Note, an interesting and informative speech may be highly entertaining without being humorous. You will be speaking because you are informed about your subject and it is interesting to your listeners. If they wanted to be entertained they would have invited an entertainer. When starting in public speaking plan how to spice your speech. Radio and television performers, with few exceptions follow their scripts so closely they would not even “ad lib” a sneeze.

Make sure the story or humorous anecdote fits the speech and the occasion. Keep it brief use only the words neceesay to tell the story. You don’t want it to drag. Try to tell fresh jokes rather than old “standing” jokes. 

Also don’t introduce you joke by saying that you are going to tell a joke and the audience will die laughing at it. You will find that at least some in the audience will prefer to “choke to death” rather than laugh.

Don’t milk the story or joke for more than one laugh. Also ensure you remember the punchline. You do not want to recount every last detail until the end when he asks “how did that go?”  

Remember, keep the humor close to the subject. 

For more information on confident public speaking and conversation visit http://www.SelfConfidentSpeaking.com to claim a free preview of The Art of Great Conversation