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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.
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.
Full Transcript
- 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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