Business Presentation Training:
Comic Verse in Business Presentation

You probably already know the trick of using storytelling to illustrate a point in a business presentation, but often a short poem can also illustrate your point quicker and better. Poems can be inspiring and motivating as well as funny, and they also add variety to your presentation.

You must flawlessly memorize any poetry you use. Any stumbles will ruin the effect of the verse. If the verse is long, you may want to consider reading it, but recitation from memory will have more impact.

Poetry, whether funny or not, should be used sparingly in any business presentation. Always look for points that a piece of comic verse could illustrate. You don't want to use any kind of humor that does not support the main points you are trying to make with your business presentation.

POINT: Get going to achieve your goals. You have the tools, but you must pick them up and use them.

Sitting still and wishing
Makes no person great.
The Good Lord sends the fishes
But you must dig the bait.
--- Anonymous

POINT: Look forward, not backward.

The lightning bug is a brilliant thing
But the insect is so blind
It goes on stumbling through the world
With its headlights on behind.
--- Anonymous

POINT: Everyone starts at the bottom. That won't keep you from being great.

Do not worry if your job is small
And your rewards are few.
Just remember that the mighty oak
Was once a nut, like you.
--- Anonymous

Rewrite of the last verse (to increase humor and make the audience feel superior)

Do not worry if your job is small
With rewards that you can't see.
Just remember that the mighty oak
Was once a nut, like me.

POINT: Ride out the tough stuff in life.

When the tides of life turn against you,
And the current upsets your boat,
Don't waste those tears on what might have been,
Just lay on your back and float.
-- Ed Norton, The Honeymooners

POINT: If you have a problem, do something about it.

Life is real,
Life is earnest
If you're cold,
Turn up the furnace.
--- Herman Munster

LIMERICKS

POINT: Be careful whom you deal with.

There was a young lady from Niger,
Who smiled as she rode on a tiger.
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside,
And the smile on the face of the tiger.

POINT: Are you just coming along for the ride?

A silly young man from Port Clyde
In a funeral procession was spied.
When asked, 'Who is dead?'
He giggled and said,
'I don't know. I just came for the ride.'

POINT: Quit fighting, it's unproductive.

There once were two cats in Kilkenny.
Each cat thought that two was too many.
So they scratched and they fit
And they tore and they bit,
Til instead of two cats, there weren't any.

And during any business presentation, heed the famous words of Marie Antoinette: 'Keep cool when all is done and said, and above all remember: don't lose your head.'

 

Source: http://www.public-speaking.org/public-speaking-comicverse-article.htm

 

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