Interrupting A Presentation

It is certainly not a show of respect to interrupt the presenter while they are presenting. However, there are occasions when there is a small window of opportunity where a piece of humor can be inserted and it does not feel intrusive. In some cases, it actually supplements the presentation. Here are three times when those random and unplanned instances occurred, and I was able to capitalize on the opportunity of inserting impromptu humor without disrupting the flow of the presentation or looking like a trouble-maker in the audience.

Kissing Your Sister

I was working at the Harvey Suites Houston Medical Center and we had a visit from one of our Vice Presidents. On this day he wanted to look at the mechanical areas and have a talk. During our walk the conversation became fairly open, and I was able to share my frustrations about the building with him. At the end of the conversation he said, “one day we will look back on this situation and laugh”. Later in the day an all manager meeting was called to meet with the Vice President before he left. In that meeting he shared a few pieces of information with the group and at one point he talked about something that he said just did not make sense and that there wasn’t much of a thrill to it. “It’s kind of like kissing your sister”, he stated. Then there was a very brief pause that was just perfect. I turned to one of the female sales managers setting next to me and whispered to her, loud enough that it could be heard by others, “Is there something wrong with that?” She immediately pulled her head away from me and turned to me with the most surprised and disgusted look that I have ever seen. The Vice President had heard the whisper and saw her reaction. He tried but could not contain his laughter. The meeting eventually continued.

Leif Erikson Day

I was attending a good training on a building automation system. The presenter had a great voice, and he knew the system really well. There was a section of the training where he was covering the scheduling features in the system. We had gone over all the easy stuff, as well as seasonal exceptions to a schedule, and were about to cover how to enter in schedule exceptions for holidays. He went to enter in a holiday and decided to have the audience participate by proposing which holiday to enter into the system. There it was. That brief pause that opened up that small window of opportunity. My son watched Sponge Bob Square Pants when he was growing up and I would catch an occasional episode as well. In one of the episodes of Sponge Bob Square Pants, they were celebrating Leif Erikson Day. “Leif Erikson Day!”, I blurted out. I had no idea that the presenter was a huge Sponge Bob Square Pants fan and had seen every episode known to mankind. He busted out laughing while most of the audience had this awkward look on their face. Obviously, they didn’t know who Leif Erikson or Sponge Bob Square Pants was. When no one else presented a holiday, probably because they were all taken aback by what had just happened, the presenter continued laughing while programming Leif Erikson Day as a holiday into the building automation system.

Adjustable Wrench

We had received an invite to a Lunch and Learn event at the Voss Lighting facility in Irving Texas. I had not been to one of these types of events before, so it was a little bit of an expansion of my professional being. We received a nice tour of the facility from our sales representative, signed up for the door prizes, and grabbed a freshly grilled hamburger and chips. While we were eating, the manager at Voss Lighting began his presentation. As part of the presentation, he started out by drawing three names for the three door prizes. The first and second drawings were completed and it was time for the third and last door prize. As the presenter announced the third prize, he looked at his list to see what the third prize was but lost his place on his list. There it was. The perfect brief pause and open window of opportunity. I blurted out “a metric Crescent wrench”. Everyone in the crowd busted out in laughter and the presenter was so focused on trying to find the information on his list that he said, “no, it’s not a metric Crescent wrench”, as he glanced upward with a puzzled look on his face due to the laughter in the crowd. He took another look at his list and then broke out in a smile as he raised his head. “Who said that?” he asked as he begin laughing as well.

These kind of well-timed insertion of comments happen all the time in the group that I currently work with, and it is awesome. That said, don't try this at home kids. We are trained professionals.