An article on presentation skills and public speaking by Ed Brodow
This article was written by my pal Ed Brodow. It will be featured in
Professional Speaker magazine, the publication of the National
Speakers Assn. As Ed interviewed me for this, and I found it very interesting,
I asked if I could offer it to my friends and visitors to my website.
He granted his permission and I hope you enjoy it. His contact information
is at the end if you would like to contact Ed directly or check his website.
— Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE
Many successful speakers are using acting techniques to upgrade their
platform skills. After all, the speaker's job is the same as the actor's-get
the audience involved. Legendary Patricia Fripp, CSP, CPAE, attributes
much of her success as a speaker to her acting training. Patricia recognizes
that, "Actors have to do the same role for months and years. How do they
stay fresh? That's what we have to learn."
Do you want to win an Academy Award every time you speak? To deliver
each story as though you just thought of it, even though you've told it
500 times? Fripp remembers, "When I first went to (coach) Ron Arden, I
was getting bored with my own material. After his session it was like
giving my talk for the first time."
During twelve years as a professional actor, it was my privilege to
study with some splendid coaches in New York and Los Angeles: Lee Strasberg,
Mary Tarcai, Warren Robertson, David Craig, José Quintero. This
acting training has been invaluable in my career as a professional speaker.
Here are ten practical secrets from the craft of acting that can help
you win an Academy Award on the platform.
Secret Number One: Improvise
Improvisation means making it up as you go along. It means letting go
in order to try something new and exciting. Actors use improv to free
up their creativity and to discover their comfort level with the script.
You can improvise by trying out different ways of structuring your speech.
By improvising with my negotiation keynote, I came up with the signature
story of how I accidently knocked my grandfather's false teeth down the
toilet. It has nothing to do with negotiation, but it succeeds in getting
the point across with warmth and humor.
Tony Alessandra, PhD, CSP, CPAE, improvised a story to explain the difference
between the Golden Rule and the Platinum Rule. "One day," he recalls,
"something suddenly popped into my mind about my mother treating people
in a restaurant as if she's in her own kitchen, and I built the story
up from there." Improvisation took him beyond the obvious.
Try practicing one of your scripted stories with improvised words-you
will discover the language and mode of delivery that feels most comfortable.
You can clean up your timing by delivering your speech at twice the normal
speed or by delivering it in gibberish.
Reminding audiences of Sid Caesar, speaker/actor Alan Ovson cleverly
improvises with foreign and regional accents in order to highlight his
serious business message. "While it is heavily rehearsed," Ovson says,
"99% of my actual speech is improvised based on the mood and reactions
of the audience."
The idea is to keep the instrument (you) free and open. Improvisation
gives you the space to be creative and spontaneous.
Secret Number Two: Personalize your stories
The key to story telling is not to memorize the words, but to memorize
the experience. Actors do this using a technique called personalization.
It means tapping into an experience from your life and applying the emotional
impact of that experience to an acting scene or to a story. Personalization
is the actor's secret for being real.
For example, when Anthony Hopkins is playing the role of serial killer
Hannibal Lecter in the film, Silence of the Lambs, he recreates
the emotional impact from an experience in his life where he was so mad
that he wanted to kill someone. What we see on the screen is Hopkins as
a psychopathic killer. In reality, Hopkins the actor is playing out the
emotional reality of his substituted experience.
As a speaker, personalizing means bringing yourself into the speech.
"For telling stories," Patricia Fripp advises, "if you can't see it, the
audience won't." Get the audience involved by reliving the experience
with them. The payoff is that each time you recreate the experience, it
will be fresh.
Even when you are describing something that happened to someone else,
make the material your own. "All of my stories are personal stories,"
says Tony Alessandra. "If I hear a story that I like, I will rework it
for me. I don't tell it the way everyone else tells it."
Secret Number Three: Have a strong drive
An actor has a drive (or objective) in each scene, and a drive which serves
as a through-line for the play. The drive is what motivates the character.
Hamlet's drive is to kill his uncle, Claudius. Hamlet finds many obstacles
in the way, but without his drive the play would collapse.
As a speaker, your drive is whatever you are advocating to the audience,
your point-of-view. My drive is to convince the audience that win-win
negotiating is more productive than win-lose. Joe Calloway, CSP, CPAE,
says, "My drive is to have the audience saying, 'Wow. I never thought
of it that way.' To help them create a new perspective." NSA member Barry
Wishner's drive is, "Not just to present ideas, but how to execute those
ideas."
Without a drive, you are merely a walking encyclopedia. Take a stand
and stand out!
Secret Number Four: Be theatrical
Actors always try to be real on stage. But stage reality is actually a
heightened form of what we normally experience as reality. Reality without
theatricality is boring! Even the most subtle film performance has a dash
of theatricality thrown in.
Being theatrical as a speaker means, "You need to be yourself but slightly
'larger than life,'" says Patricia Fripp. She adds, "Style is being yourself...but
on purpose." At the humorous end of the spectrum is Larry Winget, CSP,
who tells his audiences about shopping with his wife and finding a display
of small plungers. He says, "It ends up with me putting a plunger on my
head and pulling some other bald guy on stage and putting another plunger
on his head and then having a ring toss."
NSA member Marianna Nunes sums it up by saying, "Great performers can
read out of the phone book and keep the audience entertained!" When you
are communicating with a large audience, a lot of electricity is flying
around. Use that electricity. Put on the Ritz!
Secret Number Five: Start at the top of the scene
First impressions are crucial. Actors know that they have to grab the
audience immediately. They do this by starting at the top of the scene-their
energy level must be up there right from the beginning. For speakers,
"Your energy is what motivates and energizes them," says Marianna Nunes.
"You must be warmed up when you begin."
Patricia Fripp says, "Come out punching." This doesn't mean that you
should open your speech by screaming or by jumping up and down. "Match
the audience's energy and come out a little higher," Marianna Nunes suggests.
"If they're low key, don't come out too wild or they'll be turned off."
Alan Ovson opens up with a story. "I involve the audience as much as
possible right away," he says, "so they get the scene, the smells, the
warmth, and the feeling of what's going on in the story."
I have seen speakers take half an hour to warm up. You will lose the
audience if you wait too long to rev up your motor.
Secret Number Six: Work moment to moment
Great actors are great reactors. They strive to work moment to moment.
This means they keep their senses open and alert, not anticipating what
the other actor is going to do. Jack Nicholson's performance is more exciting
because his response to the other actor's behavior is spontaneous and
unplanned.
Don't be like a speaker I know who pauses at certain points in his presentation
for audience laughter-whether he gets it or not! Be there fully. Allow
your senses to be aware of everything that is going on as you speak, and
adjust your presentation accordingly.
"The 'magic' happens spontaneously," observes Joe Calloway, "in reaction
to the audience. Often my best material comes from what is happening in
that meeting. My presentation is not like a train that is locked onto
the tracks-it's much more like surfing, moving this way and that, sometimes
falling off!!"
Tony Alessandra agrees. "I have an outline in my head, but I never know
what I'm going to say because I like to involve the audience," he explains.
"When you ask questions of the audience, you may get answers that you
weren't expecting, and you have to play off of it. Some of my best lines
come from the audience."
Secret Number Seven: Go for variation
Anything that goes on too long in the same way is boring, even sex. Actors
break a scene down into beats and establish variation for each beat. Speakers
can strive for variation in emphasis, movement, volume, energy level,
material, etc.
You can build variation into the organization of your speech, e.g.,
story...transition...story...major point...story...and so on. Variation
can occur in the volume and tone of your voice. Pausing is a form of variation.
And don't forget to build variation into your body movement.
Patricia Fripp quotes her coach, Ron Arden, as saying, "The enemy of
the speaker is sameness." When she outlines her talk, Fripp asks, "How
many points of wisdom, stories, laughs, transitions, questions...?"
Bear in mind that your audience has a short attention span. Variation
is an effective technique for keeping them with you.
Secret Number Eight: Take risks
Do you remember Marlon Brando's "Granny" in the film, Missouri Breaks?
The willingness to take risks is what makes great actors stand out. The
same is true for speakers. "To be truly in the moment with the audience,"
Joe Calloway insists, "you have to be willing to fall off the surfboard
once in a while."
Barry Wishner's risk-taking is bringing audience members up on stage.
"I never know who they will turn out to be or what they will say," he
admits, "but that's exciting."
Recently, I beat up a rubber chicken during a keynote. It was a risk.
Some people loved it and some hated it, but no one forgot it. People still
come up to me and ask, "Ed, how's your rubber chicken?"
So, how's your rubber chicken? Have you taken any risks lately? As NSA
member Sally Walton says, "After all, we're not doing the Presidential
Debates. What have you got to lose?"
Secret Number Nine: Be fully committed to your choices
When Brando put on a dress and became "Granny" in Missouri Breaks, there
was no holding back. Actors strive to make interesting choices and then
commit to them fully.
If you decide to be theatrical or to take a risk on the platform, don't
hold back. When I beat up my rubber chicken, I strangled it, slammed its
poor little head into the podium, threw it to the ground and jumped up
and down on top of it, screamed and growled and snorted.
For Marjorie Brody, CSP, being fully committed means, "being passionate
about my message and how it will impact the audience's careers." Be fully
committed to your message and your choices. Secret Number Ten: Your relaxation
is in your concentration
If the actor's mind is allowed to roam free, it will focus on nervousness.
Actors relax by concentrating on their preparation, the script, and the
other actors. Speakers can relax by concentrating on their drive, the
client, the audience, customization details, room mechanics, etc.
Marjorie Brody relaxes by meeting and greeting audience members, giving
out handouts, and chatting with them before her presentation. Alan Ovson
concentrates on his points of wisdom. "As I get more information about
the audience, I realize that what's important to me may not be important
to them," he admits. "So I concentrate on re-prioritizing my points."
To Be or Not to Be?
Don't expect to win your Academy Award without effort. Actors who are
hailed for their instant stardom remind their fans that it took years
of hard work for their "overnight success."
"Acting techniques are appealing and appear easy to use," cautions speaker
coach Dawne Bernhardt, "but if they don't blend in with your natural style,
you run the risk of losing authenticity and appearing artificial." How
can you avoid that? "Practice is essential," advises Bernhardt, "along
with feedback to be sure your technique isn't showing."
When used correctly, these ten acting secrets can help you to be yourself
on the platform. They can help your delivery become spontaneous and alive.
They can help you command your audience.
So, as we show biz folk say, break a leg!
Ed Brodow is the only negotiation expert who has made love to Jessica
Lange on screen, that is. Speaking professionally since 1987, he is often
recognized from his starring roles as an actor in motion pictures and
television. He is the author of Negotiate With Confidence.
Contact info:
Ed Brodow Seminars
857 Lobos Street,
Monterey, CA 93940
831-372-7270
ed@brodow.com
http://www.brodow.com
Copyright © 1998 Ed Brodow - All rights reserved
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