Using humour –

                A good story can help get your message across and keep your audience interested and amused – people enjoy a little nonsense now and then.

        Much will depend on life experiences and these can vary greatly between countries and different social groups within a country.

        The essence of humour is that it should contain an element of surprise.

        You must enjoy the story or joke yourself if you want to tell it well.

A handful of tips on ways to make use of humour

* Select your story with care

        Consider the background and experience of the audience. Take care not to offend. Sexist and 

off-colour jokes could upset some people so select jokes that are suitable for the audience and relevant to the occasion.

        Before you tell your jokes in a foreign country test them out first on a local assistant to see if they will be understood.

* Make a collection  

        When you hear a suitable joke or story, jot it down for future reference.  It will be readily available for an appropriate occasion.

*  Make it your story

        Rewrite it. Put yourself into the story.

Make it topical, use local names and places. Revise it. Edit it. Rehearse it.

        Act it out using facial expressions and gestures in front of a mirror. 

* Practice, practice, practice!  

        Keep telling it until you get a good laugh every time. If there is a punch-line, pause, then make sure you deliver it loud and clearly.

* Build your own jokes

        File these jokes so you can use them with relevant topical references at the next appropriate occasion.

        Collect, revise, test, rehearse and practice are the golden rules for good storytellers.

-Geoffrey Moss (mossassociates.co.nz)

“If you aspire to be a leader it’s a sound investment to learn to tell humorous stories well.”

Source: “Persuasive Ways. ‘Tricks of the trade’ to get your ideas across”. First published by  Moss Associates Ltd., New Zealand and in Chinese by the Shanghai People’s Publishing House, the Singapore Institute of Management, Kogan Page Ltd, U.K and in Hungarian by Bagolyvar Konyvkiado.  Also published as the “Secrets of Persuasion” by Cengage Learning Asia and as an e-book and sold by Amazon.com.