An unusual speechwriting commission
Earlier this year, I blogged about being commissioned to write a 'best men's speech' (a double-act for two speakers). More recently, I was asked to write a speech at very short notice for a client with a significant anniversary less than a week away - and they wanted it all in rhyme!
I welcome these occasional departures from the norm. They are imaginative and make the occasion that little bit different. Obviously, they are not appropriate for every type of event; delivering disastrous, credit crunch company results to your shareholders is probably best done by a single straight man, not a pair of comics while a funeral address in rhyming couplets might just be seen as lacking the necessary solemnity.
But for a light-hearted occasion, such as a wedding, anniversary, birthday or possibly even a leaving party, this can work.
Public Speaking Tip #258: Provided it is not a solemn occasion and no other speaker on the bill is doing the same thing, a short, humorous speech in verse can be very effective. For one thing, it demonstrates a great degree of preparation!
As
with all my speechwriting, I collected as much information as possible,
set these details out on a Mind Map, noted the humorous ideas as they occurred
to me and, when I had enough, started putting the script together.
I can't claim
that the scansion was perfect or that the rhyming would win me any
poetry prizes but it was a humorous speech in verse and I was pleased
that I was able to work in pretty much all the information that had
been given to me. I always write a bit more than the client asks for so
that they have some choice about what material to include. In this
case, the client wanted to speak for less than five minutes (any longer
would certainly have been excessive in rhyme, I think!) and there was
room for them to omit a verse and still have enough material.
After tweaking
the odd couplet, the final version was emailed to this speaker and they
sent me a card a few days later thanking me. Apparently the response
was 'Great!'
For a written piece like this, you really do need to famialarise yourself with the material even more than with a conventional script. It will also be more acceptable to be seen to be reading rather than working around briefer notes but you must still make regular eye contact with your audience.
Public Speaking Tip #259: A speech in verse needs to be read out rather than memorised or it will look too much like a party piece (even if, for this particular occasion, it is one!) And even though you will be reading it, you need to familiarise yourself with the rhythm of the lines, the scansion and the rhyming.
One further piece of advice I would give concerning a speech like this would be not to inform the audience that it's going to be in rhyme; start off as if you are going to deliver a normal speech. The realisation that it's in verse will gradually dawn on the audience and this will add to the humour.
Public Speaking Tip #260: Don't give away the surprise of an unusual humorous speech - you're doing yourself out of laughs!
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Sunday, November 23
Speechwriting in verse? Well, you could do worse!
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Sun 23 Nov 2008 09:58 AM GMT
The sound equipment was sound!
by
Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking)
on Sun 23 Nov 2008 08:54 AM GMT
Kent Active Retirement Fellowship, Rochester
As I have mentioned before, it's always a pleasure speaking in Kent because of the great audience response and on 13 October I gave an afternoon talk about The Power of Humour in Everyday Life for around 85 members the Rochester branch of the Kent Active Retirement Fellowship who meet in a church hall high on a hill overlooking the Medway. I was offered an interesting combination of equipment for the talk: a mic on a stand which slotted neatly into the base of the lectern. The club's sound man was worried that the mic would cut out if I wasn't permanently close to it but it worked perfectly throughout. The talk went really well and I sold a fair few booklets! Public Speaking Tip #257: Even temperamental equipment can sometimes function properly so unless you know that a microphone, for example, will definitely play up, you have to try it out - you may be pleasantly surprised. This was a very good club to speak to. My thanks and good wishes to Mr Seaman who gave me a lift in from the station and back into the city. I spent some time looking around Rochester which has a magnificent Cathedral and castle. |
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