Your Public Best - Lillian Brown [72]
For example, if you are an expert on real estate investment or stock investments, and you have given similar speeches often on the subject, your job of preparing for this speech will be a simple one.
You may even be the kind of speaker who talks without notes or just with one small card tucked into your pocket or purse. If you always speak from notes, you may be able to do a quick edit or rewrite of a good speech that you have given recently elsewhere, and all you might need to do is add some updated statistics or refer to some recent happenings in your sphere of expertise, and—voilà—a new speech is born.
But what if you have been asked to speak on a subject closer to the one that was canceled, and it is somewhat more specialized or detailed or serious than the speeches you are used to delivering? Assuming you are knowledgeable enough about the subject to give the new speech, you might begin by making a list of all of the main points that should be covered; writing down a dynamic opening and close, and practicing them until you have them down pat; doing any additional research necessary for the body of the speech; and writing out the speech as much as there is time for.
A slight variation of this might be that you call back your hosts and explain that there simply will not be enough time for you to prepare thoroughly on the subject as they have suggested, but that you would like to select one aspect of the suggested subject and expand on it in detail in the speech. (Obviously, you would select an aspect with which you are well acquainted and one that will appeal to your particular audience.)
One other type of popular substitute speech is the quasi-humorous/ quasi-serious speech given so well by such marvelous speakers as political analyst, writer, and Washington Post reporter Mark Shields, political humorist and pianist Mark Russell, and others.
Of course, this type of speech is not necessarily given just as a substitute speech—on the contrary, it is among the best kinds of speeches being given today—but it can also make an excellent last-minute, substitution speech. This is true because during this kind of speech you can use anecdotes and stories and jokes that have been included in other speeches (i.e., material that you are already familiar with and that you know will receive a good response from your audience). At the same time the tone of such a speech is by nature informal—you can take your coat off, walk around the platform, interact with the people in the front row, laugh at your own stories, and otherwise entertain the members of the audience instead of worrying about boring them or living up to the expectations of the speaker who canceled. The other speaker may be more famous than you and may, after all, have attracted the crowd in the first place.
In giving such a speech, the subject matter becomes less important in that more of your time will be spent telling stories or jokes than in giving statistics, and you would be able to spend less time preparing the speech.
Giving Your Speech
Once you have decided on what type of speech you are going to give and have prepared it as well as possible in the time allotted, you are ready to go to the speech site. If you have stage fright or are nervous for any reason—you may be substituting for a very famous person or will shortly be addressing the largest or most important crowd of your life—then give yourself extra time to arrive so that you will have time to relax at the site.
Before the ceremonies begin, ask to speak with the person who will be introducing you to find out: (1) if your name and the subject of your speech got printed in the program that was handed out, or if the name and the subject of the first canceled speaker appears in it; (2) what percentage of the audience, if any,