Public Speaking Book - Wake 'Em Up! |
||
|
MalapropsIn my public speaking book I define a malaprop as an absurd misuse of words. You might be wondering why you would want to use malaprops during your program? Wouldn't that be confusing for your audience? Let me explain this concept further. It can be from words that sound alike (sadistic and statistic) or from explanations and definitions that don't make any sense. With what you will learn in my public speaking book, you can use these on purpose as a humor technique during your presentation. In my public speaking book you will learn how to effectively use malaprops to catch the audience's attention. The great comedian Norm Crosby, who is best known for accepting "standing ovulations" when he performs, has made a living out of the funny misuse of words. In real life though, malaprops are usually uttered by people who don't even realize their "fox paws". A friend of mine who is a fund-raiser for a stuffy Washington, D.C. art society, told me of a truly comical incident that took place during a meeting. The humorless director stood at the conference table in an effort to put an out-of-control meeting back on track and said, 'I fear our discussions are tangenital to the issues at hand.' TANGENITAL! My friend looked around at the other people who were all fighting back laughter. She had to excuse herself from the meeting to keep from laughing right in the face of the old windbag. As taught in my
public speaking book a flexible public speaker who was truly in
touch would have: Someone who is a professional would make the mistake on purpose to get a laugh from the audience. I have learned in my years of writing comedy skits, that many times the mistakes are much funnier than the planned program. Now I plan mistakes when appropriate. To make this more foggy, I'll explain in one sentence. I learned that when I plan something and then I mess up the plan, the plan becomes funnier than the plan I planned to use, so now I plan to mess up the plan so the plan is planned to be funnier than a plan that is not planned to be messed up. Get it? Good, because you need to hear loud and clear what I'm writing here so you bunglestand it. As taught in my public speaking book, malaprops can be used just for fun or to grab attention while making a serious point. Take for example Sam Goldwyn's classic, 'A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.' I don't know if Sam said this one on purpose or not. I wasn't around in the 1940s to ask him. I do know that the message is clear and has stood the test of time. If he had simply said, 'Contracts should be in writing' who would remember? When using malaprops in your presentation make sure the malapropism is obvious, or your audience may think you are not too bright. If you do get caught in an accidental misusage, you MUST acknowledge your blunder. If you don't, you will absolutely lose your audience who will be thinking about the blunder for several minutes after the fact. They will also note that you are trying to be an absolutely perfect robot that couldn't possibly make a mistake. This will turn them off and make communication extremely difficult. All you have to do to acknowledge the blunder is to refer to a quotation from Mark Twain and turn it on yourself. Say a self-effacing humorous prepared ad-lib: "If Mark Twain can spell a word in more than one way, I should be able to say a wrong word at the right time." Or the right word at the wrong time? If you don't like that one, make-up an ad-lib on your own. To make effective presentations, you must appear human to those you speak to. Humans make mistakes. That's part of life. In my public speaking book I teach that when you make a mistake you can use it to your advantage, to connect with your audience. Consider some of the classic examples below: Casey Stengel: Goldwynisms: As Archie Bunker says, 'Case closed, ipso fatso.'
|
Be a paid public speaker
|
|
|
Copyright © 2005 Antion & Associates |
||
