing in his first humorous speech contest. This week, I want to share two additional thoughts on mastering some fundamental skills for delivering humorous speeches. a) Classify the speech into intentional building blocks of "Premise" and "Punch". Make sure that every sentence you have written down can be classified into building blocks of "Premise" and "Punch". This is a critical step. You need to have a goal about what part of the script plays the "Premise" and what is the "Punch". You may ask, "What if nobody laughs at my punch?" Good question. Here's my answer. At least you'll know that it's not working, and you can work on changing it. But don't miss this step. b) There are two pauses during delivery. Remember the simple formula. "Premise"+ 1st Pause + "Punch" + 2nd Pause = Laugh. The 1st Pause builds anticipation/tension, and the 2nd Pause gives the time for the audience to laugh/release tension. This is what most people refer to as timing. If you don't do this properly, no matter how good is the premise (or punch), you won't get laughs. The building block should work as a whole. Hope this is helpful. If you need more ideas, we discussed a lot during the interview I did last week. Please check it out. As always, thanks for being awesome. And I appreciate your time and attention. And if you are in the US, hope had a great Thanksgiving weekend! -Rama |
PublicSpeakKing
Learn something every week about public speaking, book writing or personal development. Join 1500+ creatives and professionals who receive my action packed yet entertaining newsletter.
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