PREPARING AND
DELIVERING AN
ENTERTAINMENT SPEECH
Lesson 3
• Entertainment speech enable speakers to connect with
audiences not only at the cognitive level but also at the
affective level.
• Speakers throughout the years have used entertainment
speeches to gain the sympathy and inclination of their audience
to their goals, purpose, and causes
• However, entertainment speeches are much more difficult to
prepare and deliver than informative or persuasive speeches.
• This is because the appeal is primarily to the emotions of
people through entertainment.
• This therefore requires a speaker to not only be informative
and persuasive but also to be entertaining.
• Unlike informative or persuasive speeches, audience reaction is
most critical in entertainment speeches. If the audience was not
entertained, then you could not have been said to have given an
entertainment speech.
• In preparing and delivering an entertainment speech, a speaker
must have a feel for what entertains an audience.
• This lesson assume that the word entertainment refers to light-
hearted humour, not entertainment in a board sense in which
horror, suspense, sadness, or even inspiration are considered
entertaining to an audience.
• An entertainment speech focuses on the feelings of an audience
and uses humor to make them more sympathetic to the speaker
and more open to his or her ideas, sentiments, goals, or
purposes.
Preparing an Entertainment Speech
I. Know your audience.
Different kinds of audiences need different ways of being
entertained. There would be comments that only a certain
group of people would find entertaining. An audience
composed of highly educated people is very likely to be
entertained differently from an audience composed laymen.
This includes their sentiments, values, allegiances, and
persuasions. You need to know these in order to think of a
comment that they would find to be funny. In addition, you
need to know how to know the kind of sense of humor that a
particular audience will have.
II. Learn from veteran speakers
• You will learn a lot by watching and listening veteran
speakers give entertainment speeches. In this age of
information, there are many opportunities especially
through the internet to watch and listen to different
videos or audios of speaker giving entertainment
speeches. You have the freedom to imitate their style.
Later, as you become more adept at giving entertainment
speeches, you may able to develop a style that is uniquely
yours.
III. Understand the available techniques of
producing entertainment and humor
• Many techniques of producing humor abound. Among them are
puns. Puns produce humor through the funny use of words. Another
technique is giving an unexpected result. This method of humor
starts by leading an audience to a particular train of thought and then,
instead of giving an expected remark or conclusion, you give
something totally unexpected.
• You can also produce humor by relating an embarrassing experience
unless you do so without identifying the person and with out giving
details that identify a person or group of people.
• Miscommunication can be very good source of humor as long as you
are sure that the audience will find the miscommunication to be
light-hearted.
IV. Understand the unacceptable
methods of producing humor.
• One unacceptable method from producing humor is giving sexually-charged jokes or
remarks. This method is relegated to places that are not considered part of respectable
society. Another unacceptable method for producing humor is toilet humor. This
consist of making remarks to taboo topics relating to the excretory system and other
less palatable aspects of human hygiene.
• This method is also relegated to places that are not considered part of respectable
society. A very unacceptable method for producing humor is producing humor to
someone’s expense.
• Producing humor at someone’s expense also happens when someone’s intellect or
character is insulted such as when that person did something that may be considered
derisive.
• A special note must be given in the use of sarcasm. Whether or not you employ
sarcasm in your speech will be greatly determined by the context and prevailing mood
of society at large. This means that the use of sarcasm is reserved for a seasoned
veterans who have developed in intuition regarding the possible reaction of audience
to it.
STEPS IN ACTUALLY WRITING THE ENTERTAINMENT
SPEECH
1. The backbone. The backbone of your speech is composed of the main ideas of a
narrative, informative, persuasive speech. Your introduction. Will be a statement
of your thesis, the main idea of your whole speech. Similarly, your conclusion
will be a creative restatement of the same thesis.
2. For each of your main ideas, add anecdotes, jokes, witty comments, and other
entertaining remarks that will capture the audience’s attention.
3. Write your thesis. Turn into your introduction by re-expressing it in a way that is
entertaining to your audience. Just as in writing tour other main ideas, you may
express it by combining it with an anecdote, joke, witty comment, or entertaining
remarks.
4. Restate your thesis as your conclusion. Your conclusion need not contain
entertaining remarks. Simply inviting your audience to accept your conclusion is
enough.
5. Edit your speech for grammar and word use. Refer to chapter 3 lesson 3 more
detailed discussion on grammar and word use.
DELIVERING AN ENTERTAINMENT SPEECH
I. TEST YOUR DELIVERY
You will need to practice delivering your speech to someone
whose background is very similar to your target audience. In
doing so, you will know which comment will work and which
one will not. You will know how your practice audience will
react to what you will say particularly if there is anything they
find offending or confusing. You will then make adjustments to
your speech based on the feedback you get. you may also test
how your practice audience will respond to your gestures, facial
expression, or other non-verbal movements. You can confer with
your practice audience after your speech about their reaction. You
can also ask your practice audience to give instant feedback
while you are still delivering your speech.
II. MAKE USE OF VERBAL AND
NON-VERBAL LANGUAGE
• Verbal and non-verbal languages increase the
possibility of entertainment. Even a comment
that is not very entertaining can be made more so
through the use of tone, change of voice, facial
expression, or gestures. However, be careful not
to be too reliant on them. Much of the
entertainment value of your speech should still
come from the content speech.
III. AVOID OVERUSED ROUTINES
• Overused jokes, gesture, or other elements can
bore your audience. When this happens your
audience will not be entertained and may even
find you irritating. However, you can still use
overused routines by introducing a new element
in them that your audience can find unexpected
and surprisingly entertaining.
ANY QUESTIONS?
