If you intend using humor in your talk to make people smile, you must know how to identify shared experiences and problems. Your humor must be relevant to the audience and should help to show them that you are one of them or that you understand their situation and are in agreement with their point of view. Depending on whom you are speaking to, the problem will be different. If you are talking to a group of managers, you may refer to the funny methods of their secretaries; alternatively if you are addressing secretaries, you may want to talk about their fool bosses.
Here is an example, which I heard at a nurses’ meeting, of a story which works well because the audience all shared the same view of doctors. A man arrives in heaven and is being shown around by St. Peter. He sees wonderful accommodations, beautiful gardens, sunny weather, and so on. Everyone is very peaceful, polite and friendly until, waiting in a line for lunch, the new arrival is suddenly pushed aside by a man in a white coat, who rushed to the head of the line, seizes his food and sits at a table by himself. "Who is it" the new arrival asked St. Peter. "Oh, that’s God," came the reply, "but sometimes he thinks he’s a doctor."
If you are part of the group which you are addressing, you will be in a position to know the experiences and problems which are common to all of you and it’ll be appropriate for you to make a passing remark about inedible can food or the chairman’s bad taste in ties. With other audience, you will be on safer ground if you stick to scapegoats (替罪羊) like the Post Office or the Bank.
If you feel embarrassed being humorous, you must practice so that it becomes more natural. Include a few casual and spontaneous remarks in a relaxed and unforced manner. Often it’s the delivery which causes the audience to smile, so speak slowly and remember that a raised eyebrow or an unbelieving look may help to show that you are a light-hearted remark.
To make your humor work, you should ______.