Firstly, this speech happened to also be a contest speech, so I memorised it. I do not recommend you memorise your whole speech, unless you are giving a contest speech. Want to know why? Well, if you memorise it, you're more likely to forget it. Look at what happened at 0.50 - I forgot my lines! Not only that, but I left out a whole chunk of my speech (not that you can notice). Follow what it says in your manual for this - Project 1 in your manual has some good information about which parts to memorise and how to remember the rest without memorising. Now, this is where it gets interesting. You are now onto Project 2, however, you are using the skills you learnt in Project 1. This is what I meant earlier about building your skills as you go along. You will always incorporate skills you learnt in an earlier project into later speeches.
Now, for the structure of my speech:
I arranged this speech both spatially and chronologically (see my previous post for further discussion about this). Look at how writing a speech with a spatial structure makes it easy for me to dedicate a certain area of the stage to a certain "area" of the gym that I'm talking about. It also makes it easier for me to remember. For instance, the left (my left) side of the stage is where the weights room is in my mind, and the right side of the stage is where the cardio room is in my mind.
Notice, I had a clear opening that drew the audience in. The line I used to get the audience's attention (otherwise referred to as the "hook") was: "I have a confession to make" (0.03). I also lead into the topic by mentioning my attitude towards going to the gym, and hinted at the connection between the gym and religious practises. All up, my opening was about 50 seconds (though I forgot a couple of points). Roughly 1 minute is a good guide to how long your opening should be.
Then, I went onto the body of the speech. Notice, I didn't just launch straight into talking about the weights room. I used some transitioning sentences to make it easier for the audience to understand (somewhat literally) where I was going with the speech. The transitioning sentences were: "The temple of the gym has sex segregation. The men are all in the weights room, and the women are all in the cardio room".
My first main point in the body of the speech was: " I thought I would go into the weights room" (this was a humorous speech, so the main point wasn't really that meaningful).
The sub point was: "This is not Hell, this is Heaven - here I have a selection of guys who look like Greek Gods and no competition!" (1.06). I then launched into my support material. Because this was a humorous (entertaining) speech, there was quite a tenuous link between my subpoint and my support material, but, nevertheless, there was a link. The sub point hinted at the'religious'aspect of going to the gym, as well as the many men (Greek Gods) who were available to me. I then supported this with the embarrassing story of how I sinned (religion) by dropping the weights and ruining my chances with the Greek Gods. Notice how my support material is related to my main point, but there's also a bit of a twist, because I ended up getting negative attention rather than the positive attention I wanted.
The rest of the body of my speech follows a similar format - with a main point, sub point and then support material. See if you can spot where these things come into play in this speech.
Lastly, I concluded with a few funny sentences about not going to the gym religiously. Notice how this ties in with my opening, where I mentioned the link between the gym and religion and also my reluctance to go there. I also provide a call to action: "I'll see you all at the gym tomorrow" (6:08).
So there you have it! As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, this speech was a competition speech and I actually came second! So, don't be discouraged if your speech is not at the same level. Just make sure you've got a solid structure and you'll be fine.
Break a leg and let me know how you went with it by posting in the comments section below :)
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