Speakers should know how to host a barbecue without turning into a toast
As if public speaking isn’t complicated enough, then there’s the barbecue. When asked to barbecue someone, we find ourselves walking straight into a social minefield from which there seems to be no way out. If we do a bad job, the audience will get bored and end up hating you. If you do too good a job, the roast object will get angry and end up hating you. What should a speaker do?
Prepare
If you’ve ever had the opportunity to attend a barbecue or watch one on television, then you know what this is all about. A group of people get together who know the guest of honor and, because they know him so well, are able to stand up and say disrespectful things that make everyone laugh. If this is done well, then the speakers seem to be almost making up as they speak; however, the reality is that what they are saying requires careful preparation. There is a big difference between teasing and insulting.
When hosting a barbecue, you will be asked to hurl mild insults at the guest of honor throughout the night. This means that you will have to do your homework and gather the information that you will need before the big event. The key here is to gather as much background information as possible.
Since both your audience and your fellow roasters know the goal, you need to make sure that what you say is not only funny, but also relates to the person you are talking about. This means you have to dive into their past and find out where they went to school, where they have worked, who they have worked with, and why they left each job. Ultimately, it is the answers to these questions that will provide you with the raw material you will need to create the necessary talking points for roasting.
Present
When you organize a barbecue, you can control who talks and when they talk. Typically, you will select four to five more people to come up and say a few things about the guest of honor. Let’s be honest here, some people will do a good job and some will not.
Knowing this, you want to make sure that no one is programmed to speak for long. You’ll want to create a sequence with the speakers going. This sequence must be based on some kind of logical progression. People who knew him at different stages of life, people who worked with them in different companies, etc.
happy
Ultimately, the success or failure of a roast comes down to the content. As you gather what you are going to say, there are a few things to keep in mind.
You want to make sure your jokes relate to things the audience knows to be untrue (“… when you robbed that bank last week …”). Stay away from the things they can’t decide if you’re joking about or not (“your wife tells me he’s still hitting her”).
The best humor comes when you make fun of the guest of honor about the things they make fun of themselves. For example, if the target can’t spell very well and is always sorry for the fact, feel free to poke fun at him.
Finally, poking fun at the things the guest of honor doesn’t really care about is always safe. This could include a comment about the time your boat sank because they forgot to plug a hole. Stay away from items as you are too short, you are too fat, you are too bald.
What does all this mean to you?
Making a roast that provides a personable joke to the guest of honor without offending them or the public can be a real challenge. Speakers who are asked to take on this task must realize that if done incorrectly, they can get into a lot of trouble.
To organize a successful barbecue, you will need to do your homework. You will need to gather a lot of information about the guest of honor. This includes both background information and stories. Next, you will need to organize how the roasting will take place: sequence the presenters and stitch their presentations together. Finally, your material should be carefully edited so that everyone laughs, but not offend.
The next time you’re asked to host a barbecue, you don’t need to say no or run out the door. Instead, use the tips we’ve discussed and do a great job of showing the star of the show how much they appreciate you by poking fun at them in a positive and gentle way.
