The number three is a magical number in the English language. We see it in movie titles as in \u201cThe Three Stooges, The Three Musketeers and The Three Amigos,\u201d we see it as far back as being the most famous phrase in the Unites States declaration of independence – \u201clife, liberty and the pursuit of happiness\u201d, and we see it\u00a0by speakers and comedians all across America.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know why this is so. We can theorize the reason for this phenomenon from today till tomorrow, and in fact some people have, but my philosophy is, \u201cif something works – just go with it!\u201d\u00a0Why spend your energy trying to figure out the \u201cwhy\u201d of it when you can just be in the \u201cnow\u201d and just go with it. If it is good for our founding forefathers, if it is good for Hollywood, then it is good for me \u2013 You see, there is the rule of three in action!<\/p>\n
So how does \u201cthe rule of three\u201d work to create humor? When comedians create their humor, they use what is called the \u201cset up \u2013 punch\u201d.\u00a0Comedians use this set up-punch formula to get every one of their laughs. Comedians don\u2019t always need to use the rule of three, they are so good at creating humor that they don\u2019t always need to rely it, but for the rest of us speakers, using the rule of three is a technique that we should always use, and that if done right, can almost guarantee a laugh from the audience.<\/p>\n
What is the comedian\u2019s secret to getting a laugh from the audience? Comedians are not psychologists, but they know how the human minds works\u00a0– at least when it comes to getting a laugh<\/em>.\u00a0Comedians know three things about the human mind very well when it comes to humor.<\/p>\n So what is a spontaneous shift? A spontaneous shift is when the speaker puts the audience on one track. The speaker fills up the mind of their audience with a vivid picture of one particular thought or idea and just at the point when the audience is expecting to continue on that track, the speaker suddenly puts them on a totally different track and Walla a laugh occurs!<\/p>\n The key here is spontaneous. From the speakers perspective, it may not seem spontaneous, because the speakers is prepared and knows what he or she is planning to say. However, from the perspective of the audience it definitely comes across as spontaneous. How many times have you had conversations with friends or family and laugh seemed to easily flow. If you think about it, you will probably realize that the instant the laugh occurred, someone said something spontaneous and which also put everyone else\u2019s thoughts on another track.<\/p>\n Putting your audience on another thought track is not enough. You also need to have your timing down in order to make an impact and receive a laugh. Your punch line needs to come immediately after the set up. If you wait too long, you will lose the impact potential of your punch line.<\/p>\n When using the rule of three, you are essentially doing the same thing as what comedians do with their set-punch in their comedy routines, but your set up will be a bit longer.<\/p>\n A friend of mine and fellow speaker, Marry Cheyne, had used the rule of three extremely well when she delivered her speech “Nelly” at the\u00a0Toastmasters 2009 international convention. She gave some background about how challenging and uncomfortable it was for her to come to Australia as a 7 year old Chinese. She then said, \u201cI was so uncomfortable that I felt like a fish out of water, like a bird out of its nest, like a guest (pause) at a toastmasters meeting.\u201d The last line, \u201clike a guest at a toastmasters meeting\u201d was the punch line. The other two lines were the set up for her punch line.<\/p>\n The background story gave the audience the \u201cthought track\u201d of her being uncomfortable, The first two lines went along that track – uncomfortable like a fish out of water , uncomfortable like a bird out of its nest and then she throws the twist \u2013 Like a guest (she pauses) and then says “at a toastmasters meeting”. The audience was expecting her to stay serious, but she doesn\u2019t. She spontaneously puts their thought on another track and walla she gets a laugh!<\/p>\n When coming up with the right content for the rule of three, make sure your content is applicable to your audience. When Marry came up with her content, she knew who her audience was. It was a room full of fellow toastmasters. So everyone in her audience knew how uncomfortable a guest at a toastmasters club meeting feels, because at one time or another everyone was a guest before they became a member. That is why it was funny to that audience. Her line would not have been funny to a group of people no affiliated with toastmasters and surely she would not have used it. So always make sure that your content is appropriate to your audience. Enjoy tinkering with “the rule of three” for your next speech!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The number three is a magical number in the English language. We see it in movie titles as in \u201cThe Three Stooges, The Three Musketeers and The Three Amigos,\u201d we see it as far back as being the most famous phrase in the Unites States declaration of independence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,11,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-delivery-strategies","category-humor-strategies","category-structural-strategies","category-22","category-11","category-16","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=345"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1829,"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/345\/revisions\/1829"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hightouchspeaking.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
Spontaneous shift<\/h4>\n
Proper Timing<\/h4>\n
The rule of Three in Action<\/h4>\n
The Rule of Three must be Adaptable to Your Audience<\/h4>\n