How can you use humor to engage your audience when speaking extemporaneously?

When it comes to knowing your audience, I like to observe the audience and their behaviours during the event and I look at it through this lens: What do they know? - And what do they want to know from me? What are their expectations? -How do they perceive me? - Am I going to conform to it, or will I go against it and surprise them? What's their attitude? -What's the mood or energy in the room? - How do they feel about the subject matter -- are they for or against it? Being able to answer the What's In It For Me? Humour can get your point across. Also, being truthful. The truth in comedy is the heart of humour. I often find observations of your audience and where they come from is a rich source of material.

The best way to think about incorporating humor into your talk is to think of humor in terms of lightening the mood, not necessarily telling jokes. If you can make a comment that gets people to chuckle or smile, you've used humor. This lowers the barrier to entry as most people can't tell jokes on the fly but they can share humorous observations and comments.

I am fortunate to have had many public speaking opportunities in the past. Unfortunately, my current employer does not support external engagements at this time - I miss them so much. I have used humor to break the ice when speaking of compliance topics which can be a dry subject but oh so important. I recall a key-note for ~ 300 ppl. A video of 3 min was giving me tech problems & I did not necessarily have faith in an unknown production company minutes before getting on stage. I PRAYED this tech would work...took a deep breath, addressed the audience politely...and asked..."Who here has issues?" The audience erupted in hoots, hollers, even stood up high fiving! I replied...”Great so do I. Let's see if this video works.." Memorable!

Humour instantly puts human beings at ease, it can be the most simple joke but it will make the entire room feel at ease. We all naturally feel skeptical when someone is on a stage presenting to us, humour can bring people on our side, especially if it's in a way that is relatable to all within the room.

Extempore speaking is a bit difficult especially for introverts. Specifically engaging audience demands experience & intelligence. If you fail take it as experience, if you succeed in engaging audience you are HERO. Here is your star ??????

I like to connect with what happened before I reach the venue or what I talked about with the hosts before the event. Add some humour and start with a story which lets them reflect on what they can miss if they don't hear. Also, look at the audience and ask them to do a buddy interaction on a particular personal hobby/passion-based topic, when they share i see more happy faces.

I like to use humor at the start of my speech usually with a personal story (reflecting the main message) that laughs at myself in a balanced and truthful way. I find it helps the audience identify with me and creates an atmosphere of openness, trust and reflection. I am often illuminating an aspect that may be true of themselves too.

To add humor to my public speaking events, I've just been my authentic self. I tend to be a little sarcastic and very truthful. So incorporating that into my talks generally gets people to laugh, and at the very least smile. I speak from the heart and sometimes that means calling things out as they are. I find that doing that very often gets chuckles because we all know it's true. I just spoke it out loud.

One thing I've found helpful is to have a few humorous stories or thoughts prepped ahead of time. Even though you may be speaking without a script, having a few back-up stories that are easy to adapt to most topics is a great way to engage the audience. Most of my humorous experiences/thoughts can highlight a number of different lessons learned or insights gained. And practicing the basics of the story allows me to integrate it at just the moment, where it has the most impact.

I often use self-effacing humour during talks to lower the distance between the audience and me. A little joke about a typo, or a slightly misaligned picture on a presentation (or the obsessive attention to detail that prevented such mistakes) humanises the speaker and allows the audience to relate. We're also more primed to listen when our brains are in a relaxed state, and there are few states more relaxing than laughter.

I’d also recommend folks to try one of the most popular self-report scales in humor research called - Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ, developed by Martin et al, 2003) It assesses four dimensions relating to individual differences in uses of humor. Four dimensions being, - Self-Enhancing - Affiliative - Aggressive - Self-defeating

It’s important that humour feels natural to you as well as the audience. Tips to help facilitate this include: - knowing your audience including age, cultural background, and professional levels - it should relate to the subject matter - be personable and relatable - avoid controversial topics - practice timing and take pauses to gauge how receptive the audience is - test it on a few people - less is more - smile and laugh with the audience Most importantly, be yourself.

In my experience when the speech is on the spur of the moment, you should always add REAL stories, real case studies, this will give room for humour and real connections. Through real stories you can react them, tell them in different voices, be animated and you will have the audience laughing along with you in no time! Be real and speak truthfully ??

I have an interesting suggestion for folks who want to experiment with their humor. - You can develop a fictional or an imaginary character. - Use this character to land your jokes and see how your audience is reacting - Basis the reaction pass a commentary on the character & control the situation For example, You can introduce a fictional character say ET from a different world who is on a phone call with you. You can improvise on this situation & let the jokes come from ET. So that if the jokes don’t land you can always to get a second chance to redeem yourself.

Knowing your humor limit is so important when engaged in public speaking. Not everyone is comfortable with sharing a joke or able to find humor in situations. It is enough for some folks to just get up in front of a group; if this describes you, practice one or two socially acceptable lines that you can use during mistakes or technical difficulties. These should only be statements you already feel comfortable saying out loud. You'll be a better speaker if you stay within your humor limit than if you try to force a laugh.

A great way to develop your own humor is using the rule of 3 that I learned from taking standup comedy classes. Use a list that catches people by surprise in the third item, the format could be: Big, big, small Small, small, big True, true, false Short, short, long And example I’ll give that I use in my talk is talking about how I unpack when I get home from a speaking gig: “I open my suitcase and take out my shoes, my clothes and my ego- because no one is applauding for me at home.”

I totally agree with this, its a great deal to share real life examples. Most time this might resonates with your audience. For example, I delivered a topic on 'why does your gums bleed?' in a corporate knowledge sharing session. I started by saying the first and last time i had bleeding gums was during my pregnancy days last 5 years ago? Everyone laughed and i could sight some women noding their head and men said yeah my wife had that too during her pregnancy. So always use humors that make your audience know you feel what they feel, with that they're vulnerable to learn and relearn.

I have use a personal humorous story... showing that I can find humor in my own actions. I find a funny story and making fun of myself, especially that fits they group or subject, can help open the talk and break the ice. I think it helps other relate to you and to what you have to say.

Improvisation is key and especially useful when using humor to smooth over the inevitable errors of extemporaneous speaking. Garbled a word? Laugh it off. Technical difficulty? Make a joke about it. Not only can this put your audience at ease, it can help reduce public speaking anxiety by providing a strategy to move past mistakes. However, if using humor in this way, I think shorter is sweeter. Don't dwell on your mistakes with an entire stand up routine, just make it clear that you're not bothered by imperfection.

One thing i found helpful is Timing and Delivery: Good timing is crucial for humor, when speaking with extemporaneously audiences. It always make sense to pause before delivering a punchline, and use varied tones and facial expressions to enhance the comedic effect. Practice your timing to ensure it lands well with your audience. Its great yo check with the audience by asking " Please confirm we are together" to ensure no one is offended by your teasers. Beware to use humours with caution, not to use it more than twice so it does seems you're unserious or unprofessional.

The smartest type of humour I feel is when it is self-deprecating and observational. NOT when it’s at the expense of someone else. Leave that to the pros. Be original. Don’t copy. I remember once telling a joke about my height during a speech on entrepreneurship. “I’m on stage not because I’m famous but because I’m vertically challenged.” The audience was in hysterics. We had a lot of sales that night. The following night the MC introduced me using MY joke about me. Tumbleweed. The audience did not like that joke. So it took me a lot more effort to warm up my audience than necessary. We barely got any sign ups from these people. So be nice AND funny.

We live in a golden age of access to great humor. Get on your video service of choice and watch some of those legendary orators weave in front of their audiences. I'd put a particular emphasis on older footage that has passed the "test of time" as a lot of humor can be very "time specific" but the quips and riffs that aren't are fairly close to eternal.