5 Ways Watching Good Stand Up Can Make You a Better Presenter.
If you have to present a lot (or ever), it makes sense to learn from the best.
People who can make a a huge crowd feel like they’re in an intimate conversation. People who can hold an audience’s attention for as long as they want.
People who are really, really funny and get paid for it
Here’s 5 traits of great comedians that you can use to improve your next presentation.
1. Comedians are rightly terrified of being boring.
A rule of thumb for comics is “get a laugh every 15 seconds.”
Of course some comics get a laugh with almost every line, and some (me included) have a considerably lower hit rate – but the key point is this: they’re terrified of being boring.
What’s worse to a comic then heckling? Bored silence. What’s worse than bored silence? A growing buzz of disinterested chatter (and worse than that is being slow-clapped by a bunch of Marines, but you’re unlikely to get that unless you’re:
- presenting to some bored Marines,
- really unlucky.
- me).
You should be terrified of being boring too.
You’ve got no excuse. You’re in control of both the content and tone of what your present. You've got stories, a sense of humour, unique experience. Have another look at your content and un-boring it, right now.
2. Comedians know how important the beginning of a set is
Comedians know they don’t have any time to mess about - they have to grab the audience’s attention right from the start.
You have 3 seconds (or about two sentences) to prove you’re worth listening to. In that 3 seconds you need to do a lot: not fall over. Look confident. Establish your authority. Sort out the mic stand/PowerPoint. Not fall over again. Let the audience know they’re in safe hands for the next 30 minutes and they don’t have to worry.
That’s why many comedians structure their sets like this:
- Second best joke
- Stuff
- Best joke and off
Good comedians don’t waffle on for ten minutes about how nice it is to be there. They don’t reel out their CV. They don’t thank the host and make in-jokes to the organisers. They don’t blather on welcoming all and sundry.
They prove their worth straight away – either launching right into a compelling story, a strong pre-planned joke, or a well-measured crack about something in the room.
You can do the same. Just go: start with a compelling statistic, a controversial question, a story that compels your audience to lean in and listen. Just cut the waffle.
3. A good comedian is always on the same wavelength as the audience
And they don’t allow it to waver.
Understanding the energy of the audience is vital to any decent presenter. It doesn’t take much: just a focus on them, rather than you.
When you watch a comedian or presenter dying on their arse, the chances are you’re having a bad a time as they are. It’s cringeworthy.
This means two things. Firstly, no-one likes seeing a presenter struggle.
The audience is essentially on your side - if you’re doing OK they’re not scraping their fingernails down their check with nervous tension.
The better you do, the better it is for everyone, and the audience knows it’s in their interest for you to do well.
What causes problems is when an act is struggling, but they audience don’t know if the act knows – a disconnect.
All good comics struggle occasionally. Great ones lose the room on purpose, just to win them back.
However a bad presentation is like a balloon slowly inflating – the audience just sits there thinking about when it’s going to pop. A good presenter will gently pop it for them and get everyone back onside.
If you’re having a tough time, the best thing you can do is acknowledge it – this puts you and the audience back on the same wavelength, and whilst it might not totally rescue your speech, it will certainly help reset the room.
This might be simply taking a sip of water and saying “You may have noticed, I needed that”, or involve flipping shut your laptop and saying “Christ I had hoped it would go better than this!” – whatever it takes, make sure the audience know you’re on the same wavelength they are.
4. Comedians know how to die.
Every comedian dies on their arse.
The bolder they are the more they die and the better they end up being - take Eddie Izzard, who, legend has it, died for ten years solidly before the world woke up to his talents. Or look at Bill Burr, who famously died so hard for ten solid minutes in front of thousands of in Philadelphia, he somehow ended up winning them over.
The point is, if you do ten gigs and die at one, that’s still 90% of the time the audience is liking what you do. Sarah Millican espouses what’s become known as Sarah’s Law - if you have a terrible gig, you have until 11am the next morning to wallow in tears and gin.
Then it’s onto the next gig, which will invariably go brilliantly.
Sarah’s Law works just as well for presentations that fall flat.
5. Comics play the gig in front of them, not the gig they expect.
You can’t be a decent comic without being adaptable to any room.
A gigging comic might arrive at what looks like a fetid den full of tattooed thugs, expect to be crucified and end the night carried out shoulder-high (in a nice way).
Or they could arrive at a lovely Arts Cafe, full of people who should definitely like jokes about Proust but who actually just stare at you, sorry, them in stony silence.
The best comedians truly live in the moment and make each gig feel like a one-off event. They’re fully engaged and adapting the the situation around them - not sticking to a script or an idea of how they want things to go.
Good presenters need to learn flexibility.
The mic doesn’t work. There’s noise bleed. A middle-aged man shuffles across the front row, loudly making his way to the toilet. The audience is younger/older/angrier than you thought. Doesn’t matter. Play the room you’re in.
Hopefully this was helpful. If you present a lot, or you’re about to, go to some gigs, pick up some tips. Just don’t heckle.
