Customise your material

Clive is a fully qualified barrister, having been called to the Bar in 1986, a comedy writer and radio presenter. He is the presenter of the BBC Radio Four programme, ‘Law In Action’.

He has performed character-based sketches for Channel 5’s ‘Exclusive’ show.

For the past ten years, he has regularly performed on radio with credits including co-writing and performing in Radio 4’s ‘Control Group 6’ (nominated for the 1996 Writer’s Guild Award for Best Radio Comedy), Radio Five Live’s ‘The Game’s Up’, with Alistair McGowan; and ‘You Cannot Be Serious’, with Kevin Day. Other regular guest appearances include Radio 4’s ‘The Motion Show’, ‘Quote Unquote’ and ‘Loose Ends’.

Clive’s advice for speaking in public

• Customise your material to the particular audience. However witty, fascinating, insightful or just drop dead gorgeous you might be, people are generally even more interested in themselves than they are in you.
• Well researched and targeted jokes about their world and the people in it (especially the senior people) will warm up a room like nothing else can. It pays off three times.

1. The audience like the fact that you as an outsider seem to have inside knowledge on the key players.
2. The key players like to be mentioned – there’s only one thing worse than being mentioned and that’s not being mentioned.
3. The audience feel great about their workplace. They like the fact that their bosses are good blokes (and lady blokes) who can take a joke.

• One word of warning. Do your research thoroughly and never, ever offend anyone.

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