Chapter 81 avoid unfavorable attention

I ask you very, very much to remember that not only the attention of the audience must be captured, but their profitable attention must be captured.Note that I said "favorable" note.A rational person will never insult the audience at the first opening of his mouth, or say something that makes people hate and hate, so that the audience has to rally against him and refute his remarks.However, speakers often use the following two ways to attract the attention of the audience, which is very unwise. For some deplorable reason, the novice speaker often feels that he is only a speaker if he is funny.His nature might have been encyclopedic and humorless, yet when he stood up to speak he fancied the spirit of Mark Twain descending upon him.So, he's likely to start with a humorous story, especially on an after-dinner occasion.What will happen as a result?The stories he tells, the sudden changes in his attitude, can create a dictionary-like dullness in the scene.And there's a 20:1 chance that it will, his joke probably won't "work".As Hamlet's immortal quote put it, it proves that such jokes are "stale, trite, flat and unprofitable."

If an entertainer fails like this a few times in front of a paying audience, they're bound to pop open the soda and yell, "Get him off the stage." But the audience listening to the speeches is generally sympathetic Yes, so, out of sheer compassion, they'll usually try to laugh, but at the same time, deep down, they're pitying your failure to deliver a quasi-humorous speech.Although they themselves insisted on listening, they felt very uncomfortable.Haven't you often witnessed such utter failures of speeches? In the extremely difficult field of public speaking, what is more difficult and rarer than the ability to make an audience laugh?Humor is a "trigger" thing that has a lot to do with a person's personality and characteristics.

Remember, the story itself is seldom of any interest, but the way the storyteller tells it makes the listener interested in it.Then there are 99 out of 100 people who will fail miserably when trying to tell the same story that made Mark Twain famous.Lincoln was a master storyteller. He told many stories to people in the hotel of the Eighth Judicial District of Illinois, and people even had to travel several miles to hear his stories.People listened to his stories all night without getting tired.According to some audience members who witnessed the scene, his stories sometimes made the local people scream with excitement, and some even jumped out of their chairs involuntarily.Here is a story that Lincoln often told, and every time he told it, he always made the audience laugh.Why don't you try reading these stories aloud to your family and see if you can bring a smile to their faces.But, just to be on the safe side, try it out in private, not in front of an audience:

A belated traveler, walking on the muddy road in the Illinois prairie, hurried home, but unfortunately encountered a storm.The night was black as ink, the rain poured down like a dam in heaven, and the thunder roared like a bomb went off.Lightning knocked down several big trees, and thunder was deafening.At last the poor traveler fell on his knees and prayed to Heaven when there was a dreadful thunderclap which he had never heard in his life.His prayer at this time was also very different from usual. He gasped and said, "Oh, God, if it doesn't make any difference to you, please give me a little more light and less thunder."

You may be the lucky one with an incredible sense of humor.If this is the case, you should definitely cultivate it with all your might.No matter where you speak, you will be popular for it.But if your talents are in other areas, you should not pretend to be humorous. So, then, does the opening have to be very dignified and terribly serious?Not quite.If you have the means, you can make some local jokes to make the audience laugh, you can say something about the situation, or you can say a few words about the other speaker's point of view.You can catch something that people think is wrong and exaggerate it.This kind of joke is more than forty times more effective than the usual corny mother-in-law or goat joke.

Perhaps the easiest and most effective way to create a cheerful atmosphere is to use yourself as the subject of a joke.Describe some ridiculous and embarrassing situations you have encountered yourself.This is the true essence of humor. Jack Benny has been using this technique for years, and he was one of the first important people on the radio to "trick" himself.Jack Benny made himself a laughingstock, making fun of his violin skills, his pettiness, and his age.His witty remarks, both solemn and humorous, kept the ratings at a high level year after year.For those speakers who can be creative, not arrogant, but also humorous, and don't deny their flaws and failures, the audience will naturally open their hearts to you.On the contrary, those speakers who pretend to be omniscient experts who "swell their faces and pretend to be fat" will only cause indifference and rejection from the audience.

Almost anyone can pull unrelated things together and make the audience laugh.For example, one newspaper columnist said that he hated nothing more than "children, tripe, and Democrats." When the famous writer Rudyard Kipling gave a speech to a British political group, he told a joke in the opening remarks, which caused the audience to laugh out loud.I will now quote this opening speech below, so that you can see how clever he is to make people laugh.He recounted not some old anecdote, but some of his own experience, and jokingly emphasized some of the ailments in it: "Chairman, ladies and gentlemen, when I was young, I worked as a reporter in India, covering crime for a newspaper. It was an interesting job, because it introduced me to crooks, swindlers, murderers and Some very upright, honest men. (Audience laughs.) Sometimes, after reporting on their trials, I go to prison to see these old friends who are serving sentences. (Audience laughs.) I remember one guy, Sentenced to life for murder. He was a smart, soft-spoken, methodical guy, and he told me what he called his 'lessons for life.' He said, 'In my own case, a man once Doing one dishonest thing, and then going on and on, dishonest thing after dishonest thing, until at last he finds that he has to get rid of someone to get his integrity back. (Audience laughs) Ha, that's the case with the current Cabinet.' (laughs and cheers from the audience)."

President Taft also used this method to create a lot of jokes at the annual executive reception of the MetLife Insurance Company.The most amazing thing is that he not only made everyone laugh, but also praised his audience greatly: "Mr. President and Gentlemen of MetLife: "About nine months ago, I went back to my hometown for a holiday. I was there to hear a speech given by a gentleman after dinner. The gentleman said he was a little apprehensive about giving such a speech. So Ask a friend who has a great deal of experience with giving after-dinner speeches. The friend advises him that the best audience for a post-dinner speaker is An intelligent, educated, half-drunk audience. (Laughter and applause) Now, all I can say is that I've got the best audience I've ever seen The audience. The kind of audience this speaker mentioned is sitting here with us! (Applause.) I must also say that this is the spirit of MetLife. (Long applause.)”

The second common mistake a beginner speaker makes in his opening remarks is that he habitually apologizes to his audience. "I'm not a speaker... I'm not going to give a speech... I don't have anything to talk about." no!Absolutely not!The opening line of a poem by Kipling is: "It is useless to go on." That is what the audience feels about a speaker who begins with an apology. After all, if you don't prepare, some of us will soon find out that we don't need to be reminded.Others might not notice, so why bother calling their attention?Why insult your audience? —for by saying so you are suggesting to them that you do not think them worth your preparation, and that some material which you overhear by the fireside will suffice for them.No, no, we don't want to hear you say sorry.We come together to hear new news and opinions, and to pique our interest, and you must especially remember the latter.

As soon as you came before the audience, it was natural and inevitable that our attention be drawn to you.It is not difficult to maintain our attention on you for the next 5 seconds, but it is very difficult to maintain this attention for the next 5 minutes.Once you lose your audience's attention, it's doubly difficult to win it back.Therefore, in the first sentence, you need to say something that grabs the audience's interest.Not the second sentence, much less the third sentence.It's the first sentence!first sentence!