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Your stage fright advice sucks
August 29, 2005
Earlier today as I chatted with an old friend, I told him about my talk tonight and he asked if I was nervous. “Well, a little,” I admitted. “It’s been a few months since I’ve done any public speaking – and I’ve been very hermity recently so I haven’t really been doing all that much talking.”
“Well, just picture the audience naked! That works like a charm.”
“I don’t think that’s the advice for me, since I’ve actually seen some of the audience members naked, and most of them have probably seen me naked.”
“Oh, right. Um. Break a leg?”
“Thanks for the shitty pep talk.”
“Hey, what are friends for?”
When I hung up the phone, I thought about the implications of the first suggestion (ah, overthinking everything…). I guess that in order for the advice to work, I would have to impose an imagined sense of shame and ridiculousness on the idea of my audience being naked. A naked audience – what a crazy idea! But in the scheme of my life, maybe not so unlikely an occurrence.
Anyway, thanks muchly to my friends and supporters who came to my talk (and weren’t naked in either reality or my imagination), listened to me babble, and asked interesting questions. Hopefully there will be more talks, workshops, readings and the like to come. I’ve got me some plans!
Posted by Dacia at August 29, 2005 11:07 PM
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Comments
I’ve never tried the “audience naked” thing. I always just stare into the lights like I’m hoping to be abducted.
Posted by: Used Hack at August 30, 2005 11:48 AM
Glad to lend support. I figured you might need to focus on a friendly face in the crowd once in a while.
I forgot the joy in academic circles of the arrogant foreigner stopping the whole class because they don’t understand, usually demanding “What is the point of this?” Oh, bliss.
As far as public speaking, I’m much more confident than I used to be, especially seeing how I naturally tend to come off better than most at it, especially when I am relaxed and knowledgable on the topic. As long as the ADD doesn’t get in the way, I’m fine. I usually just try not to get insecure over blank looks and use the positive reactions from the crowd to bolster my confidence.
You did great.
Posted by: Todd at August 30, 2005 04:41 PM
I’ve always found the “audience nekkid” thing a tad odd. Granted, public speaking has never been a real problem for me (except in language translation courses …urgh), but the idea of the audience naked seems like more of a /distraction/ than something to calm me down. Honestly, though, if the audience WAS nekkid, it would just be that. A naked audience. Could be kinda fun.
Posted by: Lioness at August 31, 2005 06:15 PM
Let every man praise the bridge he goes over… Walter
Posted by: Walter at November 29, 2006 04:52 PM
