Page 267 - Between One and Many The Art and Science of Public Speaking

234 Part 3 Putting Theory Into Practice

Appropriate Humor
A classic Far Side cartoon shows Abraham Lincoln delivering the Gettysburg
Address. His speech, however, begins with a joke, “And so the bartender says,
‘Hey! That’s not a duck!’” After a pause for laughter, Lincoln continues, “Four-
score and seven years ago. . . .”
Obviously, one would not begin a serious speech such as the Gettysburg Ad-
dress with a joke. Humor, if not used properly, can backfi re. It is best used on
occasions when the audience will fi nd it appropriate. An after-dinner speech
or a commencement address, for example, is frequently an opportunity to use
humor.
Emmy and Golden Globe-winning comedy writer Russ Woody, began his
commencement address to the 1998 graduating class from his alma mater with
these words: “Look . . . I write sitcoms for a living, so don’t expect much. Which
means . . . basically, I’m gonna tell a few jokes, hit a few well-worn platitudes,
6
and try to sell you a Dodge minivan.” Of course Russ’s speech did far more
than just present a string of jokes. But his opening humor not only was self-
deprecating, it also helped establish common ground with his audience as he
went on to describe his own graduation experience: “The man who gave the
commencement speech talked for close to 15 hours. He said we were all sailing
ships out on the ocean of life, and we were the beating hearts of an upwardly
mobile nation, and we had a bunch of mountaintops to climb . . . And the only
thing I really came away with, besides hathair, was something about a new tech-
nology in ventilation systems that was greatly improving the output of poultry
in tested areas of Missouri.” Russ captured his audience’s attention and let them
know he appreciated how they would react to a long, boring speech, heavy on
clichés and irrelevant to their lives.
However we use it, though, humor should be tied to the substance of our
speech. Telling an irrelevant joke can detract from the main idea rather than
enhance it. It can also make the speaker look foolish.
Finally, we need to be sensitive with regard to humor. Ethnic, sexist, and off-
color jokes, for example, can get a speaker into justifi able trouble.

Personal Experience
Often there is no other more compelling testimony on a topic than personal ex-
perience. Not only can a personal experience draw in the audience and get their
attention, it also can serve to build speaker credibility. For example, the speaker
on diabetes referred to earlier had a brother who was diabetic. However, she did
not mention this fact until she had fi nished her speech. Had she begun with her
own experiences with a diabetic brother, she would have enhanced her credibil-
ity for the remainder of the speech.
One last example from a former student illustrates how one can use personal
experience to his or her advantage. Karen Shirk began her speech on the impor-
tance of wearing seatbelts by holding up a piece of a brake light and a CD player
faceplate, which she informed us, were the only remaining parts of a car that
was totaled in an accident from which she walked away unscathed because she
was wearing her seatbelt. It’s one thing to cite boring statistics about the number
of lives saved by wearing seatbelts and quite another to show dramatically how
you survived a very serious accident because you were wearing one.