Do you know how to start a conversation? Both starting and holding a conversation with people is like a sport. Just like football or soccer, you hone your conversational muscles. You train for difficult topics. You re-play miscommunications in your head. And just like elite athletes, you need a conversational game plan.
Public speaking notoriously provokes fear in many speakers. However, knowing that you have a great, humorous speech to deliver can go a long way toward alleviating speaking anxiety. Some speakers say, "I could never use humor in my speech. I just don't feel comfortable with it."
The best and most comfortable place to find humor comes from your own personal experience.
Jot down funny ideas as you come across it that might appeal to your audience - an embarrassing moment that you might not have found funny at the time, or a funny conversation you had.
Make sure your choose humor is funny to you. First practice with small groups of people. Pay attention to the way your are delivering the joke or quip.
Only use humor in a speech after you are comfortable telling it from memory and have tested it.
Have you ever had a conversation so good that it left you reliving it for days, weeks, months, or even years after it took place? Just as we put traveling, marriage, or stepping into your first home up on a pedestal as the "ultimate" expressions of human joy, I believe great conversations are up there too.
They are not just the process of exchanging of words. They represent the base for very meaningful friendship or partnership. And especially in this era of screens and limited attention spans gre...