At a 7:30 a.m. city council gig, the chair cracked a “seal” triple pun and my Deaf client (who prefers minimal mouthing) wanted content first, humor second, so I pivoted: delivered meaning, then layered the joke on the recap — still got a delayed laugh 10 seconds later. How do you adapt for multi-layer puns or wordplay without derailing the message, especially when the speaker barrels on and Zoom has a 2-second lag?
At 7:30 a.m., I deliver meaning, then fingerspell ‘SEAL’; subtle brow cue, or park joke later.
And those 7:30 gigs, I pre-assign a tiny locus for ‘seal’ and keep policy content fronted; on the recap I tap that spot and drop two quick contrasts — animal vs. official stamp — then tag ‘deal closed’ with a clasp, and the laugh lands even at T+10. Instead of fingerspelling, @obaker99, I lean on non-manuals and a micro hold so minimal-mouthing clients aren’t pulled off meaning. If the speaker steamrolls, I park the gag for the next slide transition and label it ‘JOKE’ for 1 beat before releasing.
I use a tiny non-dom hold — like a sticky note on the joke — so they know a second layer’s parked while I keep content moving, then I unpack the contrasts at the next natural pause or slide change. If the speaker barrels on and my client’s low-mouthing, I just tag “WORDPLAY” and only circle back if it matters, @gwatson78.
Quick example: 7:30 a.m. city council, chair drops “seal” — I keep content flowing, then on the recap I throw a tiny rhetorical WHY with a grin to flag the wordplay and re-hit the target sign with a different NMS so the layers click without extra mouthing. Works great for clients who want content first, though if the speaker’s sprinting I’ll punt the joke to Q&A instead.