The out of class presentation I gave was on the subject of how and why Hollywood and or celebrities are able to impact the way some people do things or the way attempt to live their lives. I presented this speech to a good portion of mine and my wife's family who were in town to help us move. The ages of the people present for the speech ranged from 14-72, obviously many were coming from different generations and were likely going to have very different opinions on this kind of subject.
The purpose of my speech was to let the people know that there is a reason that celebrities or stars from movies or sports teams are looked upon as people we want to be like or hope to have similar success as. Many people see these different people in the tabloids and have all these negative thoughts and feelings towards these individuals, all we know is what we read. Do any of us know any of these stars that are constantly being scrutinized and criticized for how they are and how they live their life? More then likely, the answer is no you don't. Maybe one of us here is lucky enough to know a "celebrity" personally, but as I said before, likely not.
There were several things I wanted to focus on during this speech to try and improve on for future speeches both in school and in life. I gave the audience a rubric to feel out after the speech, I had 12 questions on the rubric that each person was asked to feel out. Among the items on the rubric that I handed out were, but not limited to:
1 - Did the opening line of my speech get your attention enough to BE interested, and not Have to be interested?
2 - Was the speech repetitive in the different points that I was making throughout?
3 - What if any was my "nervous tick" during the speech? (swaying back and forth, hands in pocket, saying "um" as a filler word."
4 - Whether I made you a "believer" or not, was how I presented the speech able to turn this into a valid view point?
5 - Were the transitions rushed or did they flow smoothly?
The main focus of my speech was using myself as an example as to why these celebrities can be role models and people we look up to, and not just these dirt bags we read about in the paper and see on the TV. I was really aiming to target three main points during this speech to get the audience to really see what I was trying to say, by getting them to look through my eyes, not their own. Those points were: 1 - People have had dreams all their life of wanting to be something or be someone of importance or be successful, on any level. What is wrong with having a dream to play basketball, sing in front of thousands, or star in a movie that everyone you know will go and see. Obviously there is nothing wrong with having those dreams, SO, if we do have them, who are we going to look up to or try and emulate? The Michael Jordan's, the Garth Brooks, the Brad Pitt's of the world, that's who.
2 - Don't let a magazines, a TV, a friend, a rumor, or anything of the sort decide how you view that person. Read about them in biography's, watch documentaries, research them. Make up your own mind on these people. Just because they make a lot of money doesn't mean they don't deserve it.
3 - I wanted them to think throughout their lives, who they wanted to be like, the dreams they had, who they tried to copy, then ask themselves why, more than likely they are going to be the exact same reasons as someone who is "trying to be like Mike", but because Michael Jordan is famous, it's viewed differently.
The points I wanted to make in this speech were definitely delivered. I was able to put a spin on "Hollywood" that many of the people in the room hadn't really thought of that way before. I set out with a few goals in mind before the speech (as mentioned above) and feel they were accomplished as I was delivering the speech. I was able to notice from the feed back and from the comments afterwards that the older generations of people in the room during my speech, were far less willing to give the speech any real thought, as they proved to be more difficult in accepting that not always are the celebrities are bad people. In their eyes, the more money they had, the more evil they were.
Going through the feedback I had, the overwhelming consensus was that my transitions during the speech flowed very smoothly, I was able to keep the attention as I shifted the topics. I was able to keep my hand and body gestures minimized, but still effective. The two items I was told to pay more attention to, were using filler words as I tried to keep my place in the speech, and saying the same thing in different ways. Better known as repeating myself.
This was a great opportunity for me to be able to practice and deliver my speech. I was able to pay close attention to the things I needed to work on for future speeches, and hear the feedback from different people on what I had improved on and what still needed improvement. Overall the speech was a success, I feel I was able to deliver what I intended to, while still being able to focus on the specific items I was trying to improve on. All while getting the audience to look at a subject differently then they had ever before.
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