Using Humor to Make a Difference with Allen Klein.

Welcome to Public Speaking with Peter George. Do you want to be calm, confident, and credible every time you speak in public? Then stay tuned as Peter and his guests discuss public speaking tips, techniques, and tactics that help you increase your impact, influence, and income. Here’s your host, the author of The Captivating Public Speaker, Peter George.

Do you have humor in your talks? If so, you may be engaging your audiences while helping them remember your points. If not — why not? Do you speak in business settings and don’t think humor is appropriate? Do you speak on tough subjects where humor supposedly has no place? In either case, listen in as my guest Allen Klein discusses how and why he uses humor in his presentations. Speaking professionally for more than 20 years, Allen is an award-winning professional speaker who earned the Lifetime Achievement Award in Therapeutic Humor. He is also the best-selling author of The Healing Power of Humor and the world’s only Jollytologist. Here’s my conversation with Allen Klein.

A Life-Changing Reason to Speak

Peter: Allen, you’ve been speaking for more than 20 years. What got you started?

Allen: I was the last one to raise my hand in class. And then a major event happened in my life — my wife got a rare liver disease. The doctor said she had three years to live. There were lots of tears. But there was also lots of laughter. We’d tell each other one of the reasons we were still married was because we made each other laugh. After she died, I realized how valuable that laughter was.

I went back to school to learn about humor and got a master’s degree in human development. My thesis was The Healing Power of Humor — which became my first book. I had a passion to share that message because it helped me in my own life. And a more powerful way than a book was to be on a stage with people, talking to them directly. So I made it happen.

Peter: How did you get over the fear of public speaking?

Allen: I focused on my material and had the fear and did it anyway. I had such passion to share this message that I just had to put the fear in the background. And Barbara Streisand helped me — she didn’t do a live performance for 20 years because she was afraid of making a mistake. And I thought: if Barbara Streisand can be afraid of speaking in front of an audience, Allen Klein can still do it.

Speaking to the Toughest Rooms

Allen: I was once asked to do an all-weekend workshop with burn survivors. I thought — I’m not a burn survivor. How could I bring lightness to this experience? But it was the best weekend workshop I have ever done. They taught me how to lighten up.

One man hadn’t said a single word the entire workshop except his name. Then he got up and did a song and dance routine about what it was like to be a burn survivor. He brought the house down. There was such joy and such amazing energy in that room. I was so glad I said yes.

Why Humor Belongs in Every Presentation

Peter: A lot of my audience includes professionals who say humor has no place in business presentations. What do you say?

Allen: Totally disagree. Think about why so many commercials use humor — because it gets the message across and people remember it. We still remember “Where’s the beef?” decades later. I know in business they don’t want the level of humor I use on stage. But some humor. Because the audience will remember the message better.

It has to be relevant, though. I once saw a speaker before me talk all about his kid playing tennis and throw in jokes about tennis — nothing to do with his talk. The meeting planner came to me afterward and said, what was that about? Humor has to relate to your message. It doesn’t have to be fall-down laughter — a humorous story, something that happened at a staff meeting that’s relevant to your audience. That’s enough.

What Not to Do on Stage

Peter: What are some things speakers shouldn’t do?

Allen: Opening with a joke that has nothing to do with the talk. Bragging about themselves — speakers who are so over themselves that it turns the audience off. And I learned this one the hard way: I used to speed up as a workshop got closer to ending because I hadn’t gotten through all my material. Then I realized — the audience has no idea what I was going to say. I need to be there for them. Skip material if needed. Read the room. You are there for the audience.

Get Off the Stage — Go to the Audience

Allen: I go into the audience. People often come up to me afterward and say, you were so funny. And when I look back at the video, it was some interaction I had with an audience member — they were saying the funny lines. I was just the conduit to get it out of them.

And that’s why you should watch your videos. I used to cringe. But sometimes I cringed and it was a great lesson — don’t do that. Or I’d see a great moment I’d forgotten and could use it in my next talk. You can watch the video and see what to correct, or you can ignore it and keep repeating the same mistakes time and again.

Peter: Allen, if you had to sum up public speaking in one word, what would it be?

Allen: Passion. Without that, you really don’t have much else.

Peter: Where can listeners connect with you?

Allen: At allenklein.com — A-L-L-E-N-K-L-E-I-N.com. My books are available at any major internet book dealer or local bookstores.

Thank you for listening to this episode of Public Speaking with Peter George. Are you ready to be calm, confident, and credible every time you speak in public? Then visit petergeorgepublicspeaking.com and let’s make it happen. I’ll see you next time.