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./ Mindvalley Talk (+link): Name of Speaker: Date of Talk and Number of Views:
RE (>10min) and complete the
CT following grid. If you run out of THE SKILL OF HUMOR June 2017
IO space on the grid for any of your Andrew Tarvin 10 848 113 views
answers, feel free to continue
NS
writing/typing on the back of this
sheet.
What was the speaker’s thesis (main point) of this speech? Describe two things this speaker does well in terms of engaging the audience. Be sure to
include the minute: second mark (ex: 8:49) to denote the two specific moments you discuss
Humor is a must-have. But the reality is that humor is a skill, and here.
if it’s a skill, that means we can learn it. 1. A lot of puns and jokes. Andrew Tarvin is a humorist. In 2012, he left his corporate job
at Procter & Gamble to teach people about the value of humor. He has worked with more
What group of people would benefit the most from hearing this than 35,000 people at more than 250 organizations on how to be more productive, less
lecture? stressed, and happier, using humor. So, he is well-versed in this topic.
He constantly using puns, jokes and funny stories from life to engage the audience into the
I reckon that such topic would be beneficial for someone who is speech. (Ex: 0:27 – 1:22; 3:23 – 3:52; 4:30; 4:39 etc.)
interested in developing his/her humorous skills, charismatic
features etc. 2. Visuals. The speaker shows a presentation and pictures through his whole speech. It
also helps a lot in terms of catching the attention of the viewers, because it includes funny
pictures, some pictures which are very closely related to the speech, jokes also often based
on the visual aspect. (Ex: 4:53; 4:03; 17:33 – 18:27; 14:23 -14:43)
If you could ask this speaker a question Write two specific things you learned from this presentation. Give one piece of constructive criticism that would
about his/her information or presentation, 1. I really have learned that such thing as humor can be improve the presentation.
what would you ask?
acquired as a skill, and it can improve as well.
Because of very fast pace of the speaker, it was
I would probably ask him who are his sometimes hard to catch him up in terms of the
2. In today’s overworked, underappreciated, stress-
favorite comedians. I am myself into ideas he wants to develop. So, I would prefer if
filled, sleep-deprived culture, humor is a necessity.
comedy and I love watching different
Because humor gets people to listen, it increases long-term the lecturer was at times a bit slower.
stand-ups etc.
memory retention, it improves understanding, aids in
learning and helps communicate messages.

Ethos is a speaker’s ability to build credibility, establish himself/herself as an expert, and/or convince the audience members that the speaker has their best interests at heart. How
does this speaker build ethos? Feel free to also refer to the speaker’s profile information from the ted.com webpage (or other resources) as you build your answer.

Andrew Tarvin is the world’s first Humor Engineer teaching people how to get better results while having more fun. He has worked with thousands of people at
200+ organizations, including P&G, GE, and Microsoft. Combining his background as a project manager at Procter & Gamble with his experience as an
international comedian, Andrew’s program is engaging, entertaining, and most important, effective. He is a best-selling author, has been featured in The Wall
Street Journal, Forbes, and TEDx, and has delivered programs in 50 states, 18 countries, and 3 continents. Given the above information, there is no doubt that
the author really understands the topic of speech, he is a professional in his field.

He mentions such fact about himself: “Because in 2012, I left my corporate job at Procter & Gamble to teach people about the value of humor. I’ve worked
with more than 35,000 people at more than 250 organizations on how to be more productive, less stressed and happier, using humor. But when people hear
what it is that I do, they are a little bit sceptical, because no one thinks of humor as a bad thing.” He sounds very passionate about what he is doing in his life
and this helps build ethos within the lecture.

Besides these, Andrew also gives real life examples on how to use, advance your humorous skills. (ex: 7:17; 9:33; 11:02)

“If we can use «Yes, and» to create humor, we can also use «Yes, and» as a way to connect with other people. We can think of that
stereotypical small talk conversation where people are like, «Ah, how about this weather?» You say, «Yes, and if you were not at this
event right now, how would you be out enjoying the weather?» And we can turn an awkward conversation into something more
meaningful where you learn about the person. «With beautiful weather, I go outside, or I go hiking or swimming». If you’re me, you stay
inside, because you’re very pale. I like to use SPF building; it’s the best protection.”
Pathos is an appeal to emotions (everything from humor to horror) in order to sway an audience, while logos is the use of data/evidence to prove one’s case. Did this speaker rely
more on pathos or logos in his/her presentation? What argument/point in this presentation did you find the most compelling? Why?

The whole speech is built on humor, funny stories from personal life, even anecdotes. It is right to say that the lecturer prove his case more through logos, well,
I would say it is quite obvious.
For example:
“I’ll tell you, the funniest person I know is my grandmother, the one that texts me. And she’s elevated her game from texting to Facebook. She’s now on
Facebook and she comments on every single one of my status updates. And I can’t tell if my grandmother is the nicest, most sincere grandmother in the world,
or if she is secretly trolling me.
A couple of months ago, I posted, «I’m trying to decide if I should become an athlete or a criminal, so I made a list of pros and cons». My grandmother’s
response was one word: «Funny». I was like, «I don’t know. Does she think it’s funny, or is she messing with me?» A couple weeks later, I posted, «I think a
cosy bar that serves figs would make for a plum date spot». My grandmother’s response was, «Ha, ha». And I was like, «There’s something about the comma».
And I’m like, «She’s messing with me». Then a couple weeks ago, I posted, «Converting the numbers 51, 6 and 500 to Roman numerals makes me LIVID». My
grandmother’s response was, «Hey, this one is actually good». Trolled by my own grandmother.” (9:17)

Although it is worth noting that instead of the pronoun “we”, the author of the speech uses a more general word – “people”.

Vocabulary (write 10 words/phrases from the speech and explain their meaning)
1. nice-to-have – a feature that a product or service being designed would ideally have, though it may be impractical at present
2. to back out – withdraw from a commitment
3. to encode – be responsible for producing (a substance or behaviour)
4. personality assessments – a proficiency in professional psychology that involves the administration, scoring, and interpretation of empirically supported
measures of personality traits and styles
5. outlook – a person's point of view or general attitude to life
6. inclusive statement – not limited to certain people
7. heighten – make or become more intense
8. staircase wit – thinking of an idea or course of action too late to use it effectively, or the tendency to do so
9. primed to – prepared for a situation, typically by supplying them with relevant information
10. fig – инжир

Notes:
Type of speech to inform – speech about concept.
Type of persuasion – speech on question on policy.
Degree of persuasion – neutral.