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Fictional Speeches vs. Reality
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Why the hell aren't speeches as well written and passionately delivered as they are on TV or the movies? The last great speech I remember (vaguely since I was young) was Reagan asking the wall to be torn down. Before that was probably JFK.
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Re: Fictional Speeches vs. Reality [windywave] [ In reply to ]
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I disagree. While I don't remember them verbatim, there were several speeches after 9/11 and after the Boston Marathon bombing that reduced me to tears.

If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went. - Will Rogers

Emery's Third Coast Triathlon | Tri Wisconsin Triathlon Team | Push Endurance | GLWR
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Re: Fictional Speeches vs. Reality [windywave] [ In reply to ]
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Americans, such amateurs...



No English speaking orator has ever surpassed him. Not one.
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Re: Fictional Speeches vs. Reality [racin_rusty] [ In reply to ]
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racin_rusty wrote:
Americans, such amateurs...



No English speaking orator has ever surpassed him. Not one.

Um I'd put Churchill on my list of great orators dingleberry.
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Re: Fictional Speeches vs. Reality [windywave] [ In reply to ]
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What many people don't know is that the speech received very little press coverage at the time and it was only after the wall came down that people looked back on Reagan and his speech. I doubt anyone honestly remembers Reagan making the speech at the time.
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Re: Fictional Speeches vs. Reality [windywave] [ In reply to ]
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I'd call him the last, no leaders since have faced the need to motivate an entire commonwealth against as great a threat as was faced by Great Britain in those trying times.
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Re: Fictional Speeches vs. Reality [racin_rusty] [ In reply to ]
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racin_rusty wrote:
I'd call him the last, no leaders since have faced the need to motivate an entire commonwealth against as great a threat as was faced by Great Britain in those trying times.

That doesn't mean there couldn't have been good speeches. . . They just all seem banal and delivered in something just past monotone.
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Re: Fictional Speeches vs. Reality [racin_rusty] [ In reply to ]
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racin_rusty wrote:
I'd call him the last, no leaders since have faced the need to motivate an entire commonwealth against as great a threat as was faced by Great Britain in those trying times.

Although I've always found Churchill's speeches better reading than his actual delivery of them.
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Re: Fictional Speeches vs. Reality [windywave] [ In reply to ]
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It's all in the delivery, and it seems that we've tried to emulate the great speeches and turned them into a formula.

Modern day rules of a good speech:
1. Have appropriate look on face to show the gravity of the situation.
2. Meaningful pauses. Gaze into the camera like you mean it.
3. Speak. Slowly. At. Times.
4. Repeat important parts loudly.
5. Think to yourself, "where are my hands right now?" Are they pounding on something in front of you? Because that's good.
6. Consider a mic drop. Some idiot that never paid for a mic did it once, so now it's a thing.
7. Flash double peace symbols at the end, arms fully outstretched. If no standing ovation, repeat.
8. Consider a well-placed vulgarity.
9. Consider wardrobe failure.
10. Consider bringing the cute by having a young child nearby.
11. Use caution when mixing steps 5, 8, 9, and/or 10 - that's just a little bit too Michael Jackson-esque.

Travis Rassat
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