Great Funny Speeches: How to get the laughter going

"He gives great funny speeches! The audience really love them."

Many of us long to deliver a funny speech and would love to hear that said about ourselves. We might imagine ourselves being witty, telling jokes and seeing our hearers beam appreciatively, laugh in the places they're meant to and the applause as we finish triumphantly but we really don't know how to write or deliver one.

Clip art:Bobbie Peachey

The keys to writing and delivering great funny speeches

Is the primary goal of your speech to be funny or is it to impart knowledge with humor?
Unless you are a stand-up comedian the main purpose of your speech is probably to give your message in an entertaining way which will include humor.
This implies that the humor you use is a tool to help you communicate, to carry your message to the audience. It is not the focus but an enjoyable addition and the more integrated it is, the more effective it will be.
Getting clear on your most important goal will help you decide how your plan, write and deliver your speech.

Humor comes in many shapes and sizes from small smirks to full blown belly laughs. To use it effectively it helps to have an understanding of its varieties. This enables you to choose what will suit your audience and the occasion.

To help understand different types of humor and how they work check these pages.
The first focuses on types of verbal humor. You'll find definitions and examples of puns, irony, hyperbole and more.
The second looks at the basics of physical humor Here you'll get an introduction to using gesture or body language as an aid to laughter.
Together these form the core elements that you'll bring together when crafting your speech.

What works, what doesn't and why?

We know adding humor to our presentations makes them more effective and more memorable but sometimes the more we try, the worse it gets. The jokes fall flat.

You can avoid that pain by reading how to use humor effectively. Those great funny speeches you admire bring more than a knowledge of the basic 'ha-ha, he-he' building blocks together.

Having absorbed the tips above you'll be wanting to know more about using your humorous stories or anecdotes in speeches and that's where these pages will help.

• story telling in speeches
• story telling set-ups Having a great funny story to tell is good. Having a great introduction or set-up to it is even better. Find out how do that well here.
• characterization techniques will give your story telling the edge. Find out how to embody your story fully with simple characterziation techniques.

Having written your speech, you're ready for rehearsal. Practice and then more practice will hone and refine your speech. You'll find out what works, what doesn't, where you need to edit and why.

Truly, I'm not exaggerating when I say that practice can make all the difference between gloriously successful and disappointment. Read my story about giving a humorous speech. That ought to convince you! This was a lesson straight from the 'should-have-known-better' department.

• how to rehearse



• vocal variety for more specialised assistance on using your voice more effectvely.
  This page also has ongoing links information and exercises for using pauses, varying the rate of speech, how to speak clearly and more.

Examples of great funny speeches

The best example of a great funny speech that I found in my search was one delivered by Steve Pavlina as part of a Toastmaster's Humorous Speech Competition.

Aside from the entire text of his speech there is a commentary and analysis of it by fellow Toastmaster John Kinde in the form of dialogue with Steve. You can find that here on John's Humor Power Blog.

It is well worth studying very carefully. You'll find many of aspects of humor outlined above expertly handled. There are his personal stories, large doses of absurdity, funny sounding words, examples of triple constructions and more. The only regret, as posters to John's blog have noted, is that it was not captured on video.

• More speeches from Toastmaster's Humorous Speaking Competitions. These are videos on tube and great for seeing how using gesture helps tell the story.



• Tony Audrieth's The Art of Using Humor in Public Speaking. This is a more in-depth exploration of the aspects that combine to successfully deliver a funny speech. You'll find examples of humor types, notes of delivery and practice as well as suggested sources for quotes and jokes.



• An exclusive interview with Steve Barancik, comedic storyteller. I asked Steve about his process around writing humorous speeches and more. There's a link to the text of a very funny monologue about living with his daughter to explore.



• Why not check out some fun speech topics now?

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