Fun on the Platform

Believe it or not, speaking can be fun.

Oh, come on now, Bill. Don’t you realize just how terrifying it is to walk to the front of the room?

Well, maybe you could change your approach. What if you were to look for ways to make speaking fun?

I am going to go out on a limb here and guess that you have fun somewhere in your life, even if you are a complete and total curmudgeon. In fact, if you are a 24/7 curmudgeon, I suspect it is because you enjoy that role.

So, start with making a list of how you have fun, and then look for ways to incorporate that in your speeches.

Here are some examples from my list. Recognize that your list will be different, but, hopefully, this stimulates your thinking.

I enjoy saying fun words. That can take one of two directions. The first is words that sound fun. One of my favorites is “higgledy-piggledy.” Yes, that is a real word, and I am amazed at how often I find it in a book that I am reading. It means “confused, jumbled, or helter-skelter.” The word is fun just looking at—and is even more fun to say. And one bonus thought—it makes a great Word of the Day. Unlike those words that everyone ignores, club members typically enjoy using this one. Give it a try.

The other type of words I enjoy saying are those that feel fun when they roll off your tongue. As a narrator, I have read a lot of scripts. Some words and phrases are just downright fun to say. They have a feel to them.

Usually those words center around the vowel sound combinations. I was in a workshop one time and the speaker asked us what our favorite words were. Other attendees were saying words like “love,” “freedom,” and “grace.” I said “tornadic.” They thought I was crazy, for that is the adjectival form of tornado. But I didn’t care about the meaning. I love the combination of the short “o” and short “a.” “Prodigality” has the same combination. These words are fun to say. Other words that I enjoy saying include “ruminate,” “inveterate,” and “perfidious.” These words flow well and enable me to say them with a certain drama. The more I can incorporate fun words in my speeches, the better I do.

As a wordsmith, I also include rhetorical devices in my speeches. I especially enjoy triads. This is where you use three words or phrases together. I used two in the previous paragraph. Can you find them? Alliteration and rhyming are also common devices. Like the previous example, they feel good as they roll off the tongue.

Another technique to make speaking fun is to talk about topics that interest you. I enjoy talking about speech delivery techniques. And I am certainly more passionate about this topic than others.

One more area where I have fun is in being expressive. The more the topic and the word selection enables me to be dramatic, the more I enjoy speaking. That’s where those fun words come in, and part of that drama, for me, is in character voices. In fact, if I can create a dialogue between two characters, both with distinctly unique styles, the more fun it is. And if I am having fun, hopefully that enhances the experience for the audience members.

Those are ways that I have fun on stage. What about you? How do you have fun? And is there a way to bring that into your speeches?

And what if you are that curmudgeon that we talked about earlier? If you constantly look at life with a distasteful eye, maybe your message needs to be heard. That could be your niche within the speaking community, so have fun with it.

Can “speaking” and “fun” even be used in the same sentence without a negative word connecting them? Absolutely. It is all in how you approach speaking. Seek to have fun, and maybe you won’t be so apprehensive as you approach the platform. In fact, you might end up looking forward to the experience.

Hopefully that makes sense. After all, I would hate for it to be higgledy-piggledy.

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