Jun 01

Speedlinking – Posts I’ve Read – 1st June 2009

I’ve decided to experiment after reading a post here about a technique called Speed-linking that Darren Rowse used to use. Fundamentally, it’s a round up of links that I have found interesting over the last day or five, and hope that you find interesting too. There isn’t an overall theme, other than presentation skills and public speaking. So here are some post that I’ve read and enjoyed today:

  • Over at Maniactive, Laura Bergells discusses her Presentation Diet Plan. I’m now noodling on conducting an actual experiment with this. Complete with graphs, bunsen burners and tapioca. Continue reading

May 28

Public Speaking Blogger Appears in First Feature Film

sisterhood2Sisterhood Gets a DVD release!

If you are a regular reader you would have read about an appearance that I made in a low budget movie called Sisterhood.

I blogged about this Brit-Kiwi comedy here, it’s been slowly building up momentum and has appeared at a few film festivals, been nominated for a few awards and even won one!

It had its world premiere at The Feelgood Film Festival in Hollywood in August 2008, where it was part of The Official Selection. It was also part of The Official Selection at LA Femme Film Festival the same year.

This year Sisterhood appeared at in The Official Selection at The British Film Festival in L.A., U.S.A. where it was nominated for 3 awards including Best Comedy, Best Actress and Best First Film. It ended up winning Best First Film! Continue reading

May 25

32 Essential Skills Every Humorous Speaker Should Have

I’ve been inspired by fellow blogger Andrew Dlugan’s post 25 Essential Presentation Skills for Public Speaking.  audience-laughter
I think in order to help you learn to be funny, these are some of the skills and humour techniques that you should have. Some directly relate to giving a speech, whilst others involve external factors. You’ll see what I mean below.

I know that there are some people wonder: “should you be funny in a speech?” I think it really depends on the circumstances and topic of your speech. For the most part I would say yes. Humour is a great way to connect with your audiences and have them remember your message. One of the essential skills below addresses this very idea.

Can you think of any more? If so, leave a comment below.

1. Create Large Amounts of Humour – duh, seems obvious, right? We should be able to create a large amount of humorous material that we can draw upon. Material created by your own sense of humour, not lifeless techniques on paper. Continue reading

May 16

President Obama’s 2,000 Year Old Speaking Secret

If you have to make presentations as part of your job you might be able to pick up some useful tips from this post. This post is a kind of follow up to my post Lessons from President Obama’s Inaugural Speech.

This is also a great post for those who are working their way through either the Toastmasters Competent Communicator manual (project number 9 “persuade with power”) or the Persuasive Speaking Advanced manual.

You see much has been written about Obama’s speaking skill. He has routinely been compared to great speakers such as John F Kennedy, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King Jr. and Abraham Lincoln. He uses rhetoric and oratorical skills that wouldn’t be out of place in Ancient Greece or Rome. Continue reading

May 03

Musical Impressionist Danny Gans Passes Away

dannygans
I was surprised to hear of the passing of musical impressionist Danny Gans who was 52. While you may not have heard of Danny Gans his story is certainly fascinating. A former minor league Baseball player Gans tried his hand at stand-up comedy performing in comedy clubs at the beginning of his career, but he didn’t like doing them.

He discovered that he could sing as well and spent the next 15 years travelling around America making his money on the corporate circuit, performing 125 nights a year. He said he polished his act in front of “middle America, people who read People magazine… They loved clean comics. They loved music. It was Elvis’ audience”. However, it was only after he realised that his kids missed him that he decided to try a different tact. Continue reading