A week ago I got an email from John, one of PK email community member.

He asked me about adding laughs in the story. Here’s exactly what he asked…

“I want to put more laughs in my stories. I know that the premise, pause, punch is the way to go. But that still does not explain how the punch is created.”

I replied something like…

“The first step for adding laughs or humor to work in the story… is the idea. First of all, we need to answer what makes something funny. Premise Pause Punch formula is just that… formula to get that idea to execute in the story. Hope this makes sense”.

It was a quick reply. But, it got me thinking. Maybe it needs more explanation. And may be there are more people in my community with the same concern.

Fist things first….Funny stories are not handed to us in a platter.

We need to create the funny in the story.

Some stories are damn funny. That puts you in some sort of danger because you don’t control the flow.

If this thing were easy, then everybody would be funny and as a result be awesome on stage.

Punch is what sparks the funny. There are many approaches to create a punch. First, let’s define punch.

Punch is a word or phrase that follows the pause that triggers laughter. Punch line should create surprise by saying something contrary to the audience’s expectation. The laughter is the result of the release of the tension built up during the pause.

If John and I are in a coaching session, this is what I would say. “John, you need to strategically pick parts of the story that can surprise your audience, and also acts as the next logical flow to your speech.”

One of the easiest ways to create the punch is through the disguise of a dialogue.

Why?

Dialogues can give that surprise element which can be contrary to what the audience is expecting. This sparks the laughter.

Sometimes when your stars are right – whatever you say seems funny. Even the dialogues you add in the story.

The reality is the dialogue you think is funny, might fall flat.

And that’s OK…

Even the pros keep testing their lines. And only use that tested line in the story.

Don’t get fooled why Kevin Hart or Jerry Seinfeld are damn funny. Every word they say is tested for perfection.

But there’s more to it if you want to maximize the chances of getting a successful laugh.

I should write a book on this. May be not.

Ok, I already wrote a book “Connect using humor and story.”

If I’m in my marketing hat, I would say please read Chapter 3 of my book. It explains this process used by Stand-up comedians to turn a real life experience into laugh lines for your speeches.

You see – I’m wearing a gentleman’s hat. Don’t ask more about this hat. I just invented this term.

So, I’m going to give away this chapter for you listen.

But before that, you got to know that the following process will show you how to create punch lines to deliver laughs from personal experiences.

This process can be used not only for sharing your experiences but also used for sharing your perspectives about your life.

Here’s the high-level process to create humor in the story 

Step 1: Write down the raw story or your thoughts.

Step 2: From the raw piece of content,

• Find topic and create topic introduction.
• Find attitude and create attitude statement.
• Find point of view and create point of view statement.
• Find humor trigger and create relevant experience.

Don’t worry if you don’t understand any of the terms mentioned above. I’ll come back to it soon.

Step 3: Sequence the topic introduction, attitude statement, point of view statement, and relevant experience.

Don’t worry if you did not get that right. I’ll walk you through the whole process with an example so that it is easier to understand.

Go ahead and listen to this chapter “Real world Experience into a Humorous story”… and start adding humor to stories.

• 
  MP3

  Chapter 3: Real world experience into a humorous story

And you got to listen again and again till you get it…. because there is so much value that’s condensed in this chapter.

I truly believe this will be an absolute game changer for you.

If you found this one chapter to the best stuff you heard about creating humor, imagine 11 other chapters waiting to make you a funnier speaker. I hope you realized that I wore my marketing hat now. Just saying…

Connect using humor and story

You can grab the audiobook “Connect Using Humor and Story” and drill it again and again. If you want to just check it out, there’s a cool option.

You can actually try the audiobook for FREE when you sign up for Audible’s 30-day trial offer. Audible is an amazon company that takes care of Jeff's audiobook business. Jeff is Jeff Bezos. He is not my friend but I'm sure we'll become best friends one day!

I love audiobooks because you learn without wasting your time. You can actually learn while driving the car, exercising at gym, or even waiting for your friend.