Speaker - March 2007

thought and energy, but you can find a way to make it relate.

RIZZO Segueing isn’t that difficult at all. If I’m talking about how we find humor around us, I’ll say “Gee, I heard on the news that 1 percent of the ozone layer is gone. Now you tell me that’s not funny.” It’s a segue. You don’t have to be a brain surgeon to figure that out. But people make it more difficult than it has to be.

CULBERSON I think Freud said that humor was the highest level of coping mechanism that humans have. But most speakers are not going to that level with their humor. They’re starting at a very basic level, but they’re not taking it to higher cognitive levels where they can actually become eloquent and relate. You know, we sit here and think that it’s easy. But we already “get” humor. We’re already thinking on that level, taking it above the obvious or simple concept.

RIZZO Yeah, that’s pretty philosophical. But the important part about humor in speaking is that it relaxes the audience. They get to like me. They trust me. Because if a guy can make them laugh, they like him, and now they’re gonna trust his message even more.

THURMON What are some other ways speakers can use comedy to make their speeches more entertaining and effective?

CULBERSON They can use different mechanisms that don’t require them to come up with the comedy themselves. For example, it’s very simple to quote someone else. Yesterday, I repeated something Jay Leno said and got a great laugh. People saw me as funny, and all I did was to quote Jay Leno. I gave him credit so obviously it was completely ethical. But I just quoted Leno, and anyone can do that.

FUTCH People can tell stories, use props, show humorous video clips or funny photos.

CULBERSON Look at Mike McKinley. He has collected so many funny pictures he

almost doesn’t have to say anything to get laughs. But, he has perfected comments to add to it.

RIZZO That’s funny stuff.

CULBERSON You can create laughter through interaction and activities. Use Ed Scannell’s Games Trainers series. Guide the exercises and it becomes funny in the way it happens. The audience (will see you) as funny, even though they’re the ones who created the humor.

IRVIN When people ask me “How can I be funnier?” I tell them to find an author that makes you laugh and read everything they’ve written. Mark Twain makes me laugh. He may not make everybody laugh. Dave Barry makes people laugh. Robert Benchley may make you laugh. Find out who does, and read all their stuff. After a while you can see how they’re thinking, and it will shift the way you think. Or, watch stuff that makes you laugh and figure out why.

FUTCH But the key is to use humor that you think is funny.

IRVIN Exactly.

THURMON What’s the difference between spoken comedy and written comedy?

IRVIN Timing. That’s all it is.

THURMON Is timing something that you’re born with, or did you develop it?

IRVIN Both. I credit my timing to watching hours of Johnny Carson.

RIZZO Me too.

IRVIN He had the best timing of anybody since Jack Benny, who also had incredible timing. And it’s just something you learn from watching people. I don’t know whether it’s innate or whatever, but it’s something that you have to develop. I mean, you can’t take a class in it. It’s just something you watch and learn and figure out for yourself.

RIZZO It takes confidence, because you’ve got to wait. Carson was ingenious because he got more laughs on jokes that didn’t work. He would wait. And the audience would be howling. He’d make a snide remark about the guy that wrote the joke or something, and it would be funnier than anything else he did the whole monologue.

CULBERSON Now, see, I think that’s probably a misunderstood concept. People who are trying to learn timing are probably wondering where to shove the punch line—Boom. But it’s more about being comfortable with “the wait.”

IRVIN And it’s the same reason why George Burns smoked a cigar on stage. The cigar was his timing mechanism.

FUTCH It would help him wait, as he would look at it and ponder.

RIZZO Bob Murphy was great at that. Oh, man. He’d just wait for the audience to finish with the laugh. I mean, he wanted the audience to let everything out, and then he’d continue with the story. It’s amazing. I use to love to watch that guy.