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ELA 5: Conquering Stage Fright 27 Views


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Description:

What? Who in the world would be afraid of a stage? It's talking on one in front of a bunch of people that gives us the willies.

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

[Coop and Dino singing]

00:13

If you tend to get stage fright, don’t worry. You’re not the only one. [Man stood on stage and pees pants]

00:17

There’s like two or three dozen people out there with the same fear.

00:20

Okay, we’re kidding. It’s actually extremely common – like, "billions of people in the

00:24

same boat as you" common.

00:26

Thankfully, there are a few things you can do to reduce your fear so you don’t capsize. [Captain with wet trousers]

00:30

Get it? Capsize? Because the boat thing…? All right, moving on.

00:34

First, be prepared.

00:36

Make sure you’ve thoroughly researched your topic and make sure that you’ve practiced

00:40

your speech a bunch of times. As they say, practice makes perfect. [Girl practicing speech in a mirror]

00:44

And perfect makes… good grades. …Okay, that’s not a saying, but it’s true.

00:48

Sometimes when we get nervous, we start thinking nasty, negative thoughts about ourselves.

00:52

If this happens to you, try to replace those negative thoughts with positive ones.

00:56

We know, it sounds cheesier than a big ol' pizza covered in Cheetos, but it’s good [Person holding pizza covered in cheeto's]

01:00

to remember how awesome you are. And don’t forget, the people watching you give your

01:04

talk are doing so because they want to hear what you have to say. [Journalist filming batman]

01:07

Another good way to calm yourself down when you’re nervous is to take some nice, deep breaths.

01:13

It might even be helpful to try a little meditation… [Girl meditating by a park]

01:16

Or even some yoga.

01:17

It’ll relax you and improve your flexibility. That’s a win/win if we’ve ever seen one.

01:22

When we get nervous, we can sometimes speak way too fast. [Girl stood at the front of the class]

01:26

That can cause you to stumble over your words, misspeak, or generally make it hard to be understood.

01:30

Keep that in mind and try to throw some pauses into that speech.

01:34

Remember, slow and steady wins the race.

01:36

Okay, so that parable isn’t necessarily about presentations, but just bear with us, here. [Girl running in a race]

01:41

You might have stage fright because you’re afraid of people judging you. But remember,

01:44

most people are usually so worried about themselves that they don’t have time to judge you!

01:48

Like we said, there are billions of people in that boat. Chances are, some of your shipmates

01:52

are in the room with you, and are just as scared of their presentation. [Students gasping]

01:56

It's kind of comforting to know you're not alone, right?

01:59

And our last tip for ya? Try to take the focus off of yourself and connect with your audience.

02:03

Work on connecting with them, rather than worrying about how you feel.

02:07

That’s how you put the “we” in “pwesentation.” [Coop points to pwesentation]

02:10

…Okay, yeah, that was a stretch.

02:12

And, of course, if all else fails, there’s the old stand-by of picturing the audience

02:16

in their underwear.

02:17

Which might work if you’re giving an Oscar acceptance speech…but maybe not so much

02:20

if you’re presenting in a retirement home… [Boy gives speech in retirement home for benefits of exercise]

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