What do you do if your speeches lack humor and entertainment value?

The first, and most important thing to remember is that your speech is never about you. Your speech, your content, is about your audience. They are the most important character in the room - be it in-person or virtual. It's not about adding random jokes into your content, rather it's about connecting with your audience. You can do this with levity. It's also important to be able to laugh at yourself through relevant storytelling that shows your audience that you are relatable.

Use TRUE HUMOR. 1. Ask yourself, "What has made me laugh out loud recently?" 2 Re-enact what happened and "hook & Hinge it" back to your audience to make YOUR story THEIR story. For example, I saw a very tall man at an airport. People in front of me were pointing at him and laughing. I thought, "How rude!" When he got closer, I could see he was wearing a t-shirt that said, "I'm 6'13" and the weather up here's fine." I asked how he came up with this. He said people used to tease him about his height. Now he has fun with it instead of being frustrated by it. I ask the audience, "Do people tease you? Want to learn how to have fun with it vs. be frustrated by it?" - Sam Horn, author of Tongue Fu!

Humour is a great way to hammer home a point while engaging with your audience. People tend to remember the parts of the speech where they laughed so if possible, look at ways to bring in a touch of humour. Remember, you aren't a comedian though and the audience aren't expecting you to be, but when used correctly, humour can add an extra layer to your points.

Not everyone is. skilled at retelling a JOKE per se.. . But it's so much easier to tell a story.. and one that actually might be naturally humorous. That mindset shift takes the pressure off trying to be a comedian when you feel clumsy trying to deliver jokes, and makes you relax and be more natural in your own humor.

Always find stories that can help with the lows and highs of the presentation. We must know how to tell our story to add emotion which includes humor to our talk. When we can share our story add the passion AND the humor. Write ans rewrite until you have the perfect story that adds value to you audience.

The three rules for success on a stage are practice, practice and practice. Nothing can replace practice especially when a talk intends to have a specific impact on the minds of the listeners. Practice includes preparation of the talk, its delivery, the voice modulation and even the required pause. It has been mentioned in history books that Hitler used to practice in front of the mirror every public speech he had given. He used to be very specific about his body language, his hand movements, his facial.expression to be sure to create the impact he expected to happen in the minds of common people. In simple words, practice makes a speech perfect.

You don't need to bring out the knock knock jokes. In most of my speeches, it's about how I say something rather than what is being said. By using your delivery, you can create humour in a sophisticated way which will be a lot more impactful for a corporate audience.

With any speech, engagement is key. If you want to have humour in your talk, you need to have the audience along with you to begin with. Don't use humour as the only way to engage with your audience. Instead, engage with them and use humour to create an impact on a point and further engage the audience. This is an important thing to remember.

It's not about you as the speaker. It's about your audience. Everything must be focused on delivering to them. Speaking can easy, but comedy is hard. Unless you are a comedian you should stay away from humor from a perspective of telling jokes. But one way to weave it in is through storytelling. Tell stories from your life that are amusing, easy to relate to, and happen to most people. This is why the 'lost luggage' story works. Humor through storytelling is the best way, as long as it helps your audience understand and remember the message you are delivering. It only works if it is relevant to your audience and delivered specifically for them.

Metaphors are great. They can help reinforce your message in such a memorable way, whether that be in a humourous way or not. It's important not to fill your talk with them of course, but having them every so often really can create a lasting impact.

The best way to have humour in your talk is to show your personality. People are more drawn to you and the humour when they know more about who you are. When the audience can see your personality they are instantly carried along the talk with you. This then makes using humour easier to use as you have created that bond with the audience.

I once spoke on a panel titled: Weathering the Economic Storm. I shared my story of my displacement as part of a Reduction In Workforce (RIF) and how I found my next endeavor through my network in a down economy and job market. There was no humor in the talk.

Study Humorous Speakers: take inspiration from comedians, TED speakers, or other professionals known for their engaging and entertaining presentations. Analyze their delivery, use of humor, and storytelling techniques to understand how they captivate their audience. A best practice I've used successfully, is to have a few jokes ready that I can easier drop into a presentation. Cheese Dad jokes help!