68 | 😂Minicast Mastery: The Humor Hack - Using Laughter to Drive Virtual Attention

Learn five simple humor hacks to boost engagement in your virtual presentations. Discover how laughter increases connection, focus, and authenticity online.

 

Want to instantly connect with your virtual audience?  Humor might be your secret weapon.  In this Minicast Mastery episode of the Virtual Presentation Skills Podcast, we reveal how to use laughter as a science-backed engagement tool in virtual meetings and presentations.

You’ll learn five quick humor hacks to help your audience connect, refocus, and remember you:

1. Know your style and stay self-aware.
2. Tell short, relatable micro-stories.
3. Use light visual humor (a slide or image that makes people smile).
4. Laugh with your audience, not at them.
5. Let your timing breathe — humor works best when it feels natural.

Even one authentic laugh can transform your virtual room — replacing fatigue with focus and formality with connection.

If you want to show up online with confidence, warmth, and personality, this episode will help you find the perfect balance between professionalism and playfulness.

🎧 Listen now — and discover how the humor hack can make your next online presentation your most engaging yet.

The best way to really understand the WHY behind the 7 steps of virtual communication, join us for a 30 minute training session:  🔗Group Virtual Office Audit Registration

👉 We would love to hear from you.  What do you do to regain your audience' attention?  Please send us an email at [e-mail] or connect with us on Linked-In or Instagram (virtualengage)

🔗Kimberli Gilbert Linked-In

🔗Kathy Gadinas Linked-In

 

 

Episode Transcript

(00:01):
Welcome back to the Mini Cast Mastery version of the Virtual Presentation Skills podcast.
This is the show where we mix professional wisdom, a dash of humor, and a lot of really cool brain science.
Guess what? We are so happy you are here today.
We get to share something about one of my favorite topics.

(00:25):
Yes, you got it.
It's humor and giggling and interjecting your own personality into your presentations.
The title today is The Humor Hack, using Laughter to Drive Virtual Engagement.
And believe it or not, you can learn to do this too.

(00:45):
I was doing a little bit of research today before we started to record, and I read that laughter is one of the simplest.
And most underused ways to bring your audience back.
Now, I'm really surprised that people don't use that very much.
Is that true? Yes.
I don't get it.
It's so completely true, and I have a reason why.

(01:11):
Remember statistically, most humans would rather go to the dentist than give a presentation live, and I can tell you after having coached 8,500 humans in more than 33 countries, most people come to me very nervous.

(01:33):
And very worried about the presentation they're going to give.
Because remember, as humans, we are incredibly self enchanted.
We were born that way.
Our brains are wired that way.
It's just an interesting fact to remember as you are building your own presentations and showing up in the 2D world.
And if you'd like to learn right away the foundation for six.

(01:56):
In the 2D world, visit virtual office audit.com
and join us for the next group virtual office audit.
Now, let's get back to laughter.
You know me in particular, I love to laugh.
I love to giggle.
Kathy and I both think we're very funny.
Yes, I have been told my entire life, starting from a very young child, Kimberly.

(02:19):
You just have the best to laugh.
If somebody can get me to giggle, you will hear me from across the room, guaranteed.
It'll be a big trade show or a big conference, and I've had many colleagues in the past say, oh, I knew where you were in the room because you're laughing louder than everybody else.
Well go figure however.

(02:41):
There are a lot of very nervous presenters.
Kathy, I'll challenge you to talk about one of the very first presentations you ever gave and whether or not you would've been able at that point in time to use humor in that presentation.
Now that I'm thinking about it, I feel like before I could use humor, I would have to be really confident in my speak.

(03:06):
What I'm talking about, how I look online, I think I would need to have the confidence before throwing out humor right.
I never really thought about that until just now.
Mm-hmm.
Yes, definitely.
And we have lots of episodes during the leadership rotation to speak to confidence and how to help you be a little bit more confident online.

(03:27):
Some of it is just growing into yourself and knowing who you are and feeling like Kathy said, very confident with your material.
I know.
The younger version of me giving a presentation for the first time, there was no way I was going to attempt any.
And I mean, any kind of humor.

(03:48):
Mm-hmm.
I was sweating bullets and so worried about the presentation and how I looked and what I was going to say and mm-hmm.
There wasn't any space in the training for me to think about humor.
Give yourself the space and the grace to insert a little bit of humor.
Because one thing I can tell you for absolute certain, after working with so many humans in so many different countries, everyone likes to smile.

(04:18):
Now, not everyone likes to smile publicly or giggle publicly, but they enjoy it, and there's neuroscience behind it.
We're talking about dopamine, oxytocin, endorphins.
I do a really good job of throwing myself under the bus.
I use myself as an example all the time.

(04:41):
Mm-hmm.
Because that's my style is just to peel back the curtain, open the back door, let you see what's going on behind the scenes.
Mm-hmm.
But I probably would not have been able to do that.
20 years ago when I was starting to present, unless I had a coach that said, you know what? It's okay.

(05:01):
It's okay for you to be your naturally bubbly self.
Just know your audience and know your target market.
We have five humor hacks that we can talk to our listeners about.
What do you think about that, Kimberly? Yes, I think five is great.
Why don't you just go ahead and roll through them.
the first one, which is similar to what you just got done.

(05:23):
Talking about Kimberly telling micro stories.
Just quick stories.
A visual humor.
I think this is funny, it talks about possibly having a slide of.
Just cats and we all have herded cats before, and that would make me laugh.
I think that's a really good one.
Also, sharing an experience that's humorous and then timing your humor.

(05:46):
Yes.
I love those.
So self-awareness, micro stories, visual humor, shared experience and timing, those are fantastic.
And we use visual humor in the group virtual office to audit.
If you think back to one of the very first slides, we have a slide where we've got people that have smiles on their faces.

(06:10):
.02974504You can tell that they're probably belly laughing, and that's because we want your presentations to end with a smile, not. 79 00:06:20,500.95219547 --> 00:06:27,383.476983 A frown, not frustration, not for your audience to walk away feeling confused. 80 00:06:27,383.476983 --> 00:06:30,503.476983 So that is built into the group virtual office audit. 81 00:06:30,773.476983 --> 00:06:30,893.476983 Mm-hmm. 82 00:06:31,83.476983 --> 00:06:33,3.476983 Virtual office audit.com 83 00:06:33,723.476983 --> 00:06:34,863.476983 now very quickly. 84 00:06:35,863.476983 --> 00:06:48,733.476983 We need to have a few boundaries to make sure we have a professional balance, because humor in virtual settings can be a bit of a sticky wicket. 85 00:06:49,468.476983 --> 00:06:52,318.476983 You don't want to create a standup routine. 86 00:06:53,318.476983 --> 00:06:53,438.476983 Mm-hmm. 87 00:06:53,738.476983 --> 00:06:56,888.476983 But you do want to be inclusive. 88 00:06:57,218.476983 --> 00:07:11,948.476983 For example, avoiding inside jokes or topics that are very divisive, using tone and body language to carry your natural warmth to the 2D world from your 2D environment. 89 00:07:12,518.476983 --> 00:07:15,68.476983 Keep it brief humor as a reset. 90 00:07:15,348.476983 --> 00:07:18,798.476983 Is important and then laugh with your audience. 91 00:07:18,798.476983 --> 00:07:20,268.476983 Never at them. 92 00:07:21,148.476983 --> 00:07:21,238.476983 Mm-hmm. 93 00:07:21,428.476983 --> 00:07:26,558.476983 let's just say when you make someone laugh online, you're changing the chemistry of the meeting. 94 00:07:26,588.476983 --> 00:07:30,668.476983 You're replacing fatigue with focus and formality, with connection. 95 00:07:30,968.476983 --> 00:07:34,658.476983 We have so much formality in our meetings. 96 00:07:34,658.476983 --> 00:07:36,158.476983 It's nice every now and then. 97 00:07:36,408.476983 --> 00:07:47,658.476983 For a little bit of humor, especially when you can throw yourself under the bus because you know, you are not the only one that's been in that situation. 98 00:07:47,958.476983 --> 00:07:49,368.476983 Yes, exactly. 99 00:07:49,758.476983 --> 00:07:59,208.476983 In a world where we have muted microphones and short attention spans, a moment of laughter is one of your most powerful. 100 00:07:59,510.67811615 --> 00:08:00,890.67811615 Engagement tools. 101 00:08:00,940.67811615 --> 00:08:04,870.67811615 Take a moment to join us for the next group Virtual Office Audit. 102 00:08:05,170.67811615 --> 00:08:07,300.67811615 Virtual office audit.com. 103 00:08:07,510.67811615 --> 00:08:22,600.67811615 In just 30 minutes, we'll fine tune your lighting, your camera, and your presence, so you might be able to feel comfortable and confident enough to share humor and laughter in your next presentation if it's appropriate. 104 00:08:22,870.67811615 --> 00:08:24,220.67811615 Kathy, this feels like a wrap. 105 00:08:24,245.67811615 --> 00:08:25,690.67811615 What do you think? It's a wrap. 106 00:08:26,575.67811615 --> 00:08:27,205.67811615 Perfect. 107 00:08:27,215.67811615 --> 00:08:38,555.67811615 If something about this podcast lit your brain on fire, please take a moment to share, download, like listen, send us a review. 108 00:08:38,555.67811615 --> 00:08:45,5.67811615 Engage with us online, Kimberly Gilbert on LinkedIn and Facebook. 109 00:08:46,5.67811615 --> 00:08:50,815.67811615 Kathy Godina on LinkedIn and also Facebook, and virtual Engage on Instagram. 110 00:08:51,680.67811615 --> 00:08:57,860.67811615 And we are also everything webinar on LinkedIn, everything webinar on Facebook. 111 00:08:57,860.67811615 --> 00:09:04,220.67811615 We've also got virtual presentation skills Mastery Mastery Group on Facebook. 112 00:09:04,730.67811615 --> 00:09:11,690.67811615 We look forward to seeing you in the next episode where we go live from the waist up.