Chapter 12 Carefully craft the venue elements that influence your speech

First of all, fresh air should be ensured; lighting is another factor that affects the success of a speech; there should be nothing behind the speaker to attract the attention of the audience, the most important thing in a speech is people! First of all, we must ensure fresh air.Oxygen is very important during speech.No matter how moving the speech, or how beautiful the soprano in the concert hall, can not keep the audience awake in the bad air.If I'm one of the speakers, I always ask the audience to stand up and rest for two minutes with the windows all open before I start my talk. For the past 14 years, Major James Pond has traveled throughout the United States and Canada as Henry Picchu's manager.The famous Brooklyn evangelist was in great demand at the time.Pound often went to inspect the place where Picchu was going to preach before the believers arrived, and carefully checked the lighting, seats, temperature and ventilation.Pound was a retired Army officer who liked to wield authority and yell.If the mission was too hot for the air to circulate and he couldn't open the windows, he'd pick up the book and smash the window panes in one fell swoop.He firmly believed: "For an evangelist, the best thing besides the grace of God is oxygen."

Lighting is another factor that affects the success of a speech.Unless you're performing a conjuration in front of an audience, try to get as much light in the room as possible.To arouse enthusiasm in an audience as dark as a thermos is as difficult as taming a wild quail. If you have read the works of the famous producer Bilasco on stage design, you will find that the average speaker has almost no insight into the importance of lighting. Let the light shine on your face and people want to see you clearly.It is part of self-expression, the most authentic part, that even the subtlest changes in your face should be made clear.This presence can sometimes express yourself better than your words.If you stand directly under the light, your face will be in shadow; if you let the light shine from the back of your head, your face must also be hidden in shadow.So before you give a speech, isn't it smart to find a location with the most light?

Don't hide behind a desk either, the audience wants to see the speaker's full body, too.They'll even poke their heads out of their seats to get a full view of you. A well-meaning host will definitely prepare a table, a kettle and a cup for you, but you can't ask for a kettle or a cup, and you can't ask for those wastes that are useless and ugly on the podium.If your throat is very dry, find a little salt to hold in your mouth, or taste a little lemon, which will stimulate your mouth to produce more saliva than Niagara Falls. The car showrooms of various brands on Broadway are beautifully arranged, neat, clean and pleasing to the eye.The office of a famous brand perfume and jewelry store in Paris, France is also so elegant and luxurious.Why do you want to do this?Because these are high-end products, customers will have more respect, confidence and envy for these products after seeing how beautifully arranged these exhibition rooms are.

For the same reason, a speaker should also have a pleasing background.I think the ideal setup would be one in which there is no furniture of any kind, nothing behind the speaker to attract the attention of the audience, and nothing to the sides—that is, nothing but a dark blue velvet curtain. None are needed. But what is often behind the average speaker?Maps, charts, and maybe a pile of dusty chairs.What is the effect?A vulgar, untidy and incongruous atmosphere.You must take all the useless things away. Henry Picchu said: "The most important thing in a speech is the person!" If you are a speaker, make sure you stand out, like the snow-capped summit of Jungfraujoch against the blue Swiss sky.

Once I was in Landon, Ontario, Canada, and happened to meet the Prime Minister of Canada giving a speech there.When he was giving a speech, it happened that a worker took a long wooden stick from one window to another and adjusted the windows one by one.As a result, the audience almost forgot the speaker on the stage for a while, and looked at the worker intently, as if he was performing some kind of magic trick. Neither listener nor spectator can resist—or rather, they are unwilling to resist—the temptation to look at a moving object.As long as the speaker can remember this truth, he can save himself from distractions and unnecessary troubles.

First, he should refrain from playing with his fingers, fiddling with his clothes, or making nervous little movements that would distract the audience from him.I remember a well-known orator in New York who played with the tablecloth on the platform with his hands during his speech, and the audience all looked at his hands intently for half an hour. Second, if possible, the speaker should seat the audience so that they do not see latecomers coming in, which prevents them from being distracted. Third, the speaker should not have VIPs on the podium.A few years ago, Raymond Robbins was giving a series of talks in Brooklyn, and he invited me to sit on stage with a few other distinguished guests.I declined on the grounds that it would not do the speaker any good.And it really is, on the first night I noticed several VIPs moving, putting one leg over the other, putting it down again, etc.; One moment, the audience will turn their eyes from the speaker to the distinguished guest.I informed Mr. Robbins of the situation the next day.In the next few nights, he was very clever and stood alone on the stage.

Velasco did not allow red flowers to be placed on the stage because it would attract too much attention from the audience.So how can a speaker allow another person who is constantly moving to sit facing the audience while he speaks?If only he had been a little wiser, he would not have done so.