The Art Of Funny Storytelling

Kevin Hart is an absolutely captivating storyteller, and he's made a career out of the ability to instantly hook people and then make them crack up. The good news is that he wasn't simply born with the ability to tell a great story. Anyone can learn to do it. And if you stick around to the end of this video, you will have the three most important tools to do so. Because while there are tons of techniques, the most important thing you can learn are the mindsets that lead to great stories. The kind that get people cracking up and begging to know what happened next. That's what we're talking about today. But first, let's talk about how you can get a group of people to even listen in the first place. Look how Kevin Hart turns all of these guys who are talking to each other into a quiet audience coming out, firing.

He's coming out firing. He's coming up. Bang, bang, bang, bang. Do me a favor. Tell Chuck that nobody wear that many pieces in the suit no more.

What you see right here is the most overlooked aspect of storytelling, and that is capturing attention before you've even started. When I listen to most people tell stories in real life, I see people who start and stop because no one is listening, or people who struggle through because half the group is carrying on a side conversation. If you take just a few seconds to make sure that you have the attention, you can save those failed stories. Kevin's stories are one on the fact that he grabs your attention at the beginning, and he does that in a number of ways. Check out two of them here.

Yeah. And then you got asked to meet the President of the United States. Huge. Huge. I mean, let me tell you why this was huge, Jim.

Yeah, it occurs really quickly, but the two pieces are. First, giving the story a preamble. Let me tell you why this was huge. Kevin does this all the time. And it's because that creates intrigue that will grab attention. Here's another quick example from the same interview.

And they, you know, they greet people and shake hands. So he said, we'll put you in the front of the podium. True story. Very formal. True story. I'm in the front. President comes down.

So you just heard Kevin say true story twice. That is a preamble. When someone says that, the implication is that whatever's coming next is unbelievable. So that you definitely want to listen in. Those two words are a great way to hook attention, provided that you don't abuse them. Now, going back to the first clip and watching it all.

Yeah, yeah. And then you got asked to meet the President of the United States. Huge. Huge. I mean, let me tell you why this was huge, Jim. Yeah.

Great way to get people's attention at the beginning of a story or even while you're already telling it. If you see that, they start to drift out. Another great way is to let people know that you are on your way out. Like in this clip, I see why.

People buy them exotic animals. If you go to Dubai, you come back, you think it's okay. Cause that's all they got. I went over to Sheikh's house in Dubai. I'll tell y' all this. Cause I know they saying, I gotta go. We went to.

So Kevin just said, I'm gonn tell you all this, and then I gotta go. And by making this his last story, he creates the sense that they had better listen up. And you can't use this one unless you are truly on your way out. But it does work well in any event, calling their name, saying true story, telling them that you're on your way out. These are all just examples. The key that underlies all of it is this. Do not ever get into a story without first having attention from your intended audience. Now watch how Kevin will literally repeat himself three or more times to make sure that he isn't starting without attention.

When have you been the awkward guy? And when have you been the sort of cool and control guy ever? Well, Louis, right now I think it's happening that I'm the cool guy. Kevin is incredibly awkward in the way he's handling this. I think we need to be honest here. I don't think I've ever been the awkward guy.

Same principle applies to when you're already in the middle of a story. Sometimes distractions come up, people walk in, there's a side conversation. Kevin literally tells people to listen before he continues. Check it out.

An orangutan house on a four wheeler. Listen to me, listen to me. That don't look like Dubai.

That looks like video.

No, that's just Pennsylvania. Listen, that's the orangutan's quarters. Okay? So quarters. The orangutans, they got like the quarters. He's really riding, driving the quarters. Listen to me. But understand how he came out like.

So you see it there. Kevin doesn't plow forward until he's answered those side questions. And he has the attention to continue with his story. And you can see it even more clearly in this next clip.

Some of us can't dress as 1980s video games Kevin.

So here Kevin and Josh Gad are telling A story about how they went to a strip club and Josh was dressed completely ridiculously. Josh interrupts to make a joke at Kevin. They're going back and forth, but notice how, coming up, Kevin will not actually continue with the story until the attention is fully on him. And he repeats himself several times to get the attention there.

Josh showed up to the strip club with a button up shirt. Look, I thought it was a Krasky joint. And he had a tie. I thought we were getting dinner for. He had a button up shirt and a tie and like some jeans with some shoes. I was like, what are you doing? Why are you dressed like a substitute teacher? What is your problem?

So you see there they're telling this kind of shared story where they ping pong back and forth, cracking jokes. But when Kevin is ready to continue with the story, he repeats what he was going to say three times before the attention comes to him. And then he starts. The key to this, which so many people miss, is not to get attention with your, your story. You get attention before your story, and you don't proceed until you have it. Otherwise it's going to fall flat or you'll just wind up trailing off. That is the first critical piece, getting attention. The second key is committing to your stories. And I see so many people start really well, they get attention, but then they squander it because they're not committed to telling their story. They summarize it rather than actually telling it, or their voice will trail off, giving people the impression that this story kind of just doesn't matter. I want you to contrast that with this next clip showing what real commitment looks like in storytelling.

First of all, I know it looks bad with me running into the camera. Okay, let me explain to y' all what's going on. All right? It was a. It was Puffy's party. All right? Puff had a party. He called me, said, kev, can you host a party with me? I said, yeah, dude. I said, I'll do it. I said, I'm in New York. So he said, look, we create this little sexy scene in the bathroom. It's gonna be girls in the tub. You trey songs fabulous. Like, it's nice. It's just gonna look like it's the place to be. We gonna. You stream it. I said, oh, this gonna be hot. So get up there.

Look how expressive his gestures are, how locked in he is on George Lopez. Everything that he is sub communicating is that his story is good. And you also hear him putting on that Puff Daddy or P. Diddy voice, which Is another part of committing to the story, playing the characters. And here's what that looks like at its best extreme.

Me up to my room now. You know when you get smacked when you a kid, you get hyped when you get by yourself. You gonna smack me, bitch in front of my friends? You smack me in front of my friends. I was emotional. I was an emotional ass kid. I'm running away. That's it.

Now that's just one of Kevin's different characters. And he's got tons of different gestures and voices for lots of different characters. In fact, that's where a whole lot of the comedy from his standup comes in. That's what keeps people hooked during his stories. And you can see how quickly he switches between characters and how that creates moments of hilarity in this next clip.

She was weak. My mind was not strong. None of the whoopings hurt. So I just had to act like it hurt. Stop. Please don't. Oh, you're hurting me. This isn't good. I bet she knew you. She didn't really want to hurt you. That's what's going on. She's get out of breath. You are gonna cry.

The nice thing about playing characters like that is that they let you spice up the middle of your story. And you can make moments that may not have been funny seem totally hilarious just by playing up a character. That's how you learn to tell stories that are longer and longer, but still, still get people sucked in. Which brings me to my next point. In order to figure out what gets people sucked in, you have to experiment. Now look at this interview from 2011.

My son thinks he's Spider Man George for real. So I go to pick him up from school, right? This little boy is hitting my son in the head with a truck, right? My son on the floor doing this.

Now check out this stand up special. Just a few years later falls.

This boy starts whooping my son's ass. I'm watching. I see this with my own two eyes. My son gets mad, rolls over.

Kevin was working on a joke and developing it that he actually used years later in a stand up set. Now, it's not any secret that stand up comedians workshop their material. They'll go to small clubs and test jokes just to see how they go over. The reason that they are so hilarious is that when you actually go to see them, their entire hour has been split test against crappy jokes. So the only things that make it into that final hour are the funn funniest jokes in the best Material possible. So you can and should do the same thing with your stories. Now, obviously you're not going to clubs, but for instance, when something gets a laugh, use it in multiple situations, right? And you can see Kevin Hart does the same thing.

Son. I just yell at my son. Cause he not much. He's a man, though. So I yell at him just because, you know, my son ain't around. Tough kids. My main thing is teaching my son how to fight. And how old is he? My son's three. Okay, what I'mma do and start making my son take out the trash. It's time for him to become a man around his house. He's seven years old. He doesn't do enough. Basically, what people don't realize about me is I've been a sex symbol. First of all, I'm a sex symbol, okay? So this is what I am. I'm a sex symbol. It's hard. It's hard. If I weren't a comedian, I'd be a sex symbol.

Now, this focusing on what actually works isn't something that you need to do at the end of a story. This is something that you can do live. When you hit a beat that gets people in hysterics. Keep going on. Take a look at this clip. These are all from the same joke in that interview.

You're not Spider Man. He tried to get me while I was talking, but I had to play. I was like, okay, let me out. Let dad out. He really thinks he's Spider Man. Jordan. Oh, don't judge. Don't judge my son, okay? I had my son come here and web this whole audience right now. My son will web all men. Y' all better act like y' all caught in the net.

More important, though, than simply getting laughs is to actually be a scientist of that first thing that we talked about, attention. Notice the parts when people get sucked into the stories you tell. Notice how and why you tend to lose people when you tell stories. And the next time you feel like you tell a dud of a story, spend a minute, go back and figure out exactly where you lost people. If you do that, you will naturally start to cut the pieces that lose people and focus on the good bits. So I hope that that has been helpful. A big thing that we talked about in this was commitment. So we've set up another video that has an exercise to help you immediately get into that more expressive, enthusiastic state. And it's something that you can do in under a minute, and it's great for getting you into the right mental frame not just for a story, but for a presentation, an interview, a date, basically anything where you need to be on. So if you want to see that video, go ahead and click the link that'll pop up now. It will take you to another page where you just drop your email and you'll get immediate access to that video. It takes about five minutes to watch. If you like this video and want more on it, subscribe to the channel. We've got tons more breakdowns on first impressions, storytelling, confidence, all kinds of different celebrities, and all different kinds of stuff on being more charismatic. So if you subscribe, you'll see those on your YouTube homepage as soon as they come out. Go ahead and do that. Of course, Leave a comment below if you have any suggestions of breakdowns and especially any questions involving how to deal with conflict. I'm going to be creating more videos on that topic. So if you have a situation in your life that is bothering you with a boss, a coworker, a friend, whatever, write your question related to how to deal with conflict conflict in the comments and we might actually be able to make a video to help you handle that situation. Anyways, I hope to see you in the comments. Hope that you enjoyed this. I am Charlie and I will see you in the next video.