Lighten Up Your Presentation

Cartoon by Gary Larson

I recently attended a meeting where a young man was practicing a presentation he had to give at work. The presentation was slide after slide of specific projects and the budget for each of them. He wanted to know how he could add some humour to his presentation.

Humour can improve a presentation by offering a brief respite for your audience. Most presentations, don’t need a lot of it, a few laughs should be enough.

There are three ways to add humour, use visuals, amusing quotes or personal stories.

Since the young man was using power point to present his message, he has the opportunity to add cartoons. The use of these can be fun especially if they aren’t too wordy and fit the subject you’re discussing. A few sources that immediately come to mind are “On the Far Side” by Gary Larson, Herman by Jim Unger, and Dilbert by Scott Adams.

In a recent presentation I gave I discussed “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs”, a psychological theory on human motivation proposed by Abraham Maslow. I went through the chart row by row, and then said, “Gentlemen, if you’re working with women, you need to know that they have a slightly different hierarchy of needs, and I displayed the chart shown here. It worked. There was lots of laughter, especially from the women present.

JA Gamache (www.jagamache.com) says:” When you write your next speech, look for a common denominator with your audience. Is the group the same age, or from the same company or association? Find out about the problems they're experiencing. Maybe you'll find some common misadventure that will make them all laugh.”

Gamache gave an example that professional speakers could relate to. He talked about speakers practicing their speech in a car while driving. You’re talking away and at the stop lights, you notice the guy in the car beside you is looking at you very strangely. Anyone who has ever done this, and most of us have, will definitely get the humour.

An entertaining quotation can work well in a lecture. Make them short and consistent with your presentation. For example for the young man’s budget presentation he could use the following quotation:

“I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by.” - Douglas Adams

Keep in mind when looking for cartoons, or adding your own personal self deprecating stories, they should be clean and not offensive to anyone. Jokes gleaned from the internet or one that you heard from someone are not recommended for business presentations. If there’s one the totally fits, use it, but give credit and don’t pass it off as your own.

By using relatable cartoons, witty quotations or personal stories you will go from bland to brilliant just like that.

Mary Anthes is a retired business owner, speaker and a Distinguished Toastmaster. She can be reached at nmanthes@shaw.ca