Short-notice speechwriting helped by social media
On 1 Friday July I emailed a speech I had been commissioned to write at five days' notice. It was for a function celebrating a 21st birthday and the speaker was a neighbour who had been a friend of the young woman's family for many years.
The length of the required speech was only five minutes but when?I write speeches?for clients I always over-deliver so they have more choice over what content to include. The information I was given to work with was detailed and inspiring but I decided to see if the subject of the speech had a public profile on any social networking sites such as?Twitter?that might give me some more ideas. She had, and this included her ambitions, part serious, part jokey. These anabled me to write some personalised pargraphs that rounded off the speech nicely.
Public Speaking Tip #434:?Profiles on social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook may help with information for personalised speechwriting. Do use some discretion though, for example, by ensuring that it's a public profile.
The speech was well-received.
Minster Probus, Wimborne, Dorset
More short-notice work the follwing week, this time a booking to speak to Minster Probus at the?Hamworthy Club?in Canford Magna, Dorset. My first booking for them was in November 1996 (they were only the second-ever Probus I spoke to) and a further three bookings in 2000, 2004 and 2007 meant that they had heard many of my talks but not?Dorothy Parker and the Wits of the Algonquin Round Table.
I always think that after a lunch is the most challenging time of day to deliver a talk. A meal can have a soporific effect on any audience, especially in a warm room, but it's trickier at lunchtimes (after dinner speeches are often shorter) so I always prefer audiences to book my lighter, autobiographical talks like My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer or The Power of Humour in Everyday Life for these time slots. My literary talks go very well for mid-mornings or mid-afternoons but delivering a literary lecture, even a humorous one, after a luncheon requires me to judge how long I think the audience will concentrate on it. At the same time I still want to give the organisation its money's worth. But this club had heard my other talks already so for for this emergency booking we had to go with one of my few remaining titles.
In 2008 I wrote a post here titled?Lose a few minutes, keep the whole audience?where I suggested that just occasionally the best option is to cut the presentation a little short. I have to say that this wasn't true here. I misjudged it and delivered a talk that was probably five to ten minutes too short for them and without questions afterwards making up the time.
Public Speaking Tip #:435:?If you are asked to speak after a meal, particularly a luncheon, consider whether your topic is suitable. If it's a 'heavy' subject, for instance, a lecture with slides or readings, then you need to try and judge what is a suitable duration to keep the audience's attention.
It's tricky but the vast majority of times I get it right.
My thanks for the transport from Bournemouth and back.
Sandown Probus, Surrey and?Haywards Heath & District U3A Open Meeting, West Sussex
Timings also played an important part in my next two bookings. Both involved delivering my talk on Patrick Campbell but in versions 35 and 75 minutes long respectively! But neither were after lunches and there were no problems.
The first was a return visit to the excellent?Sandown Probus Club?in Esher where I had last spoken?just nine months earlier.?Their business meeting was, as usual, a very humorous affair and then it was time for me to deliver my Patrick Campbell talk in a 35-minute slot, probably the shortest version I've ever done (the usual running time for it is 50 - 55 minutes plus questions).
But it wasn't a problem. I simply had to include the most important facts and some of the funniest stories between the introduction and conclusion.
Public Speaking Tip #436:? If you are asked to deliver a shorter-than-usual version of a long presentation then approach it in this way:
-Edit material rather than trying to deliver the same amount by speaking rapidly!;
-If you have a strong introduction and conclusion then leave these alone unless you can see a way to cut them down without affecting their impact;
-Choose the most important facts but trim some of the background/additional detail;
-Cut down any lists where possible;
-Leave in at least some of the humorous content - and allow time for laughter!;
-Retain some audience participation as you still need to keep your audience involved in this shorter version.
It fitted the time and got the usual great response from the members. Afterwards I was once again their guest for lunch at?Imber Court Sports Club. My thanks also for the lift from station.
Two days later I was the guest speaker at a quarterly Open Meeting of the?Haywards Heath and District U3a?in West Sussex. The talk for this well-attended event (around 120 seated?theatre-style in the Clair Hall) needed to be around 75 minutes plus questions and divided into two parts.
This enabled me to add some extra content which usually has to be omitted and to really ramp up the humorous stories.
Public Speaking Tip #437:?If you are asked to deliver a longer-than-usual version of a presentation this obviously gives you the chance to include plenty of extra material and detail but any new additions must be as worthy of your audience's attention as your usual content. You cannot just pad out a talk with filler - there must be a sound reason for any new item's inclusion.
Delivering a talk in two parts really involves some planning concerning the interval. This should come at a logical point - and leave the audience wanting to come back for the second half!
With two-part versions of My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer I often finish the first section by playing a recording of a comedy sketch I wrote about a frequently-inebriated public figure. It involves lots of wonderful sounds of clinking bottles and it's a nice joke to tell the audience that they can now go to the bar. Even if they're just breaking for tea and biscuits it still works!
With Patrick Campbell I chose a crucial point in his life story.
Public Speaking Tip #438:?If you are considering how to divide a presentation into two parts then the break needs careful planning:
-Humour helps. Is there a joke or funny story that leads smoothly into an interval?;
-For a biographical lecture you might end the first half at a life-changing moment in your subject's story, thus keeping the audience in suspense!;
-With a 'how-to' talk you obviously need to complete a particular piece of instruction before the break; you will probably also need to do a (very brief) recap afterwards;
-When planning where to break off, remember that this still has to fit in with the timing of the event. You ?might have a brilliantly apt way to finish the first part of your presentation but if you deliver it at 15.00 ?and the refreshments aren't due to be served until 15.15 then the organisers probably won't thank you for it - especially if the second half overruns!
My material again fitted the time. One interesting point: an additional story I included featured the Irish place name?D?n Laoghaire and I pronounced this as an English person would! Afterwards a lady (very politely) put me right: it's pronounced 'Dunleary'. I shall know from now on - and will probably impress any Irish audience members (rather as I did with the?Romsey-born 41 Club member?by pronouncing the name of that Hampshire town correctly!)
Public Speaking Tip #439:?Knowledgeable audience members will sometimes correct your errors, for example, where pronunciation of names is concerned. Listen and learn!
A great audience and some decent sales for?'Nick R's in a Twist!'
Mudeford Ladies Club, Christchurch
My last talk for July was on My Life as a Freelance Comedy Writer for the well-attended, hospitable and very appreciative Mudeford Ladies Club in Stanpit Village Hall.
Coaching an over-correcting Councillor!
My success in?coaching a Mayor-Elect?a few weeks earlier led to a fellow councillor wanting some training from me.
One thing I noticed very quickly when they delivered a short sample speech for me was their tendency to over-correct: they would keep going back and correcting what they had just said - even if something was only slightly wrong.?Perfectionism is fine - but not at the expense of your audience. Constant restarting of sentences is distracting and annoying.
There are times when you will definitely need to correct yourself, such as when you have made a glaring factual error. (Sometimes this even happens with content you have delivered many times in the past if your concentration lapses). It is possible to correct yourself with the minimum of distracting fuss, perhaps by now stating the correct version of that part of the sentence and then just adding the word '...rather' afterwards.
Occasionally you may only realise several sentences later that you have stated something incorrectly. It is sometimes possible to bring that phrase back into your content, this time stating it correctly - don't harp back to your earlier mistake, keep moving forward.
Of course, there are also those times when you will say something quite innocently that turns out to be an unfortunate innuendo - in which case the audience's laughter will soon let you know! Under these comic circumstances you can correct yourself very obviously and the audience won't mind - you might even be able to ad-lib about the double-meaning!
Public Speaking Tip #440:?Don't correct yourself during a speech unless it's absolutely necessary; constant fussing over tiny errors distracts and alienates an audience who may not have noticed them anyway. Regular rehearsal of your material - whether it's new or very familiar - will lessen the risk of mistakes. And if you?do?have to restate something correctly then do so with the minimum of fuss.
I have mentioned here before about how even top West End actors make mistakes on stage but simply restate the line correctly then carry on as if nothing has happened.
I have also mentioned that public speaking is not about being perfect - it's about being the best you can be on the day.
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