How to Give Opinions, Not a Sermon

How to have an ideology when nobody wants to hear a TED talk.

Photo by Product School on Unsplash

I know, this is a tough one. How to make people listen?

It’s especially difficult when you really care about the topic. That’s when the ranter in us, the one who really, really wants to make everyone around us change their mind, comes out.

But that’s the one people run away from. That’s the person who changes absolutely nobody’s mind.

Look, I know I’m pretty damn good at giving sermons. When I write or talk about things I really care about, I get more boring to those who don’t agree with me.

But as a standup, I’ve had to develop ways to get over it.

Here are a couple of things that might help, whether you’re a writer or a performer.

Make It a Joke

This week, I had to write and perform 6 minutes of jokes about none other than Sigmund Freud. Truly, one of my least favorite Austrians of all time (though Hitler does easily take the first spot).

There’s a whole lot of misogyny there, so it was easy to make my pick on what to focus on. Hysteria and stuff, you know.

But the dangerous thing is that when you really care about something, you forget about…