Nick R Thomas - A Public Speaker's Blog

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Sunday, May 24

A speaker cannot live by content alone!

by Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking) on Sun 24 May 2009 02:17 PM BST

RIP Sir Clement Freud, laid-back speaker

Over on my other blog, Freelance Comedy Writer, I have posted an entry about the recent death of the broadcaster and wit Sir Clement Freud, grandson of psychoanalyst, Sigmund. It includes an anecdote about his brilliant opening remarks during a challenging after dinner speech.

In his autobiography Freud Ego, he recalled another difficult speaking engagement, this time during his (successful) campaign to become elected as a Liberal MP in 1973. He was addressing an audience of railway workers who were staunch Labour supporters but he still managed to extract a laugh by saying he had something in common with them as his grandfather was Signalman Freud!

The thing about Clement Freud was that he got laughs partly through having such a laid-back, in fact, lugubrious delivery. In his case, it had become his trademark but the rest of us have to work at being a bit more outgoing!

In my early days as a speaker, I certainly got laughs, compliments and repeat bookings but these often seemed to happen despite my delivery rather than because of it. I started with the enormous advantage of strong, original, well-structured material and good comic timing, thanks to six years' experience of writing for national radio topical comedy shows (and I had been winning humour-writing contests in national publications and on TV for eight years before that) but there was very little personality in the way I put this material across - as a couple of local newspaper reviews of my early stand-up comedy were at pains to point out! And although I passed all my LAMDA public speaking exams with very good marks, my examiners always advised that there was room for improvement where the use of my voice was concerned.

So I stopped thinking that my content was enough to carry me through and started working on putting more personality into my delivery. It took some time; often I would think I was coming across as totally over-the-top in front of some audience only to listen to the recording I had made (highly recommended for improving your delivery) and hear something little better than a dull monotone!

But, gradually, it all started coming together, helped in no small measure by my getting an Equity card. (I blogged about the positive effect this had on my performances here). Nowadays, the voice on those early recordings is barely recognisable. I am also a lot more physically outgoing when I give presentations.

I sometimes feel a bit sorry for my early audiences but every speaker has to learn somewhere; in any event, most of them have rebooked me, sometimes many times, so they have (I hope!) been able to see and hear the improvement in my delivery over the years.

Public Speaking Tip #310: Very few speakers can consistently get by solely on the strength of good material. It usually has to be combined with enthusiastic and energetic delivery for maximum effect.

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Saturday, May 23

Second language isn't second best in public speaking

by Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking) on Sat 23 May 2009 11:51 AM BST

Coaching public speakers from overseas

I recently delivered a coaching session for an Argentinian lady called Iris who booked me after hearing me at one of my own speaking engagements.

It's always interesting coaching speakers for whom English is a second language (although in Iris's case, she speaks about half a dozen!) During the seven years when I taught evening classes in public speaking for Bournemouth Adult Learning and Bournemouth and Poole College of Further Education, I trained students from the UK, Ireland and the United States but also from Italy, Brazil, Spain, Venezuala, India, Germany, Sweden and a trio of great guys from South Korea. It takes courage to enrol in a public speaking class but even more to do so and deliver your presentations in a foreign language!

These students all enriched my classes with their fascinating insights, anecdotes and humour as well as being an inspiration for those from English-speaking countries.

During my session with Iris, I concentrated on her enthusiastic delivery of her well-prepared and humorous speech (she is very interested in creative writing and is already contributing to a local magazine). There was just the odd point where I corrected her pronunciation because I felt her audience might be distracted from some very good content. I also did some swift editing to avoid an unintentional innuendo!

I certainly wasn't going to nit-pick over every word or pronunciation and try and make her sound English. What matters is that she delivers her speech with passion and people can understand her.

One of the saddest training sessions I was ever booked for (and one which was never really going to work) happened several years ago when I got a call from a gentleman who asked, in very good English, if I could help him lose his slight foreign accent. I immediately explained that I am not a language school or elocution teacher but he said he was willing to try anything as he found it irritating when people asked where he came from when he knew his English was very good.

I reluctantly agreed to take the booking and set about devising some speaking and reading exercises for him. I turned up at his lovely home in a very nice location and he told me that he had moved to the UK many decades ago as a teenager and had built up a successful business, married and had children (now grown-up). The one thing that seemed to be spoiling his life was the fact that he had a slight accent on occasional words which led to some people asking what country he was born in.

(I thought to myself that, rather than trying to correct these long-established speech patterns, it might be more productive to reframe his outlook so that he viewed these enquiries as friendly interest; on the other hand, I did wonder, bearing in mind where he was from, whether they were asked with increasing frequency by paranoid people in the wake of 9/11).

We set to work with readings and conversation. I recorded him and we listened to the playback. But however much we practised, there would be a slight accent on occasional words of a certain type.

After a couple of these sessions had left me feeling that I wasn't helping him at all, I discussed the matter in general terms with an adult education colleague of mine, a language teacher who had made a study of the speech patterns in my student's part of the world and she explained how difficult it would be to 'correct' certain pronunciations.

After one more lesson, we agreed that this wasn't working and decided to call it a day. I hope he came to terms with his speech, especially as he spoke better English than millions of Brits!

A few nights ago, I was speaking to a guy from a Mediterranean country who is starting out as a magician. He told me he felt that comic timing in his part of the world is different and this makes it more tricky trying to use humour with UK audiences. A little while later, he told a topical joke to a table of about seven people. His delivery was perfect and he had everyone, including myself and at least two other professional entertainers, in fits of laughter. So much for 'different' timing!

Public Speaking Tip #309: If you are delivering a speech in a second language, you are doing something very courageous and bringing a welcome, different style to your audience. They will make allowances for you so don't fret too much over 'perfect' grammar or pronunciation - what matters is that your message gets across.

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Wednesday, May 6

Just call me Nick FM!

by Nick R Thomas A.L.A.M. (Public Speaking) on Wed 06 May 2009 12:01 AM BST

Public speaking vs broadcasting

I am a humorous public speaker who writes comedy for radio. Here is a light-hearted article I recently wrote for the Radio Magazine contrasting these two media:

Radio broadcasting is, of course, a form of public speaking. So can public speaking be a form of radio? Over the course of more than 700 speeches, presentations, talks and workshops since 1996, I have certainly noticed some similarities...

For a start, I am sometimes invisible to my listeners, for example, when I speak at luncheons and dinners in hotel restaurants where pillars obscure the view of me to some of the audience (perhaps to their profound relief) but occasionally I will be booked to speak for an organisation for the blind. This really emphasises the importance of vocal delivery because for these listeners a talk is very much like a radio programme. But putting light and shade into my delivery is essential for any audience I am addressing because I don't use many visuals, such as props (as for Power Point presentations - what, with my level of technical knowledge? Please!)

One thing I did find when I started as a speaker - and I wonder how many radio presenters would agree with this - is that learning to consistently put some expression into one's voice actually takes longer to master than conquering nerves.

Additional sound effects tend to be provided by the audience themselves in the form of mobile phones ringing, hearing aid feedback and (thankfully not too frequently) snoring.

'Dead air' (i.e. pausing during my speech) may be a little more acceptable than on radio but silence due to a lack of questions or discussion after the presentation can leave a speaker feeling a little like a phone-in host with no callers.

Elements of my talks are sometimes pre-recorded (sketches played at writers' workshops, for example) and I do have my own brief 'commercials' where I slip in a plug or two for the booklet of speaking anecdotes I sell (it must be effective advertising as it has sold into four figures).

Parts of my material are delivered without notes, other bits are from bullet points (my 'log') and there may be the odd reading. My 'playlist' can be as repetitive as that of the major stations in that there are some anecdotes, observations and gags that I deliver during most of my 'shows'; the difference is that I try not to use them over and over again with the same listeners!

And who are those listeners? Well, my demographic is usually the 50s to 90s age group so I keep the humour clean - easy listening, you might say. To the best of my knowledge, there have been no complaints about my content to whatever the after dinner speakers' equivalent of OFCOM might be.

However, there are some occasions, such as corporate training days, when there are people in their 20s present so perhaps these are like club gigs to me.

And what about my 'RAJAR?' Well, my audience figures have ranged from 1 (seriously!) to 500 so I guess we're talking hospital, student or community radio comparisons here. Or a struggling commercial station!

The slots I am booked for are usually mid-morning, lunch, 'drivetime' or evening. I have done the odd breakfast show (a business networking club presentation) and one organisation had the bright idea of not putting me on until 11.15pm for a tiny audience at a function which had been going on for four hours (it was something akin to a graveyard shift in that I certainly died a death that night).

I am often asked to draw the raffle tickets after a talk but these seem to be legitimate contests with no scandals involving fixing.

Finally, there are occasions when curious members of the public gawp through windows or even wander into the room set aside for the private function where I am speaking. They have little real interest in hearing me and soon disappear again.

A bit like an outside broadcast from a shopping mall, really.

(Nick R Thomas is available to speak at training days, luncheons and dinners. His rates are reasonable - just don't expect him to present for you for ten quid an hour).

Don't let the above put you off public speaking! The great public speaker and humorist Basil Boothroyd may have remarked in his book Accustomed As I Am: The Loneliness of the Long-distance Speaker that 'observational humour is pointing out a truth that everyone knows but nobody has realised yet' but it does sometimes involve simplifying - then exaggerating!

Nevertheless, I hope I have made it clear that a presenter is, well...a presenter!

Public Speaking Tip #308: Some of the best practices from radio broadcasting can be adapted for other areas of public speaking.

PS: Of course, DJs usually have microphones that actually work!

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