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'll
stick around till 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 happen 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.
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 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'd take just
a few seconds to make sure 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 it was huge, Jim.
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 then, he greet people and shake hands, and I said, we'll put you in the front of
the podium.
True story, very formal. True story. I'm in the front, the 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 is 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, you got asked to meet the President of the United States.
Huge, huge.
I mean...
Let me tell you why this was huge, Jim.
The second thing to notice here is that Kevin says his name, Jim, and even if that's a different
version of his normal name, Jimmy, which makes him chuckle. But the underlying point is that
nothing makes people sit up and pay attention like the sound of their own name.
Now, I'm sure you've been in a conversation and heard your name from across the room,
but, immediately, you had your attention sucked in that direction. Saying people's names,
basically, puts them in "listen mode," because what's coming next is relevant to them. That
makes it a 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're 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 a sheikh's house in Dubai... I'd say I'm gonna
tell you all these and then I got to go.
So Kevin just said "I'm gonna tell you all these and then I got to 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're truly on your way out, but it does work well.
In any event, calling their names, 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 controlled
guy?
Well, Louis...
Right now
Let's uh...
I think it's happening. I'm the cool guy. Kevin is incredibly awkward, in a way
Well I think we need to be honest here. I don't think I have ever been the awkward guy.
Same principle applies to when you're already in the middle of a story. Sometimes, when
you're already in the middle of the 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 comes out on a four-wheeler. Listen to me. Listen to me.
That don't look like Dubai, that looked like...
No, that's just... that's the... that's the orangutan's quarters, okay? So, so...
They had quarters?
The orangutans, they got like the quarters.
Listen to me. Understand how he came out, like...
So you see it there. Kevin doesn't plow forward until he answered those side questions and
he has the attention to continue with the story. And you could see it even more clearly
in this next clip.
Some of us came dressed as 1980s video games.
So, here, Kevin and Josh got to 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.
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 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 story. 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 the 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.
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 _ voice, which is another part of committing to the story--playing the
characters. And here's what that looks like at its best extreme.
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 stand-up 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.
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 seemed totally hilarious
just by playing up a character. That's how you learn to tell stories that are longer
and longer, but, 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.
Now, check out this stand-up special just a few years later.
Kevin was working on a joke and developing it.
He actually used it years later in a stand-up set. Now it's not any secret that stand-up comedians workshop
their material. They 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.
The only things that make it into that final hour are the funniest jokes and the best material possible.
So, you can and sure 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.
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 it. Take a look at this clip. These are all from the same joke in that interview.
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 gets 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 will pop up now. It
will take you to another page where you will 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 you want more of it, subscribe to the channel. We 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
YouTube home page 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 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.