3 fast tips for ALL MC's/host's/normal people presenting

How good is being an MC! It's a release for those of us with undiagnosed AHDH to get our energy out and have all eyes on us in the centre of the ring.

Can I start this post by saying, yes I have a lot of experience as an MC, yes I have ideas of things that have worked for me and I feel could work for a lot of people, but also, some of them might not.

If what you read below doesn't work for you, no stress, tweak it, change it, throw it away, and try again.

Just because I've found a method that really works for me, doesn't mean I'm going to be able to tap your face with a magic wand and turn you into a real boy. (Is that what happens at the end of that movie?)

You can't give specific advice as to what will work at an event because events are...<pregnant pause for buzzword>...unique.

It's like with comedy, different jokes land differently with every audience. Some comedians even have shows where there's no laughter at all, and people are just sitting and smiling a bit at you, and your best jokes fall flatter than a cut balloon.

Apparently, I wouldn't know from personal experience.

So...here's a few little ideas for you to have up your sleeve that might, MIGHT, help you on the day/night of that gig you're MCing. Cool.

1 LISTEN TO YOUR BORING

You know when you've done your intro and it's time to get into speeches? Speeches from people you don't know, about an industry you don't understand, with skill-specific terms that may as well be another language? Some MC's would describe these speeches as boring and tune out.

Yeah, listen to those. Because there's always always always going to be something you can hook into when back announcing the speech.

Don't be an MC that get's up and thanks them "for that amazing speech that was so insightful and really interesting to listen to." I mean, you can, but I find that disingenuous.

I'd rather be the MC that gets up and acknowledges the CEO of a massive Financial Institution's newfound like of Taylor Swift by singing to him "Play play play cause the haters gonna hate hate hate." He gave me a blank stare at that point which really made me question his commitment to the Tay Tay.

Back announcing speeches with something unscripted that has happened in the moment is a way to engage with everyone in a shared experience.

2 KNOW SOME RANDOM STUFF

If anyone still did dinner parties we'd all know that people who have random knowledge and deliver it well are really interesting and engaging.

And that people who have random knowledge and deliver it ad nauseam like it makes them better than everybody else are really annoying.

Be the first type.

Know some random pieces of information that you can litter throughout the event.

If you tell people that you have an absolutely 'Box Office' event coming up for them, do you know the etymology of where the phrase 'Box Office' came from? I do, it's not jaw-dropping but it's a 10 second story that I can tell an audience that is an interesting little tidbit of information that colours the event that tiny bit more.

Are you across pop-culture so that you can drop references all the parents in the room would be living with at home? That's something relateable. Like at a NYE family event I hosted where I encouraged a crowd of 35,000 people to show me some '6-7', simultaneously making all the parents die inside and all the kids come to life. But that's a fun little moment right? Giving families something to playfully muck around with and relating it directly to your event.

These are not surefire hits with an audience, or a specific event type, but having knowledge outside your standard operating procedure can help you to:

• Fill time.

• Engage an audience that you otherwise wouldn't.

• Break the tone of an event that is starting to lose the audience.

3 be open when things go wrong

An audience will die when the person they're watching on stage is dying.

So what if you've made a mistake or are making mistakes. Embrace it. If you're confident then you give your audience confidence that everything will be ok.

This is not to say, make mistakes on purpose because it's a great way to show confidence. This is more to say, mistakes happen, when they do, be alright in sitting in that moment.

If I come to the end of a long introduction written by someone else about an industry heavyweight and they forgot to include the guy's name, I don't have to react with panic, I can just turn to him, tell him I don't have his name, and ask him, on stage, 'what's your name?'

Unexpected moment. Shared moment for all. Confidence.

Turns a potentially awkward AF moment into something we all laugh at and then move on from.

wrap up

There's obviously a tonne more of these tiny little ideas we can go through and explore but in the service of keeping things bite size let's leave it here for now.

And let's say this, if a genuine number of people have a look and feel it was somewhat helpful, I'll do more. If you don't...well....that'll do pig, that'll do.