Chapter 67 bring the audience together

As a speaker, I often speak to a small audience sitting sparsely in a hall in the afternoon, or to a large group crowded in a small space in the evening.At different times, the audience's reaction to the speaker is different. The same topic that the audience will laugh happily at night can only make the audience smile slightly in the afternoon; The audience would applaud each passage enthusiastically, but there was no response from the afternoon audience. This is because, when audiences are spread out, they are less susceptible to mutual infection.Nothing in the world dampens the enthusiasm of an audience more than empty audiences in that venue with lots of empty chairs between them.

When Henry Beecher gave a lecture on preaching at Yale University, he said: People often ask me, "Do you think speaking to a large group is more interesting than speaking to a small group?" My answer is no.I can give a great speech to 12 people, and I can give the same great speech to 1,000 people, as long as the 12 people can sit around me, close together, and within reach of each other. touch each other's body.Likewise, in the latter case, if 1,000 people are spread out, and every two people are separated by 4 feet, it is as bad as being in an empty house... Pack your audience tightly Come along, you can impress them with only half the effort.

It is easy for a man to lose himself when he is surrounded by an audience of which he is a part, and this is of course more susceptible than when he is alone, and he can't help following the crowd. The atmosphere was full of laughter and applause from time to time.But if he is just one of the five or six audiences who listen to your speech, although you still say the same thing to him, because the atmosphere is too deserted, he will be indifferent to it. When people are a whole, it's easy to make them react. the masses!the masses!the masses!They are a very peculiar phenomenon.All large-scale movements and social reforms are carried out through the response of the masses.There is one very interesting book in my collection which treats it wonderfully on this subject, The Behavior of Crowds by Everett Dean Martin.

If we are going to give a speech to a small group, we should find a small room.It is better to cram the audience into a small space than to spread them across a wide hall. If your audience is spread out, ask them to move to the front and sit closer to you.You must insist that they move over before starting your speech. Do not do this unless the audience is quite large and you really need the speaker to take the stage.You can step off the stage to be at their level, stand next to them, so that you can be informal and intimate with the audience, which can make your speech the same as ordinary conversation.