Purchasing

Mary Walker

Funtastic PowerPoint
January 7, 2008

Many of us that have been around for a long time have viewed literally hundreds of PowerPoint presentations. I don’t think anyone conducts a meeting anymore without the aid of the computer, projector and a big screen. You can have Excel spreadsheets, tables, charts graphs, circles, squares and project almost any kind of slide you want.

You know the scenario—you’re sitting at a meeting and the speaker gets up, turns on the LCD projector and starts up the PowerPoint. And it goes on. And on. Wouldn’t it be a good to number the slides 1 of 100, 2 of 100 so you would not have to wonder how many more slides has this guy has?

 
(Editor's Note: For those who haven't yet seen the now famous "Chicken" PowerPoint video, it pretty much sums up how many people feel. Watch it on YouTube here.)

In days gone by, when a speaker presented without the aid of PowerPoint, he or she always threw in a joke or two. Try using a humor slide in your next slide show. If the audience laughs, you know they are listening. This is encouraging when you are the presenter.

Malcolm Kushner has a solution to this. He is the author of Public Speaking for Dummies and Presentations for Dummies. As a humor consultant, Malcolm said the two questions he is asked most often are:

1. How can I use humor in a presentation if I can’t tell a joke? And
2. How can I find material?

The answer to both questions can be found on the web, specifically with an online tool called a generator. Well I thought a generator was a part of a car, at least in the old models. A car wouldn’t work without a generator--maybe a PowerPoint presentation won’t work without a little humor?

Web generators help you create, produce or generate something (hence the name). Go to

http://www.hetemeel.com/einsteinform.php. You will see a photo of Albert Einstein writing on a chalk board. The site lets you key in whatever words you choose, so it looks like Einstein wrote them on the board. Anyone can use this type of humor successfully.

You can use the bumper sticker maker http://www.redkid.net/generator/bumper/.

A wanted poster is another good one http://www.glassgiant.com/wanted.

Your presentation will be more interesting for everyone if you include a couple of humorous slides in your presentation. Malcolm Kushner is also the author of “Don’t Worry, Be Funny” available at www.museumofhumor.com. There are many articles available on the Internet expressing how to add a little humor to your speech. Just add a humor slide or two in your presentation.

Posted by Mary Walker on January 7, 2008 | Comments (1)