It's All in the Delivery

Last night, I'm driving home from dinner with Nicole and listening to Steve Martin speak about comedy. He gives the example of how the line from Groucho Marx "I refuse to join any club that would have me as a member" would be very different when delivered by various comedians. He offers up the Chris Rock version, as an example.

We often say that comedy is in the delivery, which is a combination of timing, word selection, tone, and context. Funny is funnier when you get all the parts right.

We all know people who can't tell a joke. They're generally lousy at stories as well. They overtell a story, undertell a story, tell a story without giving you an idea first of what the subject is or who the characters are, jump around to different stories while they tell it... as opposed to capturing their audience, they leave the audience confused or looking for an exit.

In politics, some people have a knack for capturing an audience. I can't stand Gavin Newsom's policies, but he's pretty charismatic. Bill Clinton was known to be very likeable in person. A lot of people are charming but bereft of any solid principles. Comics, while funny, are sometimes very despicable people. Celebrities visited Epstein's Island.

II Corinthians tells us that "Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light."

The point of this is that if you hold the right principles but fail to hold an audience, you might lose to the person with horrible principles who knows how to draw an audience to them.

And sometimes this is why our grassroots candidates fail. The bad incumbent in office is good at getting elected, but horrible at stewarding government.

The premise of the seminars I give is that we fail in the preparation for the campaign, not in the operation of the campaign. Therefore, I focus on preparation. One aspect of that is candidate preparation.

As I was driving, I thought about mastering delivery, and how that factors into winning an election. Timing is everything, we hear, but it's only one part of delivery. How we convey something to would-be voters and sell them on the ideas we present matters.

Perhaps in getting ready to run for office, a candidate might practice their story-telling and joke-telling skills. There's a good article about "How to Tell a Good Story." In a section of the article labeled "Start with a message," there is this:

Every storytelling exercise should begin by asking: Who is my audience and what is the message I want to share with them? Each decision about your story should flow from those questions. Sachs says that leaders should ask, "What is the core moral that I'm trying to implant in my team?" and "How can I boil that down to a compelling single statement?" First settle on your ultimate message; then you can figure out the best way to illustrate it.

We can always improve our ability to tell a story, communicate a message, deliver a funny line, or push an idea. How we invite people into our orbit and keep them there is a practiced skill. Every successful comic has a bad night. They constantly work their craft. One comic says this about missing the mark: "[Remind] yourself there are going to be bad gigs. I think analyzing why the gig was bad is important. Was it an off night for you? Was the crowd awful? Another thing I learned is that sometimes an audience is not very vocal or effusive, so you think you're not doing well but everyone is having a great time."

Remember that almost every comic has a routine that is only delivered after it is well-rehearsed. So too with any candidate. You need to practice your message so that it is consistent and compelling and as brief as possible. "Brevity is the soul of wit." So too with the memorable soundbite. Succinct is always more attractive and can invite people to want more rather than less.

5 Comments

Paul Anthony Hale (Mar 9, 2025 9:19 AM):

Thanks Brett. Very good and so true

KLUJICS (Mar 9, 2025 11:09 AM):

Taken to heart your insights and the links which led me to the impromptu ~ Luke 12:12 The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say at the moment when you need them. Thank you, Brett!

Beth Counts (Mar 9, 2025 2:50 PM):

Great article Brett.

Sharon Fisher (Mar 9, 2025 3:33 PM):

You are right and we could all take lessons from Ronald Reagan. In my opinion, the greatest story teller of all time. It has never been my strong point.

Mr. Future Of Texas (Mar 9, 2025 3:38 PM):

Spot on, thank you!