Preparing Your Speech – Using Humor, Copying, Cliches
Let In Laughter
Never consider your subject so serious that you won’t consider using humor in your talk. Using humor will will light up your speech and lighten the audience’s mood. Only a small amount of humor is needed in the same way that it can be used in conversation.
A small amount practice can make your talks more entertaining.
In using humor it is useful to comment on happenings of the day, e.g. eating and talking often go together – these comments may be used to add some spice;-
Heavy eating can make a man thick at his stomach
Waiters turn your check face down to keep you from choking to death
By keeping you eyes and ears open you will soon find more humorous stories and anecdotes that can be used to brighten up your talk.
Copying
Try to avoid copying other speakers. Imitating may be a great flattery to the other speaker but it can detract from your delivery as it can appear false.
It is great to observe other skillful speakers and study what they say and how they say it. You can then apply those observations to improve your perfomance by using them as a model.
Using Cliches In Your Speech
Either avoid using cliches altogther or keep them ot a minimum. Using cliches leaves your listeners with the impression that you lack originality.