One way to use humour effectively is to break down the barriers with your audience. You can use it to address uncomfortable things, call out the ‘elephant in the room’, say the thing that everyone is thinking and dissolve basically anything that will stop people from listening to you.
Once those barriers are broken down, it will be much easier for the audience to listen to your message.
Let’s See it in Action:
In the video example below – Bono from U2 (incase you are under 25!) won the British Glamour Magazine’s ‘Woman of the Year Award’. Yes you read that right. The – WOMAN – of – the – Year.
Riiiiiiiigggggghhhhhhttttt!!!
Let’s try and look past that seemingly impossible feat for one moment – and put yourself in Bono’s shoes. Do you reckon that he may have had a slightly hostile crowd when he went to accept that award? Do you think that they may have been slightly confused?
You betcha!
So the barriers to his presentation were probably bigger than the wall that Trump dreams of building one day! If Bono didn’t address this upfront and call out the ‘elephant in the room’ he would have had a much harder time getting the main point of his message across. (Which is brilliant by the way – but a discussion for another time).
So please watch this video and see how Bono uses humour to break down the barriers.
