Volume 55 - June 2011

Printer Friendly version

Humorous speaking

special

• It is not only the presenter who benefits from making a presentation to an audience. It is also an opportunity for the person who introduces and thanks the speaker (see below).  
• Also, the relaunch of the John Fytit's International Legal Problem Page

Paul Brennan

Editor

Author of The Law is an Ass...Make Sure it Doesn't Bite Yours!

info@lawanddisorder.com.au

 The  seven highly effective habits of introducing a speaker

Introducing a speaker is an opportunity which is often badly done. 

Here are seven things to consider the next time that you introduce a speaker:

• Prepare or, at least, have some idea of what you are going to say.
• Ask the speaker how they would like to be introduced.  Look for something that connects this speaker to the audience, you may be in the best position to identify the connection.  Avoid saying how you met the speaker unless it will help the audience relate to the speaker.  Audiences hate love fests between the introducer and speaker if it does not include them.
• Don’t read out the part of the flyer promoting the speaker as the audience has probably read it and you will lose their attention.  The flyer is a useful starting point to decide what you are going to say but you will find more material on the speaker’s website the night before.
• If the speaker gives you a written introduction, unless they ask you to read it out word for word, don’t.   Do not tell the audience that you are reading out the introduction given to you by the speaker, as has happened to me on more than one occasion, as it makes the speaker feel stupid.
• Tell the speaker that you are about to introduce him or her, it ensures that there is no embarrassing gap between your introduction and the speaker arriving at the lectern.
• Have a note of what you are going to say or at least, write down the speaker’s name and his subject, as getting this wrong can be embarrassing.
• For those of you who do not do “game show host” at least try to let the audience know that this is going to be good/thrilling and that you are not wasting their time.  Start clapping at the end of your introduction and the audience will clap with you, stand at the lectern until the speaker arrives, shake hands, it builds the moment.

Although, an introduction is not about you, it could be if you do it well. 

 JF

Extract from How to Make a Funny Legal Presentation ....... and other things that they did not teach you at law school a book by Paul Brennan to be released shortly.

(c) Paul Brennan 2011. All rights reserved. 

Click here for books, eBooks and CDs by Paul Brennan.

How to thank the guest speaker

- the five advantages

After a certain age thanking the guest speaker can become speaker’s favourite position.  Sad I know. 

There are basically five advantages of this short speaking opportunity which are:

• Audiences expect very little, in fact nothing and would prefer a quick on and off so they can get on with the raffle. 
• You do not have the responsibility of spending hours preparing a speech. 
• You do not need to prepare  before the event, but you do have the entire length of the speaker’s presentation to decide what to say.
• There is always plenty of material in the speech that you are listening to, sometimes a little too much.  So do not worry about being stuck for words.
• Commenting on a speaker’s content can appear to the audience as off the cuff and it is.

Here are three tips:

• I try to find points that would link the speech to one or more people in the audience to turn into one liners which hopefully raise a laugh.
• As the speech progresses, I note points down and as new points arise I cross out point after point until I am left with the three best ones.
• With five minutes to go before the end of the speech, I put the three points in order and mull them over.

The speakers is usually flattered that you paid enough attention and can trot out three things that they have said. 

Thanking the guest speaker is usually interpreted as saying how much you enjoyed it and how good they were.  However, I suggest that you avoid being ingratiating and sickly as it bores the audience unless it is dead short (funerals excepted).  Of course, if I am the speaker, go for your life.

(c) Paul Brennan 2011. All rights reserved. 

Click here for books, eBooks and CDs by Paul Brennan.

John Fytit’s International Legal Problem Page.

YOUR LEGAL QUESTIONS ANSWERED

Dear John

My lawyer has nagged me for years about making a will.  He said it is one of the cheapest legal things that I can do.  I finally gave him instructions but he expressed no joy at my change of heart. He then charged me like there was no tomorrow.

What's going on?

TN, Mauritius

Dear TN,

In the past, there was always an unspoken understanding that a client, having made a will, would do the right thing and promptly fall off the perch.  Now, even clients who have every intention of pegging it, seem to hang on.

Medical practice has changed. It used to be three score years and ten and that was your lot but now doctors  seem to go all out to keep people going. Losing a few patients, here and there, no longer seems acceptable to the medical profession. Doctors say that they are just trying to meet the elevated expectations of relatives as a result of hospital dramas.

Worse still, clients are being encouraged by well-meaning financial planners and others in the finance industry to make wills long before they have any intention of dying at all.  

Therefore, will prices which have traditionally been based on a quick turnaround, have had to go up. Some firms keep prices down by offering an Early Bird Discount to try to attract the more serious players who although dying still find it hard to resist a bargain. 

Try saying that you haven't been feeling well that may help.

JF

Send your legal questions to john.fytit@lawanddisorder.com.au

Warning:

1. Relying on legal advice from a fictitious cartoon character although cheap is imprudent.  However your own lawyer is always available as a poor second.
2. John will try to deal with your question in this eZine.  As John is a two dimensional cartoon character it will not be possible for him to enter into personal correspondence with readers. 
3. John like some other lawyers is not to be trusted with serious legal questions.

John Fytit is the name of the central cartoon charter in Law & Disorder cartoons which started in Hong Kong in 1992. He is from the fictitious Hong Kong firm Fytit & Loos (pronounced “Fight it and Lose”). A very unsuccessful name as people read “Fytit” as “Fit it”. The International Problem Page started in 2005.

(c) Paul Brennan 2011. All rights reserved. 

Click here for the relaunched "John Fytit’s International Legal Problem Page". Extracts also appear at 101 Reasons to Kill All the Lawyers Blog at http://101reasonstokillallthelawyers.com/

The next legal cartoon app called "Lawyers in Love" will contain a series of legal cartoons to appeal to lawyers and anyone who is romantically involved with a lawyer or thinking of it.

It will have international application as the mating habits of lawyers are thought to be the same for the 1M lawyers in the USA, the 1M lawyers in India, the two lawyers in Adelaide and the millions of other lawyers around the world except maybe those in Toronto and Essex. 

The App will feature cartoons which have appeared in the Hong Kong Tatler and legal magazines internationally.

Offers of sponsorship are invited from companies, other publications, educational institutions, law firms, government bodies etc.  For a sponsor pack please send an email to info@lawanddisorder.com.au

Sunshine Coast Speaking Events :

Paul Brennan will be

• MC at the Business Referral Club at the Bob Ansett Breakfast for details and to book go to
• http://thebusinessreferralsclub.eventbrite.com/
• speaking on IP at the National Institute of Accountants on Wednesday 22 June 2011 at 6pm.  For further details and to book contact Malcolm Chilman.

Disclaimer: The content of the Law & Disorder eZine is to give you legal basics and in some instances included unashamedly to try and make you laugh.  In law it is sometimes difficult to work out what is serious and what is just for fun.  Therefore, if you plan to do anything legal, rely on your own lawyer’s advice or instruct me to look at the particular facts of your case.  Not only will I deny responsibility for the legal content but also for some of the jokes.