STEP 3 Use humor. If witty repartee isn't your strong suit, repeat something someone else said that you found funny, or share something amusing you read in the paper.
But, I mean it... looking back, I don't think I would have done well in the court of Elizabeth I. I don't know the Elizabethan dances, I don't speak Latin, I don't go to church. Rhyming couplets are not my strong suit.