No gorging

I am home, I'll from gorging. Okay, it's not a pleasant subject, but diverticulitis is not a pleasant ailment. Trust me.

This condition reemerges when 1)I eat too quickly, and therefore not realizing how much I have put down; 2) I eat too much at one sitting; 3 I eat too much of the wrong thing.

Speech lesson to be learned? You bet.

First, do not rush to the finish; you need time to gauge audience reaction and they need time to process what you are saying.

Second, do not cover too much material in one speech. Talk about something specific;limit your thesis.

Third, do not overkill. Too many stats will boggle the mind; too many jokes will cheapen your intent, and undermine your ethos; too many pauses will put the audience to sleep.

More on this at another time. I am on a liquid diet for two weeks, and my tummy is calling for beef broth.

Go with the flow

In 2013, in Philadelphia, we will be hosting the cfl national championships in speech and debate. To do this, we need to find 400 classrooms that can host the competition and a few thousand hotel rooms to lodge our guests,

We have the hotels: the cc marriots, the Sheraton, and the embassy suites. The rooms have been hard to find.

Today, we visited temple university, an area of the city that one member of our committee wanted to avoid. But once I set foot on campus, I knew this was then place to be. The area had energy. The buildings were new and impressive. The reps we met were vibrant, and eager to have us.

I can see temple finding us at least 200 rooms, a number that would put our search to an end.

See, it is best to set aside prejudgements---all they do is keep you from forging ahead. Explore territories, new ones and forgotten ones.

DINNER AT THE DAHLGRENS

I just had dinner at the Dahlgren household--a thank you feast for 4 years of working with their amazingly talented son in forensics.

First, we had finger food appetizers: i can't tell you how many pieces of stuffed olives, pepperoni, cheese, hot peppers, veggies I put down.

Then came the salads, and the steak, and the shrimp, and the veggies.

The came dessert: decadent brownies, fruit pizza (to die for) and naked chocolate from my favorite place on walnut street, between 12th and 13th in cc Philly.

I have two questions:  What exactly did I eat? And how much did I consume of each?

Answers: I am not sure and I am not sure.

What speech lesson do we glean from this?

First, every speech has a beginning, a middle, and an end. If you overplay the introduction (the appetizers), the audience may not be able to--or want to--consume the body (the entrée.)  And if you offer too much of one thing (too much humor, too many puns, too many stats) the audience may develop a distaste for what you are offering or may feel intellectually bloated by it.

So plan your speaking menu wisely.

THE COMEBACK

One of my more recent favorite films is  THE WRESTLER, in which the comeback kid, Mickey Rourke plays a comeback ring veteran, who got over the fact that he thought he was a has been, and rebuilt himself from the inside out to rise to the top.

The film is more complicated than I make it, but one moral is clear: never count yourself out.

Recently, I witnessed a young gal go blank for 30 seconds, while speaking to an audience of several thousand. She stood there, poised, until she regained her train of thought. Then she continued, seemingly unfazed by the lapse, and later admitted how she couldn't wait to seize the stage again.

This gal had chutzpah. This gal did not let a downer get her down.

This gal knew that the audience was behind her, feeling her pain perhaps even moreso than she. And she felt their relief and support when she regained her footing.

Remember--keep on keeping on.

YOU THINK I'M FUNNY?

HUMOR ME...

in speechmaking, do use humor, to break up the seriousness (maybe,) but don't be offensive.

Witticisms are fine; sarcastic comments at the expense of another are not. Comments that continually show that you are clever, may make you seem arrogant, hifalutin, alienating you from the listeners. Foul humor is an instant deal-breaker; speaking situations should edify and ennoble, not mortify.

ughhhh

No voice and a raw throat make for a sick Tony and a bad speaking situation.
Lemon. salt. zinc. elderberry. eucalyptus. tea tree oil.
The end.

SEIZING THE STAGE--STRUTTING WITH STYLE

For a few days, I'm in Stanford, California, bringing an experienced eye to a speech camp, suggesting alterations and assisting any way I can.

I haven't been to these parts in 20 years--and the hot days and cool nights are rather refreshing.

Last evening we were teaching our protégées how to walk up to the front of the room with style, confidence, and panache.

A few rules:

1. Sit straight in your chair, without fidgeting with anything. Look ready.
2. Rise slowly, taking the king's or queen's time.
3. Walk up confidently, carriage erect, always looking up, face smiling.
4. As you reach the front side of the room, begin to turn o the audience, smiling at them all the way until you get to the podium or center space.
5. Pause. Take in the audience. Smile with great control.
BEGIN.

The corresponding don't do rules:

1. Don't allow the audience to see you sit slouched or fidgeting.
2. Don't dart out of your chair.
3. Don't look a the floor and don't slouch as you walk up.
4. Don't have a worried or blank look as you walk.
5. Don't dart right to the center, showing the audience too much if your back.


LITTLE THINGS COUNT. AND HOW YOU CARRY YOURSELF TO THE STAGE INSTANTLY DETERMINES HOW THE AUDIENCE PERCEIVES YOU: CONFIDENT OR NOT; HAPP TO BE SHARING OR NOT.

SSSNO TO SSSNARKINESS

"SNARKY: sarcastic, impertinent, or irreverent in tone or manner (mw dictionary)

Recently I had the misfortune of hearing a presentation that was riddled--and ruined--by off color statements and condescending jokes. The result? In the formal setting, the audience became uncomfortable, offended, outraged--take your pick.

Your speaking occasion should always dignify the audience--treating them as people unaccustomed to and offended by trash talk of any kind.

Your speaking occasion is not about your proving to the audience that you are a superior schmartazz, a supercilious punster. You are there to insure that the audience receives your message simply and beautifully.

DESPICABLE ME

Well-made cartoon features, these days, seem to be the reason to catch a film. DESPICABLE ME is a must see for any age.

Gru, second class villain, outdistanced by a computer nerd who stole a pyramid., wants to put the moon in his pocket, first by shrinking it with a weapon he pilfered from a foreign nation, and then by bringing it home for safe keeping,

But when his nemesis, a computer geek named Vector, steals the shrink gun from him, Gru adopts cookie selling orphaned girls to help him get it back.

See the film to figure out the ploy and to see what comes next. Also see the film because of its many winning attributes, especially its themes: that even a villain has a heart and that our children, or underlings, believe in you even if you don't believe in yourself.

You see a speech lesson coming, don't you?

The Gru in you who feels that he is only meant to be awful, needs to step aside. You can be a great speaker if you believe in yourself and if you just try, try, try. Look at mishaps along the way as stepping stones to greatness. Learning the wrong way of doing things amounts to a great education.

Your audience wants you to succeed, in the same way that the Gru's adoptees want him to be a good Daddy, one who will make it to their ballet recital. Audience's know how it feels to be up there--they have great commiseration with someone who stands in front of a crowd. So they are your friends who are cheering you on.

And as I said in a distant post, seeing each person in the audience as a child thirsting for knowledge and affection will bring out the dad in you who wants to allay heir fears.

THE HOUSEWIVES OF FRANKLIN MILLS MALL

A long line of mostly women kept me company as i drove out of Franklin Mills Mall. I thought that a fire or an emergency alarm might have landed these people by the curb, especially in the hot sun. But no. It wasn't an act of fate but a force of nature that lured the hoards: it was Betheny Frankel, Bravo's new star of the "Housewives" and the new "Betheny Getting Married."

She was selling a skinny girl drink mix at the State Store (philly for booze palace) and I don't think a sudden thunder shower would have scattered the crowd.

Okay, I caught the show a few times, and I developed a great sympathy for her very patient husband. But the one thing that can be said about Betheny is this: she is not afraid to speak her mind. And it is precisely this that got her her own show, independent of the other ladies.

So, let's just focus on this--not perhaps her need to say less or to engage is some self editing before the words fly.

This gal speaks. She has passion for her thoughts. And she wants people to hear her. To get her.

Have some of her gumption, love to share your thoughts, and you are well on your way to engage an audience--or in her case to make millions tune in to her every week.

But, self editing is also needed. And this is for another time.

i'm back...

After a long hiatus, I am back--with lots to say.

Yesterday, I attended a first person arts show at the upenn rotunda. My friend Paula and I cooled off by sitting directly in front of the window fan.

The performers? Well, some read not too well what they beautifully wrote. So, a tip to those who need to read a little more than they should.

Remember, the script is a person's face--it is another audience member. When you read, don't go blank. Look at the text passionately, using facial expression as your eyes pick up the words. Always end a line looking up, so that the punches of the punch lines are felt.

Also, try not to drop your whole head--just drop your eyes to the text so that we can still see much of your face. It never fails hat those with bangs or straggly hair drop their entire heads to read, preventing the audience to see he face, let alone facial expression and eye expression.

More on this later.