Author, Speaker, Producer, Entrepreneur… Occasionally Entertaining.
ABOUT DAVID
Born and raised in Dublin, Ireland, David is the author of the best-selling book Do You Talk Funny? and the Founder of FunnyBizz Conference. His work has been featured in Inc., Lifehacker, The Huffington Post, Fast Company, Entrepreneur, Forbes, NPR, The Wall Street Journal,The Irish Independent and The Irish Times.
“One of the best speaking coaches out there” according to Forbes.com, David’s program with over 29,000 students has been featured by Prezi as one of the best training courses for presenters. His book remains one of the highest rated in the world on the (usually not so wildly exciting) topic of public speaking and his content has been read by over one million people.
A sought after international business speaker, David has also performed standup comedy at leading clubs including Cobbs, the Comedy Store, the Improv, the Punchline and the Upright Citizens Brigade, even though he strongly denies being a comedian and is well aware most people don’t understand his accent. As a storyteller he finished runner up in NPR’s the Moth’s largest US story telling competition and has won multiple Moth Storyslam competitions.
A graduate of the UCD Michael Smurfit Graduate Business School he calls San Francisco home when immigration officials permit, and was named on the 2017 Irish America 100 List, which recognizes the accomplishments of the best and the brightest Irish-American and Irish-born leaders.
A big fan of travel and languages David has lived and worked in 12 countries and visited 68 and counting.
A #1 BESTSELLER FOR PUBLIC SPEAKING
In what doesn’t sound like the best plan ever, David decided to overcome his public speaking fears by pretending to be an accomplished comedian called “Irish Dave” for one full year, crashing as many comedy clubs, festivals and shows as possible. One part of the plan was at least logical; he was already Irish and already called Dave.
In one year, David went from being deathly afraid of public speaking to hosting business conferences, regularly performing stand-up comedy, and winning storytelling competitions in front of packed houses. And he did it by learning from some of the best public speakers in the world: standup comics. In Do You Talk Funny? you will learn the key principles of standup comedy and how they can be applied to your speaking engagements and presentations to make you funnier, more interesting, and better looking. (Or at least two of the three.)
Whether you are preparing for a business presentation, giving a wedding toast, defending your thesis, raising money from investors, or simply want to take on something you’re afraid of, this book will take you from sweaty to stage-ready.
10% of the author’s proceeds will go to Arash Bayatmakou via the Help Hope Live Foundation.
SPEAKING
To inquire about having David speak at your event, just drop us a line using the contact form!
Why have David speak or lead a workshop at your event? Energy, passion, knowledge, humour, and for those of you outside Ireland, a pretty cool accent.
“For impact, content and valuable takeaways David’s presentation to our Sales team was exceptional – a highly energised, engaging and yes funny (very, very funny) session. In fact, feedback from the team was that his presentation was the best they have had in thirteen years of the conference.”
—Aidan Cullen | Head of Marketing at Generali Worldwide
“David was engaging, enlightening and entertaining. Many of our attendees told me he was one of the best speakers we’ve ever had. ”
—Lloyed Lobo | Co-founder, Traction Conference Vancouver
“We had David work with our TEDxStanleyPark Conference speakers for two days to make their talks more engaging. His ideas were often strokes of genius. He delivered them eloquently and enthusiastically and totally engaged all our speakers who were extremely impressed by the depth and breadth of his knowledge around public speaking. He opened many eyes to the potential that can be realised by harnessing the power of a performers knowledge to elevate good talks into great talks. My coaches and speakers simply loved him. Highly recommended.”
—Roger Killen | Producer, TEDx StanleyPark Conference
“We loved David Nihill’s program and have been using many of the techniques he taught us. It was definitely one of the best presentations we have treated our extended management team to in a very long time. He ultimately went way beyond our expectations.”
—Susan Badger | COO, The Redwoods
“David’s class is always a big hit with our entrepreneurs. Here’s why. He’s engaging, entertaining and most of all, makes everyone feel like they can make whatever they have 100% better the moment they leave the room. He’s one of our most sought after trainers and consistently delivers quality and value.”
—Celena Aponte | Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Nasdaq Entrepreneurial Center
“This was our 7th 3XE conference or 3rd year of 3XE and we’ve had some very very good speakers. David is one of the very best. He was a huge hit with our audience and we have already spoken to him about coming back!”
—Adrian Hopkins | Co-founder and Conference Director, 3XE Digital
“David was a notch above a normal speaker. Not only was his content great for building up interest in our event, but it delivered on his promise of entertainment and learning. Add that to the fact that David participated fully in our conference – signing books, talking to attendees, participating in other talks and all the social media fun – and you end up with some very happy organisers who wouldn’t hesitate to reach out to David again.”
—David Hooker | Chief Evangelist, Prezi and Present Conference London
“We are a diverse company of Engineers, Producers, Marketers and Administrators and right off the bat David had us laughing, and listening. He was honest and authentic which allowed him to connect with each person in the room. Everyone walked away with techniques to improve our public speaking skills at all levels; large audiences, company meetings, or team presentations. Highly recommend!”
—Katie Katz | People Operations Manager, CreativeLive
“David is his own best example of why using humor helps to get a point across. Our audience laughed lots, and learned lots! His packed session was one of our most popular.”
—Loic Le Meur | Founder Leade.rs Conference and Co-founder of Le Web Conference Paris
“David’s class is a big hit and always ranks on the very high end of our evaluations. It’s a hands-on educational experience that is equally fun as it is practical.”
—Anya Vo | Education Programs Producer, General Assembly
“David shared his insights in our Humor: Serious Business class, and students found his talk interesting, actionable, and (gasp) even funny! We can’t wait to have him back.”
—Jennifer Aaker | General Atlantic Professor of Marketing, Stanford Graduate School of Business
“David’s workshop made my staff think about things that don’t normally use to prepare and gave them a laundry list of tips to take with them into their next presentations. It was a fun way to think about delivering what can sometimes be very dry material.”
—Nellie Kurtzman | Vice President Marketing, HarperCollins Publishing
“David is a great find if you’re preparing for a presentation or working closely with speakers. We had the pleasure of hiring him for our meeting planners educational conference. His session was highly entertaining, educational, packed with valuable information and extremely popular with our audience. Rather than running for lunch, afterwards our attendees were clamouring to line up for one of David’s books! I’m sure he’ll be requested for future conferences and it would be an easy decision!”
—Kim Stoermer | CMP, ACE Education Co-Chair, MPINCC/Senior Meeting Partner, Genentech
“David was an excellent presenter and kept the audience engaged throughout his whole talk with laughter and actionable information that could be implemented immediately. He showed an expert understanding of the art and the science of humorous storytelling that helped everyone to be better storytellers that same weekend. We were extremely happy to have had him speak at our conference.”
—Pablo Rosario | Program Director, The Society International- A Group by seven-time New York Times bestselling author Neil Strauss
“Humanizing business? David is your guy. He shows you how to bring humor to your business presentation in a way that really connects. Instead of proving he’s smarter than us, he leaves you saying: ‘I want to do that, I need do that, and I can do that.’ A true gem of a human and teacher”
—Michael Margolis | Founder and CEO, Get Storied
“We were delighted to have David Nihill as part of the festival line-up at the Irish Writers’ Festival in Los Gatos in both 2016 and 2017. Not only is David downright funny, but he is super sharp, smart and engaging and kept the audience rapt and entertained without pause. He was such a big hit we want him back again in 2018!”
—Catherine Barry | Director Irish Arts & Writers Festival
“The most fun I had all day was listening to David Nihill. My goodness this man was funny. He is of course absolutely right. Injecting a little humour into what can be quite dry content is more enjoyable for you and your consumer. He certainly made an impact in the room. I am very surprised I hadn’t heard of him before…”
CLIENTS AND PARTNERS
AUDIENCE REACTION TO DAVID’S TALKS AND WORKSHOPS:
ONLINE WORKSHOP
FUNNYBIZZ CONFERENCE
UPPING HUMOR & ENGAGEMENT IN YOUR NEXT TALK
FunnyBizz Influencer is a high level public speaking coaching and ghostwriting service that puts a whole team of business savvy comedic copywriters and accomplished performers at your disposal.
We have worked with and written for CEO’s, Presidential candidates, Saturday Night Live, Family Guy and a host of top TV shows.
We have written award winning speeches, won comedy awards, and provided the best bits of many a TED talk.
We include bestselling authors, award winning comedy writers and storytellers, TED speakers, viral content sensations and Ivy League graduates.
We are on stage way more than traditional public speaking coaches and we live or die by engagment.
We are Malcolm Gladwell’s 10,000 hour true masters of public speaking and we can make your talk better.
A lot better.
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