I went to the 21st Anniversary celebrations of something called “So you think you are funny” - a competition for stand-up comedians held as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. A large number of the winners and finalists over the 21 years performed -which made for a long - and in the main - fun evening! My cheeks still hurt from laughing so much at the final act where Jason Byrne conducted a crazy spoof of Riverdance ( he is an Irish comedian)..visual comedy really does it for me!

I have been reflecting this morning on what we can learn from those comedians and apply to public speaking and here goes with some thoughts

1 Know your audience  - some of the comics chose to comment and make fun of Scottish traits. With a largely Scottish audience in a comedy situation this went down well.  I think we Scots are good at are laughing at ourselves. But there were a couple of tumbleweed moments though …

2 Timing is everything -the timing of the punchline if you are telling a joke. These guys had it off pat which is a good thing if they want to make a living from comedy. But the other aspect of timing is keeping to the time slot allocated. Over- running is fine if your content has your audience hanging on your every word or rolling in the aisles ( though the organiser/ host may not think so). The shuffling of feet and general discomfort should be telling you to stop - as well as frantic signals from the wings!!

3 Tailor your content - It was an adult audience and they knew what to expect. In fact I expect that if the content had not been controversial and near the knuckle they would have been unhappy. This - coupled with #1 - can make or break the engagement with those you want to entertain or influence.

4 Use visuals - and  I don’t mean Powerpoint.  In the 3+ hours of the show I realised that I laughed a lot but even more so when there was a visual aspect to the performance.  The final act spoofed the Irish Dancing show “Riverdance”  and I was rolling about laughing. Clever use of words also appeal to me. Variety in any speech/performance will give you more chance of hitting the bulk of your audience.

5 The power of the pause  - some comics do this wonderfully. They say something and then - pause - to let what they have said hit home. Sometimes it is a play on words and takes a second or two to hit home with the audience. Then the laughter starts.  In public speaking a pause can have a similar impact even if you don’t expect ( or want ) a laugh from your comment.

6 Audience participation  - a few of the acts involved chatting with members of the audience and “inviting” their participation.  Maybe they were plants - but no matter. It worked well. Hecklers were also dealt with effectively!  If you do want the audience to get involved with your presentation or speech have a fallback position in case they don’t want to play! …(and hopefull hecklers won’t be a problem.)

7 Laugh at yourself I love it when a comic says something really funny and they find it so funny too that they laugh . Billy Connelly is the master at this. He cracks himself up sometimes and laughter is infectious.  Some people are naturally good at telling funny stories and for others it might not work. But if you do decide to include some humour in a speech be prepared to laugh with the audience if it goes well and at yourself if it doesn’t . Either way should gain you fans.

8 Update your content A couple of the comics won almost 20 years ago and I am not sure what kind of show they do now but they did not compare favourably with the style of the most recent winners ( in my view - it’s all a matter of taste). But I have seen really famous comedians do  shows with content I have heard before. It must be really hard to keep everything new and shiny but ultimately a tweak here and an addition there could make the difference. Some presenters are known for their specialisms - as are after dinner speakers - and the best have new or updated content in what they deliver.

I thought I would finish with a joke…..then I thought better of it!

Happy Friday!!