Going out on a limb here for your disc jockey work. Combined with podcasting. Combined with writing where you might have a long monologue (less common I suppose in comedy, but still)...do you have tips/tricks for people "presenting" where there is no audience feedback to tell them how they're doing?
Yes, communicate to one person. Especially if you’re on Zoom. The more you can make a direct connection the better.
Along those lines, make direct eye contact.
Don’t read. Refer to notes if need be, but talking directly to people commands their attention.
Know your audience. Don’t talk over their heads or patronize them.
Make your points as clear as you can.
Diction is important.
A little humor never hurts, as long it's appropriate. Self-deprecating humor in particular is effective.
Don’t talk too fast. People sometimes have the tendency to talk quickly when they’re nervous. Your points get lost and it makes the audience uncomfortable.
Don’t talk in a monotone. Audiences fall asleep when a speaker drones on. Mix up your inflections, hit key words. You’re not just making your point, you’re selling it.
Try to avoid crutches. We all have them, but the fewer “you knows” and “uhhhhhs” the better.
A well-timed pause can really hammer home a point. Obama is a master at this.
Have a glass of water handy. Keep the pipes lubricated.
Rehearse.
Don’t rely on Powerpoint or other visuals. They are certainly helpful tools, but when things go wrong with them (which they always do), if you’re spending half your talk trying to pull up the right slide it breaks your momentum. You should be able to punt and sell your presentation even if the Powerpoint craps out.
And finally, appear to be comfortable. Now I know this is difficult, especially since you’re not comfortable; you’re a wreck. But if you can at least give off the impression that you’re relaxed it will put the audience at ease. And that can be the single most important factor. It makes no difference what you say if your listeners aren’t receptive.
So those are a few tips. Best of luck.
16 comments :
What, no "picture your audience in the nude" tip? If it was good enough for Marcia Brady and Harvey Weinstein then it's good enough for me too, I mean #metoo, sorry.
Powerpoint:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/may/30/microsoft-power-point
And remember the old adage: sincerity is the most important thing. If you can fake that, you’ve got it made!
One of my pet peeves is when a speaker says something like "This happened to me last week" and then recites a trite old anecdote I heard fifty years ago. Nothing loses my attention faster.
Hearing that Rudy Giuliani has been rushed to Johns Hopkins Total Landscaping.
I can't take credit for this joke. I saw it on twitter.
https://twitter.com/DanSpenser/status/1335698057019666435?s=20
Hi Ken (and all) -
As a Fundraising Auctioneer who is now doing my events Virtually with no audience, I can totally relate to this. I do believe my 25 years in radio prepared me for extended periods of talking into a microphone by myself, but it is still unsettling at first!
My best advice would be one word - PREPARATION
don't EVER try to wing a presentation because you think it will keep it fresh or spontaneous - IT WILL NOT!! The best ad-lib is one you have prepared - kind of the reason that Ken and other writers spend so much time doing re-writes after rehearsals!
Have fun and enjoy the new experience - we have all spent 2020 living too many of the same old things over and over and over...etc.
I teach lecture halls and seem to do all right, and I do most of the things Ken mentions. I will say that I realized, when I was about to teach a class with 260 students, that I needed to have powerpoints and the like to show what I was talking about ... and that too much text on them meant the students took photos of them and didn't take notes.
By the way, another point: Watch and listen to good communicators. My idol also influenced Ken: Vin Scully. Another who was great at talking to you one on one often is forgotten these days: Garry Moore.
Re making direct eye contact: To do this, you have to know exactly where the camera lens is on the device that's recording. I often see people on Zoom (or YouTube, or FaceTime, or just taking selfies) who seem to be looking just past me as a viewer. It's disconcerting, and completely misses the kind of direct connection they're aiming for.
Ted: Yes, it's an issue in part because if you have people's faces on your screen you tend to look at them instead of the camera, since the latter offers no feedback. On stage, I usually scan the audience somewhat, because I don't want to get fixated one one person or group and leave the rest feeling left out. Harder to do that on Zoom, where people may not understand what you're doing.
wg
Nobody remembers the imagine-your-audience-naked gag from "Cheers"? Carla gives that advice to Frasier, who is nervous about a speech. Frasier then wanders about, laughing as he imagines Carla, Cliff and Norm naked. Then Rebecca sweeps past him and he's nervous again.
I have a couple of friends that signed up for Toastmasters. I don't know why they felt they needed to. They are already good speakers and neither are lacking in self-confidence. I think it was more about making business connections than anything else. So far they have nothing bad to say about the organization. Although maybe that will change as they gain confidence and learn to express themselves better.
M.B.
If you want to learn to use PowerPoints more effectively, I recommend a book called Presentation Zen.
Let's just face it: public speaking is a bitch. It doesn't matter how smart you are, how experienced you are, how skillful you try to be. Politicians, news anchors, improv comedy actors, all struggle to sound less than annoying.
Humans are the only species to develop our level of language, and we're still terrible at it. I wish I could speak Dolphin.
"Try to avoid crutches. We all have them, but the fewer “you knows” and “uhhhhhs” the better."
I'm VERY poor at punctuation and spelling in general, but I make sure to double-check my notes before I'm speaking. I never understood how 99% of people that have jobs and get on a camera for a living tend to still say "uhhh" and "you know" it's just so pathetic honestly and a BIG turn off when people speak that way. If I hear someone speaking and it's their job to do so, such as public speaking, news reporters, etc, I stop paying attention once I hear this more than once in a sentence. Again, I'm not close to perfect, but I'm not the one with the job of doing this all the time. The same goes with the word "literally."
In terms of content, leave them wanting more, rather than thanking whatever deities that be that you finally finished.
Thanks Ken, I totally missed this back in December, just seeing it now. Thanks for answering my question!
Paul
aka Polywogg
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