Can you learn how to be funny as a live streaming host? Will humor help you gain more viewers for your live broadcast? Yes and yes!
Here’s what comedian Jay Stevens has to say about bringing humor to your shows in BeLive Weekly hosted by Owen Video!
Serious Tips on How To Be Funny from Jay Stevens
While Jay Stevens never dreamed of becoming a comedian, he found himself telling jokes and making his audience laugh both in church and in clubs. But with the COVID-19 pandemic, gigs have been canceled, forcing him and other comedians to look for other ways to earn and connect with their audience. That’s when he joined the live streaming world!
How did Jay reach a wider audience through live streaming? He talked about his experience live streaming as a comedian with Owen Video.
Here are some points on how to be funny during live broadcasts to broaden your reach.
From Conceptualizing to Verbalizing
Do you need innate talent to be funny on camera? You don’t need to stress about coming up with funny things to say. The trick here is to get inspiration from daily life, take notes, and keep them for the perfect moment you can use them when you go live. Then, you can insert these funny anecdotes into your live broadcast at appropriate times.
When writing for his comedy sets, Jay makes sure that each segment is connected and flow into each other. He flips through his notes of good jokes and picks out the fitting ones for each segment. Jay does this for in-person stages and it’s true for live streaming as well.
Sometimes, however, you may be enlightened with a funny joke right when you’re live. When that happens, just go with the flow and share it with your audience. You may even tell that joke again during your other shows.
Keeping Jokes Within Your Lane
It can be tempting to get right on the edge when it comes to telling jokes. However, saying something offensive to your audience in the guise of being funny can cost you your viewers.
The really funny comedians know which jokes will work with a particular audience and which ones will cause a problem instead. In Jay’s case, 20 years of experience helped him understand his audience, whether he’s doing standup comedy in the church or in a club.
It’s exactly the same with live streaming. To be able to entertain your audience, you need to know who you’re talking to. That can be a bit of an issue if you’re just starting out, but after a while, you’ll be able to understand and know who your audience is. You can then create your content based on what your viewers think is valuable and humorous.
Facing the Nay-Sayers
When you’re in the public eye, you will be plagued by nay-sayers, hecklers, and trolls. Now, if you turn all your attention to them during a live stream, you’ll be neglecting the other viewers who actually love you.
According to Jay, you should either take control of the show or ignore these comments completely.
In the former, you can address that troll and stand your ground. After all, it’s your microphone (and camera!) and your show. If you fall into this heckler’s meddling, then you’ll lose control of your entire broadcast. In the latter, you just have to move on to another anecdote or section of your stream without acknowledging negative comments. Wasting your time on one nay-sayer will take time away from your actual, sincere followers.
A person without a microphone cannot talk louder than a person with a microphone. – Jay Stevens
Expanding Your Reach Through Live Streaming
Because of the Stay at Home orders implemented in the US, Jay started doing his skits and show on Facebook Live. And he will continue to do so even after the pandemic ends because he found live streaming to be the perfect way to reach out to a new audience — introverts!
People who don’t like going out to comedy clubs and prefer to stay home still love laughing! And thanks to live streaming, Jay was able to make them laugh at his jokes as well. If he had stuck with in-person comedy shows, then meeting introverts would not be easy.
This doesn’t just apply to comedians. Live streaming helps speakers, coaches, and other people whose products are their content meet more potential clients and customers who they normally wouldn’t have been able to connect with. Furthermore, with simulcast, you can reach out to more potential followers by going live to more than one destination at the same time!
Want more tips on how to be funny on camera? Watch Jay talk about comedy and humor with Owen Video in the BeLive Weekly episode below!
When it comes to captivating your audience, telling some really funny jokes can help. But more than anything, you need to know your audience and deliver the content they want to gain more viewers. Being funny would be delicious icing on the cake!
Now if you’re always nervous on camera, the tips on this post will help you become more confident for your shows. Molly Mahoney, our awesome Camera Confidence coach, can also teach you to become the entrepreneur you want to become!
Pam Amantiad is a Content Writer in BeLive’s Marketing Team. With a degree in Creative Writing, she has nearly a decade of experience in digital marketing, particularly in content creation as a copywriter and a freelance blog writer. Not contented with producing written outputs, she dove into the world of live video marketing in 2019 and hasn’t left since.
