Picture this: I walk into a seminar room filled with seventy hostile supervisors. My topic is “How to gain acceptance from your employees.” Your boss introduces me. There is no applause when I step on the platform. I stand for a moment in silence as I study the folded arms and downturned faces. I say, “I’m here today to teach you The Seven Most Successful Strategies for Skipping Seminars, and obviously you need help in this area.” Some light laughs. Some arms are uncrossed. Several faces look up.

On a slide above I list the topics on our agenda: How to fake a note from your doctor, self-cloning made easy, and whining your way to the golf course. People now sit more upright instead of slouching in their seats. Your boss seems nervous, but I have your permission to use this approach.

Laughter softens people enough to take the next step. They choose partners and I instruct them to tell each other what they would rather be doing. More smiles, more illuminated faces. I then open the floor to discuss what is important to them. Many say they need to learn how to deal with difficult employees, not impose agendas on them. Since that’s part of the seminar anyway, I’ll start with that topic. They seem much more open and willing now. Ironically, one participant asks, “How do you get a group of cranky and unwilling people to participate?” All I have to do is stand there with a wry smile on my face and the whole room will burst out laughing. The rest of the seminar is productive, creative and revealing. The boss is relieved. I thank you for trusting me.

This is just one example of how humor enhances, and in some cases saves, a speaker’s presentation.
Note that I say “humor” and not “comedy,” because the two are different. I never considered myself a comedian. He was rarely the person who told the latest joke, made mistakes, or played pranks on people. But I did notice that when people laughed, it was because he was telling a story or making an ironic remark. My first attempts at humor on the platform failed because I thought jokes were the only way to get a group going. The truth is that I didn’t have the talent, the time or the patience to write a good joke either. By first honing my innate humor skills, I eventually built up enough confidence to make groups laugh. After many years of researching a variety of forms of humor and working with dozens of speakers, I created a humor personality profile.

Too often I hear my clients say, “I’d love to make my audience laugh, but I’m not funny.” They are usually trying to be someone else. I think everyone (under the right circumstances) can make people laugh if they start where they feel comfortable.

I worked with an IT manager whose boss promoted him to sales. His rival was what I call a demonstrative humorist. She was lively and outgoing, captivating her listeners with impressions and playing with her audience. My client felt extremely intimate with this style. However, during our training sessions, she often made witty remarks about the sales process or hilarious, self-deprecating comments. He was more of a contemplative humorist. I encouraged him to take notes of his comments and use them during his sales talks. As it turned out, even though his style was more understated than his colleague’s, he won people over with his humility and being true to his own personality.

I also worked with an aspiring keynote speaker who thought she had to be a great storyteller like narrator speaker Jack Canfield. However, she found it difficult to understand the structure of the story and to tell anecdotes with animation. She had a very logical mind and liked to play with words. I suggested that he write a joke for her. She got Judy Carter’s book The Comedy Bible (Fireside, 2001) and put together a short stand-up act that she successfully delivered the material to her in a light-hearted manner.

There are five basic styles of humor. Use your intuition to see where your strengths lie. Protesters tend to be outspoken, people-oriented, lively, and impetuous. Comedians Robin Williams, Lucille Ball, Jim Carrey, and Carol Burnett did this profile. They are good at improvisation, cartoons, prints, and physical comedy. A good way to enhance these skills is through comedy improvisation classes.

The narrators are warm and people-oriented, but more indirect and diplomatic. Bill Cosby, Mary Tyler Moore, and Johnny Carson did this profile. His brand of humor stems from relationships between people. They are good storytellers and use audience participation well to elicit laughs. Try reading a book like A Story is a Promise by Bill Johnson (Blue Heron, 2000).

Asserters are natural leaders, task-oriented, and direct. Comedians David Letterman, John Cleese, Candice Bergen, and Roseanne did this profile. Affirmators tend to be drawn to jokes and biting humor. Check out the Judy Carter book I mentioned earlier or try a stand-up comedy class.

Contemplators are task oriented, but more indirect and analytical. Comedians like Steven Wright, Woody Allen and Ellen De Generes made this profile. They like clever phrases, observations and irony. Like the narrators, they are more low-key, but can just as easily win over the audience with their style of intellectual humor. Do the Comedy Writing Step By Step exercises by Gene Perret (Samuel French, 1990) to practice.

These styles are, of course, very generalized but they do provide a good overview of how personality affects humor. Most people display qualities of more than one style. This is ideal for a speaker, as he wishes not only to remain true to himself but also to attract the variety of styles that he will find in his audience. When he can easily switch between styles, or better yet, use them all at once, he knows that he has reached the Holy Grail of all humor styles, which I call the Creator.