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.