In The Performance Method, we conceive and perform the entire speech in our mind before we begin actual rehearsal. We rehearse multiple times before we ever commit a word to paper. This is my speech discipline, and I heartily recommend it. What I call ‘Cocktail Speeches’ are those sub-ten minute speeches which are somewhat personal in nature. The information disseminated tends to be derived from our life experience or from knowledge we already possess and need not research.
I have found the concept of writing a speech to be particularly bothersome in the realm of Cocktail Speeches. I say this because we are speaking from our own lives, and/or from our own personal interaction with the information we are to provide. So to say ‘we lived it’ is to accurately portray our relationship to the material. That being the case, I can see the need to jot down a note or two if recollection of a sequence of events is necessary, but let that be the last time you count on the paper to remind you of what you have lived (and learned).
The first time I gave a speech in Toastmasters (Ice Breaker, 4-6 min.) I stepped to the Lectern without notes and delivered it. One of my new, fellow Toastmasters marveled that I had spoken without the benefit of notes. My response was, I lived it; I know it. This was not an arrogant response but simply the truth borne out in The Performance Method. For a short speech which draws upon personal experience or knowledge, committing anything to paper for the purpose of memorization is to succumb to fear and laziness.
Give your brain a good workout! Push it to perform! Force it to remember key details; to forge links and transitions in your short speech; to commit to organization; and to supply you with information on demand, when you need it. It takes effort, requires discipline, and no small measure of fearlessness the first time you do it. But on the other side is a level of confidence in your own abilities that is worth far more than the paper you saved.
Fearlessly,
JD
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