PartyPlanningMag.com

Holding a funny speech is an art. It comes totally natural to some people, while others need a few pointers to get the laughs coming. Here are the easiest and most basic tips for holding a funny speech.

1. Open the speech with style
Many are tempted to open the speech with “thank you for the introduction, I’m so glad to be at this wedding tonight..” and so on. Don’t do it! This gets boring really soon and you can loose contact with your audience. The best way to start a speech is to go straight to the point. Make a statement that is creative, surprising or funny.

2. Build the speech around personal stories
Funny, personal stories is by far the best way to get contact with your audience. This is especially true for party, birthday or wedding speeches where the guests know the host/hostess and perhaps also each other. Here are three examples of how you can open the speech:

- Ask a rhetorical question
This is one of the best ways of opening a speech. Straight away you get the audience thinking about your question. For example, “Do you know how John and Lyn actually met?” (wedding speech) or “have you heard the real story behind how Peter…”. Remember that you don’t actually want people to reply to you. You just want them to think about it for a moment before you answer the question yourself.
If, however, you do want an answer from the audience you can ask them to answer by raising a hand. You demonstrate this by raising your own hand as you ask the question. Make sure you ask a question that really engages everyone and that the guest will answer enthusiastically.

- Describe a scenario
This type of introduction usually starts with ”Imagine..” and the goal is to create a scenario that the guests can visualize. For example, “Imagine you are in Tahiti, sitting on a gorgeous hidden away beach with a gentle breeze blowing..”. Of course, there needs to be a point to the scenario. It must be relevant to what you are trying to convey. This is a good strategy because it is easier for people to remember the pictures you paint rather than the words you say.

- Anecdotes
You might have hear somewhere that you shouldn’t start a speech with a joke. This is very true, because they might not laugh! However, starting your speech with a short funny story is much more likely to get the laughs going. It is important that the opening story actually is both short and funny. Find a funny personal story from your own of the host’s life and use it to open the speech. It is important that the guests can relate to the story, because then they will be much more receptive to everything you say afterwards.

3. Use real experiences
I have mentioned this before, but it cannot be stressed enough. The best humour always comes from personal experiences. Situations you have been involved in yourself. Don’t try picking jokes from a joke book, as it can become quite embarrassing. Stick to personal, funny stories.

4. Don’t write the opening of the speech first
When starting to write the speech, it’s a good idea not to start with the opening. First, write down the main points you want to talk about. Afterwards you can write the content of the main points, and in the end you can write the opening. You cannot write the opening until you know what the speech will actually be about.

5. Talk about something that really engage you
Only talk about things that engage you and that you feel comfortable talking about. As with everything in life, one of the most important things is your own attitude towards the topic of your speech. If you feel uncomfortable or unsure about what you are talking about, this will rub off on the audience straight away. Pick a topic that really inspires you! If you are engaged and inspired, it is likely that your audience will be as well.

6. Make sure your stories are funny to everyone
Speeches in parties and weddings are not the time to have a go at anyone or bring up hurtful events (even if they are meant to be funny). Stick to stories that will amuse everyone and that won’t embarrass anyone too much. Party speeches should be fun, innocent and positive. Forget all the bad stuff for now, focus on all the good points.

Example of a funny birthday speech
A friend of us, Ann, was celebrating her 30th birthday and myself and a friend decided to hold a speech for her. We wanted it to be a funny speech, and decided is would be funny to list thirty things that the other guests probably didn’t know about Ann. The speech was a big hit! All the guests were laughing during the entire speech. Here’s how we did it:

• We wrote down a list of all the funny things and little stories we could think about. The list got to 35 points.
• We then went through the wold list and rewrote all the stories and facts about Ann in a funny way. We removed the least funny points and got the list down to 35 points.
• Each point started with “Number 1. Did you know that Ann ..”. For example, “Number 1. Did you know that when we were 18 we tried to get Ann to pay us back because she had one slice of pizza more than us?”
• We decided to read every second point
• We did a trial readout for some friends and noted the points that got the laughter going and which ones were a bit flat.
• We went through the list one last time and made sure all the points were funny.

Think through these ideas when you write the speech. Keep you mind open to interesting quotes, stories, statistics and questions. They are everywhere!