Analysis of Jason Manford: Status & Movement

Jason Manford 

I'd love to spend some time with Jason. I always feel that he's a 'good guy' on and off stage. He's very likeable as a comedian with stories that we can all relate to and engage with. 

In this blog we look at the use of status and physicality. Enjoy the clip and then be sure to come back to the blog and apply this to your next presentation.

 

 

Status 

Jason has a very laid back approach - a natural storyteller, and very relatable in his style. Like Mark Watson, you feel like you could be sat opposite him in a coffee shop. He adopts a 'High status' approach, meaning his relationship with the audience and 'the scales', is very much communicated as if he's proving a point.

When it comes to our role as communicators, a high status approach is necessary in teaching or in sales, because you are yielding the audience to take on board what you are saying. High status bleeds with confidence, authority and passion. 

Yet in some circumstances, where you are perhaps less focused on proving a point, a low status approach works better. You can adopt a low status approach by asking rhetorical questions of the audience. Phrases such as 'Could it be that....', 'I wonder if...' or 'Have you ever thought...' indicate a low status approach. 

 

 

Physicality 

Observational comedy demands some physicality in order to be most effective. Jason brings physical comedy to his storytelling, imitating how we get onto scales, expanding that into the river-dance gag and the movement of the scales. As communicators, we need to consider the physical expression of our key phrases or outworking within our stories. Particularly with larger audiences, you'll need to make physical efforts bigger in order to capture the attention of the whole room.