This is a great list of tips for public speaking.

A couple of thoughts, prompted by this episode...

I have given talks to hostile audiences, or at least audiences with some hostile attendees.  I have given talks where there are attendees that are only there owing to having been told that they must be there (typically by their boss).  Body language usually gives these people away.  Once they are recognized as hostile, they can mostly be ignored, allowing the speaker to focus on the people who indeed have chosen to be there.  However, the hostile attendee is very rare.

I have found, when including humour, it is best to avoid a pause after the humour is delivered.  There is a tendency to pause to allow the audience to respond with laughter, however, if the humour does not succeed, the pause will be very awkward.  It is much better to go straight to the next statement after the humour.  If the humour worked and there is laughter, a pause mid-sentence (post humour) is fine.  Start the interrupted sentence over when the laughter diminishes and all is good.  If the humour did not work, the lack of a pause allows the audience to continue listening and often not even notice that there was a unsuccessful attempt at humour and the speaker does not suffer the embarrassment of appearing to try to be funny.  Pauses are good, but tricky when they follow humour.


Just some thoughts from listening to this very good episode.  


Cheers!