How to Begin a Talk: breathe, connect, sway
SILENCE and BREATH
The very first thing we do, before we speak, is to look out at the beautiful view and take a lovely, deep breath. Let it linger. Make sure our eyes capture every face, vista, sigh, mood. Just breathe it all in. It may feel like a million years, but that opening moment of breath and silence before we speak, is vital.
Then, only when the audience is with us, do we speak our first, beautifully crafted and memorized opening line.
A few years ago I was in rehearsal for a play and the Artistic Director reminded me that, “The audience doesn’t catch the first minute or so of any play. They are turning off their phones, checking out the program, unwrapping cough drops.”
But! That just can’t be so! The first line of any play, book, article, poem, is crafted to launch the entire experience! And this play, The Other Place by Sharr White, about a scientist who studies early-onset dementia and who finds herself with early-onset dementia, demanded that the first line be heard: “The first glimmer of it came on a Friday.” THE FIRST GLIMMER OF IT CAME ON A FRIDAY! Wow!
Opening night, I entered the stage, found my light, and I waited. I wanted to make sure everyone was with me. I wanted to make sure they caught that shimmering and meaningful line.
It’s like tossing someone a ball—we make eye contact and make sure they are with us before we let go.
There are so many reasons for that silence, that breath:
It grounds the speaker.
It orients the audience.
It creates a transition into this new moment.
It allows for speaker and audience to sync up.
If the talk is filmed, it gives the videographer a perfect place to edit.
CRAFTED and MEMORIZED OPENING LINE
On the whole, I do not like memorized talks. They sound memorized and they put the speaker’s attention on the words, rather than on the audience. There are some exceptions, which I will talk about in a later post. However, I do ask that speakers craft and memorize their opening and closing lines for three reasons: artistry, clarity, and nerves.
Artistry and Clarity
Like a novel, poem, or news story, I want the first line to hook the audience. Boom! They are with us! In order to capture the audience immediately, the opening line has to be bold and clear. Not only clear in its meaning, but clearly spoken, giving the audience a moment to let it sink in. I have a preference for talks that start with a bang, instead of meandering in. I question the very first words out of a speaker’s mouth: why do so many talks start with the word, “So?” Is that a choice or a habit? No, we choose our opening words carefully.
Nerves
I ask that people memorize the opening line because the first words we utter are almost always the scariest; if we know exactly what we are going to say, we have an anchor. Once we’re off and running, it gets easier.
See How It Works
One of my favorite opening moments comes in Andrew Kaufman’s TED Talk.
Andrew enters the stage at minute 4:25, after the movie trailer for the incredible documentary, Seats at the Table, by Chris Farina about Andrew’s work in bringing together juvenile correctional center students with university students in his Books Behind Bars program.
Notice how Andrew takes in the audience with a breath and his open gaze. Then, listen to his first words—chosen, clear, crafted, launching us into the world of the talk. Notice the way he savors and then repeats a name, a foreign name, making sure the audience is with him.
That’s how you start a talk.