Do You Talk Funny?. David Nihill
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I promise you’ll be inspired.”
—Sami Aziz, producer on ABC’s Shark Tank, two-time Emmy award winner
“This book is great. I haven’t read it yet but David drew a picture when he was six years old of a penguin drinking beer in a Chinese restaurant and it was clear the potential for slight wisdom and misguided creativity were there.”
—Marita Nihill, David’s mother
Do You Talk Funny?
Do You Talk funny?
7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker
DAVID NIHILL
BenBella Books, Inc.
Dallas, Texas
Copyright © 2016 by David Nihill
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
BenBella Books, Inc.
10300 N. Central Expressway
Suite #530
Dallas, TX 75231
Send feedback to [email protected]
First E-Book Edition: March 2016.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Nihill, David, author.
Title: Do you talk funny? : 7 comedy habits to become a better (and funnier) public speaker / David Nihill.
Description: Dallas, TX : BenBella Books, 2016. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015037723| ISBN 9781942952275 (paperback) | ISBN 9781942952282 (electronic)
Subjects: LCSH: Business presentations. | Wit and humor in business. | BISAC:
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Business Communication / Meetings & Presentations.
| HUMOR / Topic / Business & Professional. | PERFORMING ARTS / Comedy. Classification: LCC HF5718.22 .N54 2016 | DDC 658.4/52—dc23 LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015037723
| Copyediting by James Fraleigh | Front cover by Erin Tyler |
| Proofreading by Brittney Martinez and Greg Teague | Full cover by Sarah Dombrowsky |
| Text design and composition by Aaron Edmiston | Printed by Lake Book Manufacturing |
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To my father, Patrick Nihill, who taught me that you cansqueeze humor into just about any situation.
Contents
#3 Write Funny
#4 Rehearsed Spontaneity
#5 Delivery
#6 Control the Audience
#7 Close the Book, but Not Fully—Permanent Beta
Conclusion
Further Material
Tipliography
Acknowledgments
Notes
About the Author
I truly believe we are all funny . . . at least some of the time. Some of us are termed naturally funny and others have to work at it. We all have moments in life that make us laugh. How we communicate those moments to others, in a way most conducive to sharing our joy, is often the missing link. The good news is that this is a skill, which means it can be learned, and few are better placed to help us develop it than comedians.
Comedians’ content and delivery are honed through years of practice as they master their craft. In doing so, they are among the few public speakers that clock up the ten thousand hours Malcolm Gladwell says make a master. Yet few of these masters are asked to share their knowledge with a business community who needs it. Almost every book ever written on public speaking says humor is a key part of successful talks. Yet none of them explain well how to employ it, which is about as useful as handing a MacBook Pro to a goat. None of them describe the techniques comedians use in a way beneficial to a business audience. I wanted to address that, so I wrote this book.
Everything in this book I learned the hard way, from people much wiser and more experienced than I. It contains a ton of things that I wish I had known at the start of my journey. They worked for me, and I think they will work for you, too.
If you feel this book doesn’t help you become a better and funnier speaker, I am happy to give you a full refund. To claim it, please send a link to a video of your not-so-great speaking performance, along with your receipt, to [email protected].
Ten percent of my proceeds for this book will go to Arash Bayatmakou via Help Hope Live until he is fully back on his feet. Thereafter, the 10 percent will go to one of the many facing the same challenges after suffering a severe spinal cord injury.
My heartbeat races many beats above normal as I stand, feet firmly planted, on the Castro Theatre’s dark hardwood stage, whose construction has stood the test of time. The theater, a historic San Francisco landmark with a Spanish Colonial Baroque façade, has all the grandeur and style that one would expect to accompany its ninety-three years’ worth of celebrity performers—one of whom I am very much not. If you had the distinct misfortune to shake my hand before I took the stage, you would have felt like you had been assaulted by a semi-defrosted mackerel.
Despite my distinct lack of fame, eight hundred unfamiliar faces are looking back at me from the assembled crowd. When I arch my neck slightly to look toward the large, stretching ceiling, I am met with the curious gazes of another