10 Commandments of Humor Part 2

Stainton's 10 Commandments of Humor (Part 2)
Bill Stainton

3. Thou shalt avoid jokes……unless you tell them really, really well! Let me rephrase that. Unless other people have told you that you tell them really, really well! Look, we might as well be honest about this—most people don’t tell jokes well. I know I don’t—and for heaven’s sake, I’m a professional! In my mind, jokes have three serious flaws that make them a risky choice for all but the most seasoned and confident platform speakers.

First, they’re difficult for most people to remember properly, even without the added pressure of that unblinking audience. And if you don’t have the joke down cold—and I mean so cold that somebody could wake you out of a sound sleep and you could still tell it flawlessly—you’re probably not going to tell it well.

But even if you do tell the joke well, that doesn’t get around the second flaw: jokes are not unique! Unless you wrote the joke yourself, there’s a chance that at least a percentage of your audience has heard it before. If it’s a good enough joke, other speakers are probably using it already. And really, do you want to be known as “another speaker who’s telling that stupid parrot joke”?

The third flaw with jokes is that jokes exist solely to get a laugh (see Commandment #2). If it doesn’t get a laugh, you bomb. There’s no other option. The audience knows you’ve told a joke, that it was supposed to get a laugh, and that it didn’t. It’s called bombing, and it’s a bad feeling. When you do it in front of 500 people, it’s a really bad feeling!

4. Thou shalt develop personal storiesPersonal stories, or anecdotes, neatly bypass virtually all of the problems inherent to jokes. First, your personal stories are unique to you. Your audience will not have heard them from five other speakers (unless they are five very unethical speakers—see Commandment #8). And because you're telling stories that happened in your life, you're letting your audience "in." You're revealing something of yourself; thus, you are helping the audience to create a personal bond with you, Second, your personal stories are easier to remember. You’re not likely to forget what comes next, because you were there! (An added benefit to this is that you'll probably sound more spontaneous and conversational when telling the story, because instead of simply reciting something you've memorized, you'll literally be "re-creating" the event each time you tell it!) Also, these are the stories you’ve already told dozens—maybe even hundreds—of times to your family, your co-workers, and your friends. Yes, you’ll probably need to tweak them a bit for the platform, but by and large you know how to tell these stories! And third, if you’re following Commandment #2, you’re using your stories to illustrate your message. This means that even if the story doesn’t get a big laugh, it still has use as an example, and you can just move on as if everything is exactly the way you planned it to be. Believe me, this works!