Course Highlights

This improv comedy workshop for presenters will:

  • Outline the skills presenters can borrow from improv comedy.
  • Help presenters identify their speaking strengths.
  • Suggest concrete ideas for adopting confident body language.
  • Provide guidance for using examples and stories in presentations.
  • Offer advice for managing question-and-answer sessions.

Course Overview

Using improvisational comedy techniques to teach presentation may sound like “funny business,” and that’s because it is.  This course shows participants how to think on their feet, appear authentic, and build rapport with their audiences.  Through highly interactive improv games, class members will learn how to project a credible image, use stories to inform or persuade, and respond easily to interruptions, negativity, and other behaviors that can ruin a workplace presentation.

Despite its name, this course is not about learning to be a comedian.  Rather, it focuses on developing valuable platform skills using techniques from improvisational comedy.   

Program Objectives

At this program’s conclusion, participants should be able to:

  • Explain how learning improv comedy techniques can enhance workplace presentation skills.
  • Discover their presentation style and strengths.
  • Appear confident in front of a group.
  • Think on their feet.
  • Craft meaningful stories.
  • Use nonverbal and verbal messages to communicate their points.
  • Respond with ease to tough questions.
  • Apply the tools of improvisational comedy to their workplace presentations.

The following outline highlights some of the course’s key learning points. As part of your training program, we will modify content as needed to meet your business objectives. Upon request, we will provide you with a copy of the participant materials prior to the session(s).

Workshop Outline

The Frame Game: Understanding Improvisational Comedy

This program opens with a series of activities designed to get participants in the mood to improvise.  Once we have set the stage, group members will discover how lessons from improvisational comedy can help them increase their confidence and charisma when they speak in formal and informal settings. 

You’re a Natural: Finding Your Speaking Strengths

With practice, anyone can give a presentation and give it well.  Participants will work through exercises to find their natural strengths in this part of the program.  This course segment ends with an activity called Expert Interview.  During this exercise, group members will learn how to think on their feet as they respond to questions related to topics about which they know nothing.  This activity’s practical value is in the lessons participants will uncover related to thinking quickly and responding without hesitation.   

Personal Power: Conveying Confidence on the Platform

This program segment begins with an activity called Status.  The facilitator will randomly assign a status to each of the participants.  Then, without words, the group members will project their status using body language and other nonverbal cues.  Following the exercise, we will discuss how messages communicated by those assigned a higher status differed from the other participants’ non-verbal cues.  From there, we will compile a list of actions speakers can take to appear instantly confident and command a stage.

Sticky Presentations: Using Stories to Connect Content

Stories are the glue that holds a presentation together.  They are also what most people will remember long after they’ve forgotten other details a speaker shared. In this part of the program, participants will discover where they can find stories (everywhere).  Next, we will introduce a technique for advancing and expanding a narrative.  The group members will learn how to build a succinct and meaningful tale during this activity.

Show Me Something Good: Enhancing Messages with Action 

Building on the lessons learned in the previous segment, in this part of the workshop, participants will practice the art of “story showing” as they demonstrate their points instead of simply talking to them.  Storytellers will receive coaching and constructive feedback to enhance their platform skills throughout this activity.

Yes, And: Managing Audience Interactions

Participants will learn to manage even the most difficult audiences in this final portion of the workshop.  While playing the classic improv game, Yes, And, group members will discover how to respond professionally and positively to inflammatory statements and challenging questions.

By this program’s conclusion, those who participate should possess a handful of practical tools they can leverage the next time they must take the stage.