How To Use Humor (CONT’D FROM PAGE 16)
until your delivery is perfect. Be deliberate with your word choice, enunciate clearly, use inflection and pitch, speak in short sentences, and pause often. Intentional practice is the best way to internalize the timing of your vocal deliv- ery. And make sure to pause 1-2 seconds before delivering the punchline. Those few seconds of anticipation can re- sult in the biggest laughs of all. 7. Polish your physical delivery : When giving a virtual presentation, it’s vital that you make your physical skills match the story you are telling. Practice your eye contact, (look at the camera), facial expression (smile), posture (sit up straight), gesture (use small gestures sparingly), and appearance (look professional from the waist up). Those are the skills that will help you project energy and confi- dence. Finally, if you think your joke is funny, laugh at it! That’s right. Your response gives listeners permission to respond. It tells them it’s okay to enjoy the moment even if they don’t think your joke is hilarious. Humor is a powerful addition to almost any meeting, but it’s a lifesaver on Zoom and one of the best ways to combat Zoom fatigue. People expect to be bored during virtual meetings, so surprise them. Make them laugh ... and then watch as their energy picks up, they come together, and they get things done. Angela DeFinis is President of DeFinis Communi- cations, which offers live and virtual executive speech coaching, and presentation skills for breakout speakers. Visit www.definiscommunications.com.
BCN(US)202006(出血5mm).pdf 1 2020/6/10 上午 09:40:14 5. Build your “timing” muscle : Timing is knowing when to stop speaking so you can allow your audience time to react. All appropriate audience responses are determined by timing. Practice your timing in various ways: How does a two-second pause differ from a three-second pause? What happens when the audience doesn’t respond right away? Then, when you land the punchline and end the joke, take it all in. You might not be able to immediate- ly hear the laughter across the screen (some people are muted), but you will see smiling faces, nodding heads, and mouths open with delight. That’s what a Zoom laugh looks like. It’s physical. And that’s when you know you nailed it. 6. Practice your vocal delivery: For most comedians, this is the fun part of being funny. Speak, revise, and repeat up—name the characters, describe the place, use colorful imagery, and develop an action sequence. These details help us envision the elements of the story you are telling: “My friend Anne went for a hike in the woods yesterday and ran into a mountain lion strolling along with her cubs.” Yeah? And then what happened? 4. Put punch in the punchline : The ending is why peo- ple listen, so make sure to craft the punchline with care. The funniest punchlines are completely unexpected—they disrupt expectations with the “I didn’t see that one com- ing” twist. And while they seem spontaneous, they are tightly scripted and rehearsed.
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December 21, 2020
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