Public Speaking Course:

Finding Humor for Specific Industries

Sometimes you need to look a little harder in order to find some funny stories or jokes that fit a particular industry your presenting too.
Some professions like police, law, or medicine have many individual books, newsletters, and articles that you find to get your material. But if you are a plumbing executive, or are speaking to the plumbing industry it is unlikely you could go down to your local public bookstore and find a plumbing joke book. This part of the public speaking course is very important to learn.

I recommend that you start a file as soon as possible and fill it with any humorous industry-specific information you find. A great place to start looking is in a trade journal for that specific industry. Almost every industry out there has one or more associated trade journals. If you're looking for humor to use in your presentations, sort through some back issues to find something funny you can use now. Virtually no one remembers the details of cartoons and jokes more than a month or so. Watch for industry newsletters so you can use some of their material. Check company bulletin boards regularly for funny signs and interesting postings. Using the skills you learned in your public speaking course involves knowing your audience and finding humor that relates to their specific industry.

The true devoted public speaker can go even further. You can call others
in the industry to look for stories or incidents that would be of
interest to your audience (remember to give credit). Collect everything you
can that is interesting and industry specific and soon you
will have the best collection around.

Don't forget to try the ever growing Internet as a source. Anytime I need to find something funny that is really specific, I simply type the keywords (ex. plumbing humor, or water humor) into one or more of the major search engines. Most the time something relevant will pop up. Though the internet might make for some good findings you must be ready to do some sorting through all the material before you will find something useful. Here are just some of the lines I came up with for the plumbing engineer group I did a presentation for. Note: these are the people who figure out how much water it takes to flush a toilet. hahaha

My wife's an earth sign. I'm a water sign. Together we make
mud. - -
Rodney Dangerfield

The shower is the greatest invention. I don't like to take a
bath. I don't like to wash my face in the water I've been sitting in.--
Lewis Grizzard

How come when you mix water and flour together you get glue ...
and then you add eggs and sugar and you get cake? Where does the
glue go?-- Rita Rudner
(and she could further the joke by saying, "Maybe my hips?")

Getting married is a lot like getting into a tub of hot water.
After you get used to it, it ain't so hot. -- Minnie Pearl

After completing your public speaking course you will be able to involve learning
and sharing of specific industry humor that relates to your audience.