How to Deliver a Best Man Speech Course | Why You Are an Actor and How Actors Prepare | [VIDEO 6 of 30]
Okay, so I’m jumping ahead a little bit here, but if you’re really going to nail this speech. And I mean give yourself the best possible chance of success, then you’re going to need to one thing really well, and that one thing is to engage the audience. That means throughout the speech you’re going to need to think about things like body language, your stance, your intonation when to pause, when to sound sincere and so on. But you know what – this is a lot to think about all at once – and you’re not superman right?!
How are you going to do all of those things when you’re only focus is getting the words out? You just can’t! We used the analogy of learning to drive earlier. When you first start you’re so busy trying to keep the car on the road that it’s difficult to think about the mirrors, the indicator, the lights and everything else as well. You only get all of those things working together harmoniously when you’re confident you have mastered the main task – which is keeping the car on the straight and narrow. So…you’re going to need to do the same thing.
You’re going to need to learn the script first. Think of it like an actor. They can’t act if they’re just thinking about their lines. They have to learn the lines first and then the acting is layered over the top. You’re going need to develop what we call your muscle memory. What do I mean by muscle memory? I mean that you could be woken in the middle of the night, given a line from your speech and you could tell what’s coming next. That’s the level of detail I’m talking about. That’s where some of your hours are going to be spent. And that’s also going to be a key part of managing any nerves on the day.