Who Says Bankers Can't Be Funny?
1993; American Bankers Association; Volume: 85; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0194-5947
Autores Tópico(s)Securities Regulation and Market Practices
ResumoPublic speaking and banking often go together. But when you work humor into your speeches, does it work? Here's advice from a CEO whose sideline is stand-up comedy Stan Freberg, comedian and advertising executive extraordinaire, once said, Humor in the hands of a novice is like a gun in the hands of a child. I've seen more than one speaker open a presentation clumsily with a joke just tacked on like an obligatory regulatory filing. When it died, the audience was lost. When humor works, it can highlight, punctuate, and underline a speech. It can make it understandable at the time and memorable afterwards. Making it won't. How many times have you sat through a presentation that you knew was important, but that was presented so dully that you had to work at staying with the speaker--or just staying awake? Bankers usually stay conscious through Dr. Paul Nadler's speeches because he is entertaining and humorous. (Don't ever try to follow Nadler, by the way. I have. It wasn't a pretty sight.) You don't need the platform experience or the rapid-fire delivery of Dr. Nadler. One of the most effective users of humor I have heard lately is Bill Brandon, ABA's new president, who has a soft, southern approach. Born funny? I think it was comedian Steve Allen who once said, you aren't a comedian by the time you are ten years old, you are never going to be one. While there may be some degree of truth in that idea, I'm convinced that most people can learn to tell jokes or anecdotes that can crack a smile. These are some questions you can ask yourself along the way. (1) Do the jokes and stories you choose for your presentations make you laugh? If they don't, chances are they won't make your audience laugh, either. To tell a joke right, you have to enjoy it. You have to look forward to it. Your audience knows very well when you are uncomfortable with your material. An important tangent here regards puns. Most people should avoid using them in speeches. They can be funny in context, but remember that puns, by their nature, are groaners. At best, they will get you mild appreciation, and some people will be scratching their heads--What did he mean by that?--long after you've moved on to other things you wanted them to hear. (2) Does the story fit you? If not, can it be changed in some way to make it work for you? When I do my act or give a speech, I bill myself as a country banker--I am a country banker. It would not suit me to use a lot of urbane material. This is important if you are going to use jokebooks. You can't let a book fall open and pick three jokes at random. Be prepared to read lots and lots of jokes before you'll find the right ones. I use jokebooks frequently. But I never use the joke as it's written. I take the punchline and develop my own story around it. The best material for you may be something funny that happened to you. The best thing about these stories is, once you've got them down, assuming they really work, they are yours and no one else is likely to tell them. (3) Does the story fit the audience ? You have to choose material that your audience will understand. That's common sense. I do a lot of banking jokes in front of nonbanking audiences. The ones I choose work because almost everyone at some time has had to deal with bankers. But some banking jokes won't work with a nonbanking audience because they require too much industry knowledge. Jokes I may make about regulations, for example, work with bankers because they get all the abbreviations and know what the rules are about. I'd have to explain so much to nonbankers that they'd forget the point by the time I got to the punchline. (4) Could the joke offend anyone in the audience? Is it sexist? Could it be construed as racist or anti-semitic? Might it be considered off-color? …
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