make a point. Or take an informal poll.
“How many people have ever had that
happen to them?” or even, “How many
people think the cookies on that break
were awesome?” While hands are up,
single out somebody and ask a follow-up question: “What was the worst part
about it for you?” or “When is the last
time you had cookies that good?”
Comedians use this transition frequently. When they know they are
planning to talk about jobs they first
ask the audience, “Who’s got a job they
love?” Somebody yells, “I do—I’m a
courier.” Now the comic has a real reason to talk to that guy. “Courier, no
kidding, how did you get that job?”
The conversation goes from there.
Eventually the comedian will roll into
the prepared material about jobs.
Couldn’t you do the same, no matter
what you talk about? Perhaps you’re a
sales presentation speaker. Instead of
launching into your section about IRAs,
you could say, “How many people have
“What is your secret
passion?” You’ll find
that just by asking this
question you’ll often
get a chuckle, partly
because there is an
element of innuendo
to the query, and the
answers you get will
be priceless.
an IRA?” Then turn to somebody and follow up. “What is your dream for retirement?” The connection is made with that
person and the audience, it’s lively and
interactive, and many times it gets a laugh
The third way to transition into an interview is the boldest, but works great as a
break inbetween two sections of your program. Imagine you have three points to
your message, and you’ve just finished up
the second one. Point to an individual in
the audience and interview them. No, I’m
not kidding. Just do it. You can do it from
the stage or as you come down into the
audience, but just start asking questions.
“Hi, thanks for being here today.
What do you do?”
“I’m in records.”
“What is the most exciting or surprising part of your job?”
Now again, this is where you cannot
lose, because any answer they give you
will be good. They will say something
heart warming, like, “I work with people I love.” Or maybe they’ll say, something funny like, “I get to steal all the
Post-It notes I need.” Either way, you
get further connection, and the chance
for easy humor.
And nearly always you can find a way
to transition from this interview to your
third point in your keynote. It might be
something like, “Well, the fact that this
person loves her workmates is going
to make my next point easy for her.
My next point is . . . blah, blah, blah.”
(Note: please insert your “next point”
for the “blah, blah, blah.” If you don’t,
your audience will think you’ve lost it.)
It might sound scary, but the interview
technique is easier than it seems, and
the rewards are huge. Pick some transitions, go with some prepared questions
and you’ll be surprised by how much
closer your audience feels to you, and
how many laughs you get without writing a single punch line.
Brad Montgomery, CSP, is a laugh-out-loud, funny motivational speaker and presentation coach. Meet Brad at
Bradmontgomery.com.
Get his free, six-day
humor audio course
at www.humorjump
start.com/6daycourse.
