George Gilbert’s Motivational Humor

Comedians used to tell me that in order for something to be funny there had to be an element of truth in the joke. You have to make the joke believable. Jack Benny once said, “The trick in playing comedy is to make an audience believe what is going on and for this you have to believe it first yourself. This is why a comedian is basically an actor. The art of comedy is like the art of acting–except that in comedy, the actor has to be able to believe the most preposterous and exaggerated things.”

When inserting a joke into your presenation you must make it believable or at least relevant.

“Perhaps as important as anything. I learned a lot about humor, a lot about laughter.” George H. W. Bush on Ronald Reagan at his funeral.

We can all learn a very important lesson on how to use humor in our presentations from former President Ronald Reagan. Reagan earned the title of “the Great Communicator” because he was able to use humor to diffuse very tough situations.

When President Reagan was running for his second term as president he participated in a series of debates with former Vice-President Walter Mondale. Mondale was trying to make age a big issue in the campaign. When Reagan was questioned during the debate about age, he replied, “I want you to know that I will not make age an issue of this campaign. I am not going to exploit, for political purposes, my opponent’s youth and inexperience.” From that moment on age was no longer an issue in the 1984 presidential campiagn.

President Reagan was a master of using humor in his presentations. Remember, a little appropriate humor can help you diffuse a situation when you are giving a presentation.

When determining what kind of humor to use in your presentation you have to take into consideration two things. Will the audience think it’s funny and do you think it’s funny? I know this sound silly, but sometimes speakers use a joke because someone told them that it was funny. When I was first starting out as a stand-up comedian old comedians would want to help me out by giving me jokes that they used to do. I would try them out, but I knew they wouldn’t get a laugh becuase I didn’t think the joke fit me. It may have worked twenty years ago, but it was passe and didn’t fit my personality. The jokes didn’t go over well. If you don’t think its funny the audience isn’t going to think its funny.

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Sometimes people will tell me “that’s not positive thinking” when I am being realistic.  I think that those who use positive thinking and aren’t realistic are in denial. I am a very positive thinker, but I don’t like to fool myself into thinking that something will be alright? when I know that if I don’t do something about it there is no chance of it (what ever it is) will be alright. I recently did a presentation on the difference between dreams and Goals. I said that a dream is something you want like a goal, but the difference is a dream is something that you talk about but never do much about it until one day you wake up and realize the dream is over. A goal is something that you want, but unlike a deam you do more than talking about it. You plan, you follow through on those plans, and you make adjustments until you attain that goal. Both involve positive thinking, but with a dream there is no follow through. Also, a goal must be realistic. If your goal is to sing on American idol and you have never sung in public and don’t know how, then before setting that goal you would need to know if you can sing on key. I would set smaller goals along with the big goal. Take singing lessons. Learn to sing on key, develop your voice, even dance lessons to learn to move, start singing in front of audiences so that when you went to audition for American Idol you not only knew how to sing, but could overcome the stage fright of auditioning in front of the judges.

When I decided to switch from Stand-up comedy to Motivational Humorist, I didn’t just announce to the world one day that I am now a professional speaker. I started completely over. I decided to not use my old material from my stand-up comedy days instead I completely scrapped the act. I joined toastmasters to make sure I learned the basic difference of speaking as opposed to just stand-up comedy. I started developing material with speaking in mind. I started entering speech contests to put more pressure on me as a speaker. I attained some lofty goals in the Toastmaster Organization reaching the pinnacle for a Toastmaster who wanted to speak professionally “Accredited speaker” I used positive thinking, but I had a plan to go with it. Where many positive thinkers go wrong is that they think positively about becoming something, but they don’t engage in an action plan that will get them to the manifestation of that positive thought.

Positive thinkers become pessimists at the first sign of trouble because they didn’t have a plan. They didn’t set realistic goals for themselves and failed on such a large scale that they gave up and never tried again. On the other side of it those that set more realistic goals and continue to conquer them not only stay more focused, but because they were more realistic they learned from their mistakes to better themselves to achieve the next time.

When I talk about how to put humor in presentations, I tell audiences what the single most important lessons the old comedians would teach me backstage on the shows that my parents were performing. “before you can be good you have to be bad”  the old time comedians new something about perseverance. “before you can be good you have to be bad”  That doesn’t sound like a positive thinker. In fact, if a positive thinker in denial heard that they would consider that to be a negative statement. Why cant you be good from the beginning they might say. The old comedians new that to really achieve greatness you had to learn from your mistakes and perfect your craft. They knew how to respond when the joke wasn’t working.  Why? Because they would break their in their jokes and routines at smaller theaters so when they played the “Palace” in New York or any other top theater they would succeed.

The late Johnny Carson was the master of failing. When a joke didn’t get a laugh, Johnny didn’t miss a beat. His come backs would get more laughs than many comedians would get with their best material. Why? He continually worked hard at his craft and didn’t panic and learned not to give up. This is something that comes with experience. Johhny probably failed many times on shows starting out, but that’s where he learned his craft.

A positive thinker who is in denial fails because they didn’t plan how to over come the challenges when presented. A positive thinker who is realistic succeeds because the learn from their mistakes and improve upon them to continue on their quest to reach their goals.

Don’t talk too fast. The audience needs time to process what you are saying. This is especially true when delivering a humorous speech. Not only does the audience need to process the information but they also need to process the humor. The audience will not laugh if they are too busy trying to understand what you are saying. This doesn’t mean to talk so slow that you sound like you are talking down to the audience. It just means that you should speak at a natural conversational rate so the audience can pick up the nuances of the humor. Also, when you speak too fast it can give the audience the impression that you are nervous and want to get through your speech and off the stage as fast as you can.

A speakers introduction can make or break a speech, especially a humorous speech. If the person delivering the introduction doesn’t deliver your intro well (as unfair as this may seem) the audience will react to your speech negatively. That is why it is important to get a copy of your introduction to the Master of Ceremonies, or chair-person, or whomever will be responsible for introducing you in advance. Ask them to rehearse it several times before they give it. Make sure they understand exactly how you want them to present it. This is a script and it should be followed. Quite often the content of your speech will refer back to the introduction and if they don’t follow the script it may leave you referring to something that was left out. I once had someone introduce me by starting out saying, “This is what George wrote about himself..” that wasn’t in the script and now it sounded like I was boasting. I had to use some self-deprecating humor to win the audience back. Another example, the MC made a comment about something in the introduction and again this underminds the credibility of the speaker. If this happens try to laugh it off and use self-deprecating humor to get the audience back where you want them. Never point out a bad introduction. You do not want to embarrass them as that might create a negative reaction from the audience.

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Have you ever seen someone perform and said, “I can do that!”? Sometimes we say that when a performance is so bad (like some of the American Idol auditions) you think you can do better and probably can, but sometimes someone performs so well and they make it look so easy that we say, “I can do that!” But in reality we cant. Some of the great comedians didn’t get the credit they deserved because they made it look easy.

Most people don’t credit the Three Stooges for their talent. It was just silly slapstick humor. Three people always beating themselves up. I guarantee you, if you or I tried that we would kill ourselves. The Three Stooges worked very hard to make it look easy. Many of the routines you saw in the movies they had been doing for years on the vaudeville stage. Even though they had done them over and over they continued to rehearse them to make it look natural and unrehearsed. According to the book “Mixed Nuts” by Lawrence J. Epstein:

The stooges loved to ad-lib, and they were good at it. They had mastered their own characters so well that they knew when a scripted line sounded false or wasn’t funny enough. But they still took preparation seriously. Thought their career, the Three Stooges believed in rehearsal. Like an Abbott and Costello verbal routine, they physical movements of the Stooges required each to know exactly what the other was going to be doing at any given moment.
 

Eric Lamond, Larry Fine’s (Larry one of the Original Stooges) grandson, assisted them late in their careers and recalled that they still rehearsed routines they had done many times before. They made intricate, difficult simultaneous physical movements look natural and spontaneous. That professionalism and ability set them apart from other physical comedians. Emil Sitka observed, “Moe was all business and wanted the best performance possible from everyone. He was very particular about how fans were treated and how the gags were performed.”
   

When giving a presentation the goal is to make it look so easy that people say “I can do that!” many people get so nervous it looks like you are struggling to say the right thing. The best way to make a speech look easy is to prepare. Write and rewrite the speech. Rehearse and rehearse. Know you presentation so well that you can add your personality to it. Know it so well that you can concentrate on the delivery of it and not worry about just trying to say the next line. Try recording it and listening to yourself. This is a good way to perfect your presentation you can tell what sound good and what needs more work. Too bad some of those auditioning for American Idol didn’t do that they wouldn’t have embarrassed themselves in front of millions of viewers.

When I am giving my motivational humor speeches I prepare weeks in advance so that I know exactly what I am going to say and I can concentrate on my delivery. I rehearse and rehearse and depending on the audience I even take it to a test audience to make sure the humor will work. Much of the material is material I use over and over, but I want to make sure that the material is right for the audience I will be speaking to and any new material intended specifically for that particular audience fits in to the presentation.

Many people don’t like to memorize their speeches or rehearse too much because they are afraid that it will start to sound rehearsed. This is true if you are just attempting to memorize you presentation, but if you are always working to enhance the delivery it won’t sound stale when you give it. The better you know your presentation the easier it will be to “ad lib” a line here and there creating a spontaneous feel to it. Work hard preparing your speech so that it is so good people will say, “I can do that!”