Angela Lansbury Speeches and Making Speeches

I was in two competitions, table topics (impromptu speeches on a given topic) and the Humorous Speech contest. The event f the day was the vote on Scottish independence. At the last moment I looked around for a prop, in case I needed one. Picked up a hat with the England flag.

Maybe if I'd entered only one contest, I'd have put extra thought into my prop.

The winner of the topics contest was a friend of mine. I was happy for her to win because I won the other contest on the prepared humorous speech.

But the so-called unprepared speech is often partly prepared.

Her topic was a small masterpiece. She had a prop representing Scotland, to focus herself and her listeners on the arguments for voting for Scottish independence. Her other prop was the union Jack. By arguing for both sides she captured her entire audience. Her summing up said whichever way the vote went, she'd support both Scotland and the other countries and hope they would all work together.

The other thing she did well was to wear her prop. No fear of leaving it behind. Forgetting it. Dropping it.

But, better still, her prop was partly concealed until she spoke, then revealed as a surprise. So Well done Coralie. Thanks for teaching me about props and speech construction. 

A speech on religion has to win over a sceptical or anxious audience who may be wary that the speech is trying to convert them to another faith. Warren's speech won over the audience by starting by explaining that he had heard two speeches advocating atheism and he wished to present the opposite point of view.  So his speech was one of three speeches on religion, already a minority point of view, one of three in which he was outnumbered. He raised three fingers to emphasise the point and count off the number of speeches.
   He further won over the atheists or those of another religion by presenting the views against theism first. So this was a 'for and against' speech.
  At this point he told us about how he changed his view and why he was searching for a God because of his experiences as a child.  We now had the interest of a personal story, a bit about his family and rivalry with a brother and trying to impress peers and parents and succeed at school, with which we could sympathise. When you relate stories about your past, you are giving the audience new information, confiding in them personal details, and you are the expert.
   He helped us remember by holding a prop from his schooldays, a prizewinners booklet, which was an attention- getting device during the speech and a visual aid for our recall.
   Finally we reached the tipping point, his arguments about prayer to God for help, free will, and for the existence of a God. He produced arguments I had never heard before, about why God could not grant us every wish automatically, because farmers need rain although we need sun, and to grant all our thousands of wishes would make God our servant instead of our God. The objective was to persuade and he did that admirably.
    His last argument was specifically on belief in Christianity. To believe in that it is first necessary to believe in a God and having got us to agree to his first premiss, we were more inclined to attend to and take seriously his second and final argument.
   An audience always thinks, what's in it for me? What action should I take? He offered us two free (Gideon?) bibles so we could find out more.
  He had only two bibles, not enough for everybody, so he did not offer them during the speech. In a five minute speech that might have caused a delay and distraction. Even jealousy and hostility if two people had received bibles and others gone without. Or a scrum and race for the free gifts. (I've seen that happen once when a lady with a stick ran to try to outrun more humble members of the audience and fell over.)
  Instead he suggested that anybody wanting to know more should see him afterwards. That reduced the appearance of a hard sell (or 'buying the audience). But it also enabled him to have a follow-up chat.  We are often told to end with a call to action. He ended with a call to action.
  But what had those who did not want bibles gained? He ended, 'Now you know why I am a Christian.' He had shared information, creating friendship and understanding. A win-win situation, an effective persuasive speech which achieved its objectives. The speech was well-constructed, we knew when it ended and when to applaud.
    Angela Lansbury is a member of two Toastmasters International clubs and former President of Harrovians and ongoing committee supporter of HOD. 
Quick Quotations for Successful Speeches by Angela Lansbury. Lulu.com
Other books on quotation and public speaking in preparation.