Personality and Humor in your Talk, 10 Exciting Tricks

Mini-course

Life is not about being great, it’s about getting better

Performing on stage is often compared with the fear of dying. And yes, it is a big challenge, you're going down or you survive. Most people are freezing, worrying about their lines, afraid for a blackout, are too much in their heads and are really ‘working’ on stage, with the consequence that they aren’t themselves at all and having barely contact with the audience. Result: a feeling of failure and an even bigger fear for the stage.

I think this can be a lot easier and much more enjoyable.

Most of the presentation courses I have seen are telling you only what you are not supposed to do: Don't move, don't show emotions and don't be too personal of vulnerable. But that's is not what the audience likes. They like personality and humor.

Four ways to decrease your fear of the stage

1. There’s nothing wrong with you!

I believe in the capacities you dó have. Not in the one you don’t have. I give you self confidence and look at what you need to grow into your talent. I saw in the thousand students I’ve had a lot of different talents passing by and also discovered a lot of different ways to switch this talent ‘on’. I don’t teach you tricks, but work on command and increase the talent that is appearing and give advice for the long term.

2. Don’t let people think you are crazy, but also certainly not normal.
The more authentic you are, the more interesting. To develop your personality or persona on stage is only possible by digging into your authenticity. Give yourself permission to be ‘different’.

3. The naughty person in you isn’t afraid.

Your inner child is the one who is asking questions. Is curious and has an investigating attitude. I develop your playfulness, your humor and your pleasure and that’s making your entrance on stage totally different.

4. Make a sport of getting the audience involved.

You’ll learn to seduce the audience by making your goal, mission, purpose, calling or message more important than your performance.

Why is this different from other humor courses?

I thrive to combine humor with your purpose, your mission, your calling because then you can do both: touching people and making them laugh.

Humor as a language

Humor is often seen as a gift, as a talent. You have it or you don’t have it. While it is certainly a skill you can develop and learn. Can practise. Like a language. You can influence your environment with it. By giving a good example. By creating a positive atmosphere. To show people you have self depreciation humor, by taking yourself less seriously and inspire others to do so too. With as result more people who feel safe, more connection and more people become willing to learn and be more open minded. Good for the organisation, for the team, but also for everyone personally.

And humor is always needed. In times of crisis people need humor to practice their resilience and in better times humor is needed to develop your creativity and self-reflection. Humor makes you look at things differently. You play with reality and with that you develop resilience.

Do you think you are not funny?

Do you think that being funny is only for people with talent?
Are you looking for a way to seem less serious or rational?
Do you enjoy it when you can make people laugh?
Do you want to test your creativity?
Are you hungry to be yourself and to become more authentic and honest?
Do you want to stand on stage more relaxed?

So, I would like everyone to take humor more seriously, because it

Is an icebreaker in uncomfortable situations.
Creates a feeling of unity.
Is self-reflecting and mirroring.
It downplays and gives comfort.
Makes you creative.

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Testimonials

Super Grateful

Marianne van Dijk - Relation Therapist

Thanks to Malinca making jokes for me is much more approachable. Before this course I only made jokes with friends and people I knew, but now I also do it with total strangers. Besides that it was really a pleasure to do her exercises and I felt really comfortable with her guidance so I could also make jokes about the uncomfortable and the more vulnerable topics. I am super grateful for the outcome!

Until you break through

Henk van Huisstede - Comedian

As a comic I am very interested in questions like: What is humor exactly? Why do people laugh? Which mechanism goes behind and under ‘comic stuff’. Malinca gives answers to these questions ánd other questions, so you recognise more easily the funny (read: painful) situations. Because humor and laughing - so we learn from Malinca - have everything to do with awkwardness, tension (and relaxation), shame, misunderstandings, unfulfilled desires and not redeemed expectations, and until you have this break through you suddenly see the humor all around you.

It was possible to turn my more serious and heaviness attitude into something lighthearted and humoristic

Ilse Coolen - Teacher Care

Malinca does an appeal to your inner child that is open and curious for new experiences. The exercises are challenging in a nice way. Her way of looking and thinking is inspiring. She honours everybody's authenticity with no exception and gives advice on command, so you get the best out of yourself. I didn’t think (but secretly hoped) that it was possible to turn my more serious and heaviness attitude into something lighthearted and humoristic but that is exactly what happened. My compliments for how she works are endless for me.

Incredible strong trainer

Martijn Derksen - Creative / Educational Professional at Fontys University of Applied Sciences

In terms of content an incredible strong trainer. She knows exactly where she is talking about and is able to address this and point this out. She has got a clear vision about stagework and stories which I like very much and inspires me.

Back to something about yourself you‘ll actually instinctively always knew

Ruben Stelli - Art-Director/Creative thinker

This is about a lót more then humor, this is a personality training. This is about creativity, resilience, self reflection, and about following your curiosity, but also back to something about yourself you actually instinctively always knew.

Balanced didactical talent

Mirjam van der Veer - Pedagogical Assistant

If you are looking for a way to develop your stage presence on a rooted way than you have to go to Malinca! She knows where she is talking about and is a balanced didactical talent. I got the learning experience and playfulness I was looking for! Surprisingly fresh!

Hi, I am Malinca

I see comedy & humor as a way of life. My drive for directing comedians, giving lessons in comedy and giving keynotes about playfulness started with my youth where humor was born out of a family of fighters, victims and drama-queens. It felt as if I was a spectator of a badly written Greek tragedy. There was always tension in our family. And my tendency to use humor was to get rid of this tension. I felt the unstoppable need for something more light, more fun and more happiness. So humor here wasn’t the goal, but a tool for breaking tension.

I went totally inhibited to the Theatreschool and when I graduated my fear of performing was gigantic. Besides that they didn’t look at your talent, but trying to put you in some kind of mold, the criticism was killing. From this experience I developed an enormous drive to really look at someone's talent and to give customized advice to strengthen that talent. After this education I was teaching comedy and directing comedians with great passion.

And as a trainer I conquered my fear of stage by making shows, energizers and workshops for companies. There I learned how to motivate and inspire an unmotivated audience and the leader in me was born. Suddenly it wasn’t about my performance anymore but about my purpose and what I wanted to reach with them. So that's why I consider everyone who is standing on a stage as a leader.

Claudia de Breij - Comedian

She gets the best out of someone

The way Malinca gets the best out of someone, as well in directing groups or individuals, has helped me a great deal in overcoming my first fears and shame to go on the stage. Text-writing, performance and discovering your strengths and weaknesses are all essential for learning this profession.

Organizations I worked with

I bring to this program

Entertaining, interactive and sparkling exercises which appeal to your creativity.
The conviction that you can learn your whole life.
Customized advice to increase your talent.
Together with you I pull out the story you’ll have to tell, in which you’ll touch the audience, but also make them laugh.
I approach humor from emotion not from technique and that’s why it is accessible and practically useful in daily life.
I love the inevitability of the stage. There's no escape.
Humor is also for your private life empowering and builds resilience and shows how you can convert a victim role into action.
Practically: I stimulate you to make a leap by asking you to pick a date for after the course where you are going to do your talk in your own environment.
Honesty.

Malinca Verwiel - Humor coach Speaker coach

Malinca Verwiel has been trained as a theater and cabaret teacher and has infected about a thousand pupils with the cabaret virus and helped many beginning cabaret performers to a flourishing career, including Claudia de Breij and Leon van der Zanden. She graduated Cum Laude on her thesis: "How to make a comedy tragic and how to make a tragedy comic". For 15 years she made and played shows, energizers and workshops for organizations with her own company Humor in Bedrijf.

She is a speaker coach for pitches, Ted talks, seminars and book presentations. Malinca makes everyone playful and knows how to put her finger on the sore spot in a loving way, for which everyone is usually very grateful. She has studied High Impact Leadership and followed the Women's Leadership Program at Carla Clarissa and considers everyone who takes the stage as a leader. Her roots lie both in the funniest province of the Netherlands, Brabant, and in the most serious province of the Netherlands, Gelderland.

She is living in Holland on the countryside between two rivers with her unconditional lovers: her man, 2 dogs and their Bed & Breakfast.

This is for you if

You want to tell a story.
If you want to overcome your fear of the stage.
If you want to develop your humor muscle.
When you think of yourself that you are too serious or too rational and you want to find a way to make your message or story more lighthearted and more playful.
If you want to tell something in both ways: touch people and make them laugh.
If you want to become a better leader by professionalizing your story.
When you are hungry to become more real, more authentic and more playful.

Course curriculum

1

You're a hero, nice to see you here!
- What is my why?
2

11 reasons why you're probably not funny
- Eleven reasons why you are probably not funny
- In every joke has to be a bit of pain. When there is too much pain it isn't funny ... But when there is less pain, it's not funny either!
- Happiness and grief
- What is the difference between drama and dullness?
- In this section you'll want to disappear into a hole in the ground because of shame
- Personality and humor in your talk, 10 exciting tricks
3

My invitation to you ...
- You're almost done!

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