What Jerry Seinfeld Can Teach About PowerPoint Presentations

This holiday season one of my gifts to self was some time to catch up on my “non-PowerPoint” reading. One of the most entertaining bits was a (fairly) recent article in the New York Times featuring comic genius Jerry Seinfeld. The article was supposed to be a funny last-minute gift idea guide, but it contains an excellent video interview where Jerry explains the methodology behind his joke writing. See the article and clip here: http://6thfloor.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/12/20/last-second-gift-suggestion-from-the-magazine-and-jerry-seinfeld-sort-of/?smid=pl-share

It’s a short clip weighing in at 5 minutes, but rich in content and (predictably) humor. It is essentially a mini-interview where he talks about his process for “building” a new joke. He describes the importance of a good opening, planning where the laughs should come, how to smoothly connect the funny bits, what to leave out and how to leave ’em roaring.

As I listened, it all started to sound a little familiar. The PowerPoint side of my brain was buzzing. This simple recipe was exactly the same as what we recommend to presenters and speech writers as they plan their content for high-stakes business meetings – and even similar to the message-focused design process we follow: think about the big picture. Plan out your key messages and most important supporting evidence. Decide how to start, how to build and connect critical points, and how to close in a way that leaves your audience ready to take action.

In the interview Mr. Seinfeld confesses that he prefers pen and paper to using a computer, which is a shame – because using his own process he’d probably create great PowerPoint presentations!

None of the eSlide team has their own hit comedy show, but we do have over 10 years in business helping Fortune 500 companies create show-stopping PowerPoint presentations for their most important meetings and events. If you need some help (and you can’t reach Jerry) contact us!