I’m in Intro to Public Speaking right now, and I have to do a “how to” speech in two weeks. I figure I should start working on it now, because otherwise I’ll forget to write it at all. Step one: finding a topic.
I’m most comfortable speaking in front of people when I’m trying to be humorous rather than serious. I don’t worry whether or not people are going to find me funny when I’m trying to be. I do, however, worry about peoples’ reactions when I’m being completely serious. So I’m trying to find a topic to speak about that I will be knowledgable on, will interest the class, and has humorous potentional.
My ideas so far:
How To Survive in New York
How To Decorate the Redneck Way
How Not To Cook
For my how-to speeches in college, I did how to change a tire and how to make an origami swan. The origami swan was cool because I passed out origami paper to the class and had them follow along with me as I made a humoungous origami swan out of butcher paper.
(And I did my informative speech on dust. It was actually very interesting.)
I’d suggest you do your how-to on something that you already know “how-to” do. That makes it a lot easier. Or maybe something you are very interested in learning how to do so that you will be motivated to research and then write a humourous speech. Also, telling how to do something everybody already knows, like brushing your teeth, can easily be done humourously.
Some suggestions: (these are totally random off the top of my head so please don’t laugh at me if they’re lame.)
How to…
…do the dishes
…walk your dog
…kick an extra point
…fly-fish
…put on makeup
…save the planet (simple things individuals could do)
…pick up women/men
…become a clown
…make the PGA/LPGA tour
…put your contacts in
…give an insulin shot
…take a shower
…fold the laundry
…sign up for unemployment
…grocery shop on a budget
I remember one of my How To speeches was “How to correctly eat a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup” (inspired by the “There’s no wrong way to eat a Reese’s” commercials).
