August is festival season in Scotland and I've been making the most of it seeing shows at Edinburgh Fringe and Fringe by the Sea in North Berwick.
Earlier in the month over two nights I saw Russell Howard, Lou Sanders and a whole host of other comedians, and particularly enjoyed Spanish-Welsh comedian Ignacio Lopez, who was hosting the second evening. Russell Howard was the funniest for me, although of course comedy is subjective and what has one person crying with laughter might leave the person next to them completely cold.
I was mostly trying to switch off, enjoy the shows and resist the temptation to analyse everything through my presentation-trainer lens. However, it did get me thinking about just how skilled good comedians are at holding an audience's attention.
Of course, I'm not suggesting you turn your next business presentation into a stand-up routine. You don't need to be funny to be an engaging presenter and, in fact, trying too hard to be funny can sometimes have quite the opposite effect.
But comedians use a whole range of techniques that business presenters can borrow to make their presentations more interesting, memorable and engaging.
Tell stories rather than just sharing information
Much of comedy is storytelling. Comedians take us into seemingly ordinary situations – a conversation with a partner, something that happened on holiday, an encounter with a stranger – and make us want to know what happened next.
They give us enough detail to picture the scene and often bring the characters to life through dialogue, facial expressions and changes of voice. We become involved in the story rather than simply hearing about it.
Compare that with many business presentations, where we have a tendency to strip out the interesting bits and give people the conclusion, the data and a few bullet points instead.
You don't need a dramatic, life-changing story to make a point memorable. A brief story about a customer, a colleague, a mistake you made or a moment when something suddenly clicked can help your audience connect with an idea in a way that another slide full of information rarely will.
Create curiosity with open loops
Comedians are also brilliant at making us curious. They'll introduce something, take the story in another direction and leave us wondering how on earth they're going to get back to it.
Eventually they close the loop, sometimes much later in the set, which makes the payoff even more satisfying.
It's a technique presenters can use too. You might mention that something unexpected happened with a client and promise to reveal what it was later, or tell your audience at the beginning that there's one statistic that completely changed your thinking.
You've created an unanswered question and given them another reason to keep listening.
Just remember to close the loop. There's nothing quite like getting to the end of a presentation and realising you've forgotten to tell everyone what happened!
Use callbacks to connect your content
Related to open loops is another favourite comedy technique: the callback.
Something that was mentioned earlier suddenly reappears, often when you've almost forgotten about it, and because the audience is already in on the reference it creates a lovely moment of connection. Unlike an open loop, the audience isn't necessarily waiting for the callback.
Callbacks work beautifully in presentations too. You can return to a story, phrase, image or idea from earlier and use it to reinforce a later point. They're particularly effective at the end of a presentation, where referring back to something from your opening can give the whole thing a satisfying sense of completion.
It shows that you've thought about the presentation as a whole rather than simply working your way through a collection of slides.
Make your audience part of the experience
One of the things I love about live comedy is that no two shows are ever going to be exactly the same, because the audience is part of what happens.
A good comedian is constantly paying attention to the room, noticing reactions and responding to what's happening around them. Ignacio Lopez was particularly good at creating that sense of connection as host, making the audience feel part of the evening rather than simply a group of people sitting in rows watching it.
Business presenters don't need to launch into full-on crowd work, but there is plenty we can learn from this.
Ask genuine questions rather than rhetorical ones. Get a show of hands, invite people to consider how something relates to their own experience, pick up on a comment or reaction from someone in the room. And, most importantly, actually look at your audience and notice how they're responding.
There's a big difference between presenting at an audience and communicating with them.
Get comfortable with pauses
Timing is fundamental to comedy. A comedian knows that delivering the next line half a second too soon can completely change its impact, and they're often far more comfortable with silence than business presenters tend to be.
When we're nervous, many of us speed up. We rush to fill gaps, answer our own questions before anyone has had a chance to think and move onto the next point before the previous one has had time to land.
A well-placed pause gives your audience time to process what you've said and can add real emphasis to an important message. It can also make you appear much more confident and in control.
What feels like an eternity to you on stage is usually only a couple of seconds to everyone else.
Vary the energy
Watching several comedians over two evenings was also a reminder that there are many different ways to engage an audience. They had different personalities, styles, rhythms and levels of energy, and they weren't all trying to do the same thing.
That's worth remembering as a presenter. You don't have to become louder, more extroverted or more theatrical to be engaging, but you do need some variety.
Think about your pace and vocal tone, move between stories, information and questions and use a visual rather than another slide full of words. You can slow down for something important and pick up the pace when you want to create energy.
If everything is delivered in exactly the same way, even fascinating content can start to feel monotonous.
Prepare enough to be spontaneous
Perhaps one of the biggest things presenters can learn from comedians is that what looks spontaneous often isn't.
A line that appears to have popped into someone's head may have been tried, tweaked and tested in front of dozens of audiences. Stories have been tightened, unnecessary words removed and pauses carefully honed.
The same applies to presentations. Preparation isn't about memorising every word until you sound scripted; it's about knowing your content well enough that you're free to be present in the room.
When you're not desperately trying to remember what comes next, you can notice your audience, respond to what's happening, adapt if necessary and perhaps even enjoy yourself.
And ultimately, that's what those evenings at Fringe by the Sea demonstrated so well. The comedians were all different, and I certainly found some funnier than others, but the good ones understood that simply having good material isn't enough; you have to know how to deliver it in a way that keeps people with you.
The same is true of business presentations.
So no, I'm not suggesting you turn your next quarterly update into a comedy routine. But before you present it, it might be worth asking yourself: What could I borrow from a comedian to make this more engaging?
Your audience may not expect you to make them laugh, but they'd probably quite like you to keep them awake.
Mel Sherwood is a Presentation Skills and Personal Impact Speaker, Founder of The RED Effect® and Author of ‘The Authority Guide to Pitching Your Business: How to make an impact and be remembered - in under a minute!’ She works with business leaders, teams and individuals who want to be more confident, credible and compelling in their communication. An Australian based in Scotland, Mel is an award-winning speaker, author and coach and combines over 25 years’ experience in business with a background as an actor, presenter and singer.