One of the “little things” I noticed during Governor Sarah Palin’s speech this week was that she seemed surprised by the reaction to some of her statements. There were some zingers she knew would work, and she played those well. There were other times the audience laughed or applauded, but Palin wasn’t prepared for it. At those times, she would simply push through and move on to her next line.
This is a common misstep many speakers make when delivering speeches. Rather than allowing the audience a moment to laugh or appreciate what was said, the speaker just keeps trucking along. From my experience, speakers usually don’t know they’ll get a positive response from the audience because the speech has been practiced in a vacuum. That vacuum usually consists of the speechwriter(s), speaking coach and speaker. The problem is, all those people know the speech and what comes next. That makes it difficult to listen to the speech the way an audience would if they were hearing it for the first time.
I can recall being surprised by audience response many times. I would always make mental notes for the next time to see if I received the same response. Without fail, people tended to laugh at material I didn’t initially think was funny. I found the same thing to be true when I performed in plays. Audiences don’t always respond the way you want them to or the way you think they will.
It is, however, possible to get a good gauge on how an audience will respond. Just get a group of friends together and deliver the presentation to them. Ask them to fill out surveys and to tell you what worked and didn’t work. I’ve had great success with this in the past and was able to adjust my timing as a result.
By the way, if you’re going to invite your friends to hear you speak, be nice about it and order them some coffee and snacks to make it feel like an official meeting.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Hi,
There was an issue with the teleprompter at the convention: It didn’t pause during the applause. That may have contributed to this. Eventually, this caused her to not use the teleprompter at all. It makes her performance even more impressive. Rudy Giulani had the same issue.
Jeff
Hi Jeff,
Thanks for your comments. I understand there was a problem with the teleprompter, but I’m not sure what it was. I’ve heard a few different theories about what actually happened.
From what I could tell, she still ended up using it, but there were definitely points when she started flipping pages to find her spot.
Using a teleprompter is always risky, and Palin did a good job recovering when things went wrong.