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Asides 

Another technique for your career in public speaking is to use asides as a way to add humor to your presentation.  An "aside", which is commonly used in the theater, is something that is said to the audience that is not supposed to be heard by the other actors.

For example, if the aside was delivered on a television sitcom, the actor would look right into the camera and talk to those watching at home instead of talking to the other actors. Asides are used quite often in children's television shows such as "Blue's Clues", which has the actor looking into the camera while he talks about the puppy, Blue, to the kids at home watching.

You should practice how to add asides in your presentation by temporary leaving the main theme or topic to make a point or add extra emphasis to that point.  If you get good at using this technique during your career in public speaking, the audience will think you are very clever.

It works by beginning to tell a story or delivering information on a certain topic, then going off on a tangent (aside) indirectly related to the main theme. When you have finished the aside, you pick up the main theme where you left off and keep right on going. Often times this aside provides rich, varied, and valuable background information for the listener.

At first, the audience might think you are lost or confused when you leave the original topic, but when you return to the main line after the aside, they realize that you were in total control, and that you know your subject backwards and forwards. This is very impressive. For example great storytellers are able to take you down several auxiliary paths, but still move you along the main path from beginning to end. Being a great storyteller is a much needed skill for your career in public speaking.

I tell a story about some medical work I had done where the doctor said to me, "This will just pinch a little bit."  This phrase of the story sends me down a whole different path talking about how my dentist had said the same thing and then pushed the Novacaine needle up into my brain, twisted it around, and pulled it out. 
I then came back to the main line of the medical story until I got to the word gauze. This word then sets off another different story about my mother ripping gauze off me. Then it is back to the main topic again. 

You can alert the audience to your  upcoming aside by saying the word "incidentally"  before you veer off the main topic into another story 

Another good technique in doing asides is to go to a different side of the stage when you start to share an aside. Get good at sharing asides and you will add a new dimension to the way you tell your funny stories or deliver information. 

Keep practicing using asides in your career in public speaking and you will master the means to becoming a great storyteller, telling of great truths and human triumphs.

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