133: No Joke: Using Humor for Effective Communications | with David Nihill

In honor of April Fool’s Day, a funny guest joins Jesse to discuss a seriously important topic … how to use humor to drive engagement in all of your communication opportunities.

David Nihill went from being deathly afraid of public speaking to hosting a business conference, regularly performing stand-up comedy, and winning storytelling competitions in front of packed houses. And he did it by learning from some of the best public speakers in the world: stand-up comedians. 

David’s new book is Do You Talk Funny?: 7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker. David shows how the key principles of stand-up comedy can be applied to speaking engagements, presentations, and other business content to make it funnier and more engaging. It offers a step-by-step approach for crafting stories and content that audiences want to hear.

David Nihill is the Founder of FunnyBizz, a community writer platform and conference series, where business meets humor to abolish boring content. His work has been featured in Inc., Lifehacker, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, and Forbes. A graduate of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School, he wears a tie, but only to bungee jump.

Resources Mentioned in This Episode

Book: Do You Talk Funny?: 7 Comedy Habits to Become a Better (and Funnier) Public Speaker

Free guide: 80 public speaking tips from the book

Public speaking website: http://www.7comedyhabits.com/

FunnyBizz website: http://funnybizz.co/

Conference: http://funnybizz.co/funnybizz-conference/

Twitter: @FunnyBizzSF

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

President Obama using joke structure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFcWz9eyovA

Ken Robinson example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b-Yxw67823I

Joke structure in TED talks: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HB0-s3uK_Y

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