A very quiet audience

The words 'well-received' or 'went very well' appear rather a lot in this blog, especially when I am writing about delivering my talks My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer or The Power of Humour in Everyday Life. This is hardly surprising as these include anecdotes which I have honed in hundreds of speaking engagements, in some cases over a period of twelve years.

But, just ocasionally, I will come across an audience which just doesn't respond the way tens of thousands of other listeners have. I had such an experience on 19 September at an evening booking in my local area.

I last spoke to this particular group in 1999 and I was struck by how the attendance has diminished since then. There were just 14 there this time (12 men and 2 women), a drop of about 50%, Now, I have blogged in the past about how small audiences can be very responsive, such as this one last year. That wasn't the case here. From the moment I started, I was getting very little reaction, just odd laughs here and there, never the whole audience together. 'Tumbleweed'. One man directly in front of me yawned and made no attempt to cover his mouth. Another looked at his watch just a few minutes in. And, in one of the more ill-mannered displays I have encountered recently, someone started loudly jangling the coins in his pocket.

I started using different techniques, such as delivering in a more exaggerrated, stand-up style and drawing the audience in by asking questions. There is a section towards the end of My Life as... where I include a number of unintentionally funny press cuttings. These normally go fantastically well so I changed my running order and introduced these much earlier - to little effect.

Humour is subjective, of course, but this was tried and tested material. Sometimes when I'm speaking, I will notice that an audience prefers the real-life anecdotes while another might respond more to the humorous descriptions of my work for radio or TV appearances but this group just didn't seem to go for any of it.

There is a story I usually finish this talk with called the Blair-Nick Project (it's in my booklet Nick R's in a Twist!) It's a great anecdote with the minimum of embellishment and a killer pay-off. It not only gets a huge laugh, it also usually draws a round of spontaneous applause. I have been ending on it for eight years and if this one doesn't grab them, then I am left feeling that well, it wasn't me, it was them! Sure enough, even this didn't get much of a laugh.

After the talk, I took the odd question and then chatted. The members were friendly, there were some complimentary comments and a couple of people were even good enough to buy booklets but I was left wondering why on earth they had booked me and indeed, why they would book any speaker. What must it be like delivering a factual presentation there that isn't even humorous?

I appreciate the booking and fee, the comments afterwards and the merchandising but I wanted to write about this engagement honestly so I have decided to do something very unusual for this blog and keep their identity anonymous. I am not sure that I would go back there.

Public Speaking Tip #247: However many times you have delivered a particular presentation with great success, however finely you have honed the material, however much praise you have received for it afterwards, you will still, every so often, encounter an audience that just doesn't go for it, whatever techniques you apply to try and improve their response. Getting through this adds to your experience and besides, think how dull public speaking would be if every engagement was predictable!

In my early days as a speaker, I had quite a few like this (and worse) and I would feel pretty numb for days afterwards! Today, this happens so rarely that I can just shrug it off, especially as I have delivered this material so often and so successfully. But what kept me going to the end of this presentation instead of saying 'Well, I'm sorry, ladies and gentlemen, this isn't working for anyone. Why don't we just forget the fee and I won't waste any more of your time?' (This is something which I have never done anywhere, incidentally!)

In addition to the confidence gained from past experience, there are other resources which I draw upon. There are my LAMDA Public Speaking qualifications (Bronze, Silver, Gold Medals and Associate Diploma, all gained within my first year as a speaker: 1996). I will blog in detail about these at a later date. And then there is my Equity card.

When I started going to Broadcasting House to attend BBC radio comedy writers' meetings, many years before I ever even considered becoming a speaker, some of the senior writers were also stand-up comics from the London circuit who were members of Equity. That all seemed a world away from anything I could achieve.

When I became a speaker, my comedy scriptwriting stood me in good stead and my material made up for a lack of personality in my delivery. Even though I had passed all these public speaking exams my talks still needed something more. If the quality of the material wasn't drawing laughs on its own, I would just carry on to the end, pretty much on autopilot, focusing on the fact that the next booking would probably be better. And most of them were.

And then in 2000, having completed a couple of hundred speaking engagements, I plucked up the courage to apply for an Equity card. I submitted paperwork from a number of recent bookings and forthcoming work plus a detailed CV covering all my entertainment industry/media experience.

I was accepted and from that moment on, I felt like a performer. If an audience seemed reserved, I would step up a gear with my delivery. The results were immediately noticeable and I improved enormously. It really made a huge difference to my speaking and on the rare occasions like the booking I have written about here, I know that at least I have given it my best shot.

Equity in the UK is currently on a recruitment drive using the slogan 'Proud to be a member' (and I am). The monthly subscription fee is very good value and there are numerous advantages in terms of legal help over contractual disputes, public liability insurance and much more. Their website is here.

There are, of course, some 'qualifications' which are awarded just for turning up for a course and organisations which anyone can join if they simply pay the fee but you can really increase your credibility and therefore your confidence as a speaker if you can succeed in an area where there is a risk of failure or rejection, such as taking an examination like those offered by LAMDA or applying to join an organisation with minimum requirements for membership, such as Equity.

Public Speaking Tip #248: You can gain extra backbone as a speaker from qualifications, such as recognised external examinations or membership of professional bodies which have standards for acceptance.