In this week’s episode of Ongoing Mastery: Presenting & Speaking, Kirsten talks with Heather Tolley-Bauer about comedy and connecting with audiences. Find out the first rule of using humor and the difference between telling a joke and creating an atmosphere of levity.

Our favorite moments:

• (01:38) The first rule of comedy is you have to know your audience
• (02:08) Health benefits of laughter
• (02:22) Laughter builds trust, likeability, connection
• (05:27) Humor evolves over time and is tied to culture
• (07:10) If you’re going to have a good comedy game, you need a good apology game, too
• (09:50) You have to have a good command of language to be a good comedian   
• (10:51) Listening is key to Heather’s client research
• (11:40) Comedy has to elevate something and/or someone
• (12:35) The difference between telling a joke and creating an atmosphere of levity
• (13:44) Humor often doesn’t work in business communication because it’s not authentic
• (15:02) Not knowing your one main idea holds people back from successful communication
• (16:16) You can’t stay stagnant
• (16:47) The biggest point: it’s not about you; it’s about what your audience wants and needs to hear

If you enjoyed this conversation about why speakers need to stay current about humor and popular culture, check out Season 2, Episode 15: Do Experienced Speakers Need Ongoing Mastery? The link is in the show notes.

Rourke Training’s webpage: https://www.rourketraining.com/

Ongoing Mastery: Presenting & Speaking page: https://ongoing-mastery.captivate.fm/

RSS feed: https://feeds.captivate.fm/ongoing-mastery/

Read a transcript of this episode:  https://share.descript.com/view/0b4kDVBL9y8

For the video version of this episode: https://youtu.be/x1nDDOER740

• S2 Ep25: Ongoing Mastery: Presenting & Speaking – Do Experienced Speakers Need Ongoing Mastery?
• Venn diagram – Wikipedia
• Groupthink | Psychology Today
• Kevin Hart – Rotten Tomatoes
• Urban Dictionary: Punching down
• Heather’s LinkedIn profile
• HyphenUp – Comedy for Women and Couples
• Heather on Instagram
• Black Hat | Home

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kirstenrourke/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kirstenmalenarourke

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kirstenrourke?lang=en

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/rourketraining/

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Kirsten Rourke CEO of Rourke Training

Kirsten Rourke is the mouth and mind of Rourke Training, LLC. She is on a mission to create engaging communication in online and in-person presentation and speaking spaces. Kirsten is the creator of the Prep, Practice, & Pivot method for elevating presenting and speaking skills. She works with leaders to transform online educational, sales, and corporate events to meet business and learning goals. She has spoken, coached, trained, and facilitated for thousands of companies internationally since 2000. She speaks on and provides expert coaching on Public Speaking, Running Virtual Events, Instructional Design, Storytelling, and Creating Online Engagement. In addition to being a Certified Technical Trainer and Certified Online Training Professional, she also has a Master’s of Education in Instructional Design. She also runs a podcast and community, Ongoing Mastery: Presenting and Speaking, to support development and improvement in creating successful, targeted results in pitches, sales presentations, training, and high-stake events.