Comedy and Public Speaking - Designkitchen Blog

Written by Barbara Luciani

This past week myself and a few colleagues from DK had a chance to attend a public speaking training session with our dear Bumper Carroll.

Bumper luckily comes from a past life in improvisational theater (or ?improv?) where he has done things like acting, writing, and most importantly (for us) ? facilitating group sessions using improve techniques to make us better co-workers and speakers.

For those who don?t know, improv it?s the art of collectively generating stories out of a word or a situation ? typically an audience suggestion. More often than not, improvised scenes turn comedic (think Saturday Night Live) - but that is not the sole purpose of improvisation.

In my short experience with improv classes I have learned that many of the skills learned on stage are also applicable in real life, for example:

? Always say ?yes and? ? this helps ideas grow and evolve. You cannot build ideas (or scenes) by negating other people?s input

? I?ve got your back ? on stage, actors work as a team. There is common understanding that if one actor gets stuck in a scene, another one will come to rescue ? this is directly transferable to presentations

? There is no wrong answer ? everything that is said on stage is 100% true and valid. ?The cat ate my lipstick and then ran after the aliens on the roof? = valid statement

Spending the day with Bumper and other colleagues from various backgrounds and functional teams was a wonderful way to learn about other valuable and transferrable skills from the world of improv that can be used when running meetings and presentations:

The basics:

? Make eye contact

? Be articulate

? Speak up

? Be aware of what?s happening around you (pay attention! You may need to go to the rescue of a fellow presenter)

? Be available ? no one wants to exchange ideas with someone whose arms are crossed.

? Acknowledge what other are doing

? Be concise

? Be physically engaging and be aware of your body language

? Be an active listener; don?t listen just so you can respond. Listen so you can intelligently participate in a conversation or presentation

? Assume the confidence that you admire in other people when speaking in public

? Be aware of, and how you use:

? Volume ? low volume can transmit a sense of intimacy, while high volume is a good focus grabber.

? Pause ? use of it to help set things apart

? Pace ? change pace when talking about more/less important things

? Tone ? use various different tones to convey enthusiasm, alertness, etc ? create dynamism.

And last, but not least:

Speak with a passion.

The best way to convince an audience is to demonstrate how much you care about your subject. Be excited and be passionate, and all else will fall into place.

Thank you Bumper!!

Source: http://talk.designkitchen.com/comedy-and-public-speaking

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