Pay Attention to your Attention

“Distraction is the death of comedy”

– Keenan Ivory Wayans, on “Inside Comedy.”

As a big fan of potential public humiliation, I have recently been dipping my toe in the stand-up comedy world at amateur open mikes in Tokyo. I have no aspirations of being the next Robin Williams or Louie C. K., but I’m fascinated by humor.

I’ve always been good at finding the comedy in a speech. I can reliably trigger a few chuckles from any audience, even the occasional belly laugh, but what I find so fascinating about it is its seeming unpredictability.

Of course calling something unpredictable is just another way of saying that we don’t understand it well enough to predict what will happen. Sharks are often called unpredictable but, from the sharks’ point of view, its actions are perfectly logical and predictable.

The same joke, however, in the same speech or comedy routine, can get a completely different reaction from two different audiences, because each audience brings in its own unique blend of experiences, beliefs and attitudes.

It is also impossible to tell the same joke, in exactly the same way, twice. A slight change in tone, rhythm or timing can be the difference between a big laugh and an uncomfortable silence.

There’s a third level of difficulty at play, as well, and that is the attention of the audience. Much like a great dramatic movie, comedy requires the audience to suspend reality and enter into the comedian’s warped mental world.

And just as a cell phone ringing right at the most dramatic point of a movie can kill the suspense, anything that disrupts a comedian’s intense mental connection with the audience, such as a waitress passing in front of the stage, a dropped fork or a loud conversation in the back of the room, kills the comedy.

Speakers and presenters don’t require the same intensity of connection that a comedian does, thank God, but that doesn’t make distraction any less of a problem for us. Some things we can’t control, but we are, at times, our own worst enemies. We introduce the very distractions that kill our presentations.

We introduce distractions in our body language by pacing back and forth, repeating the same gesture or fidgeting with our belt buckle, shirt collar or pen.

We introduce the vocal distractions of “Ummm”s, “Uhhhh”s and “You know”s.

We introduce the visual distractions of misaligned text in PowerPoint slides, random color and font schemes and, my own most hated, text animations.

We can’t blame the audience for not paying attention, if we are the ones distracting them and pulling their attention off of the message we are trying to communicate.

These attention killers are everywhere, and we need to be constantly on the lookout for them. I have no special talent for spotting distractions, in my own presentations or my clients’. I just pay attention to where my attention goes.

If I find myself staring at the speaker’s twitching and contorted left hand, held rigidly down at his side, I know I’ve found a distraction, and that’s a problem.

If I find myself counting how many times the speaker begins with. “Next,….” or “So,…..” , I know I’ve found a distraction, and that’s a problem.

If I find myself wondering why the PowerPoint text just spun around and zoomed off the screen, stage left, I know I’ve found a distraction, and that’s a problem.

If I find myself thinking about anything except the speaker’s message, I know I’ve found a distraction, and that’s a problem.

Whether you are watching yourself on video or watching a co-worker or client practicing, pay attention to where your attention goes. If it goes anywhere but to the speaker and his or her message, you’ve got a problem.