Rehearsal, Part I
I just rehearsed my presentation this morning, with my classmate John and the former Pathology Department Chairperson, Dr. R, as my audience. Wow, I'm rusty. I was a little sleep deprived, but not so much as to explain my stumbling and bumbling through my slides. I certainly wasn't nervous - perhaps a tad anxious - but it's weird how my perspective changes whenever I do any sort of public speaking. It's as if there's part of my mind that's controlled and going through the talk (Florestan), and another part that's undergoing a panic attack (Eusebius):
Florestan: And here are some of the systemic effects of the cytokine IL-1β, but most notably, IL-1β is an endogenous pyrogen, acting on the hypothalamic-pituitary axis.
Eusebius: Good...good...now careful here...transition coming up. Don't blow it!
Florestan: Uhh...and this slide displays the role IL-1β plays in disease.
Eusebius: YOU BLEW IT!!! It's over! We're done for!
Florestan: ...it plays an important role in septic shock as shown here. More recently, IL-1β has been shown to be an important player in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus...
Eusebius: Okay, nice recovery, we've still got a chance...
Florestan: ...and perhaps multiple roles in cancer biology. Ummm......
Eusebius: Oh, No!!!!! Dead air! WE'VE GOT DEAD AIR DO YOU HEAR ME? This is like the 134th 'Um' in the talk and we're only on slide 7!
Eusebius: I totally told you last night we needed an extra two slides to explain this. But did you listen to me?!?! NoooOOOooo...
Florestan: Would you shut up? I'm trying to talk here.
Eusebius: Don't tell me to shut up, you fool! You're the reason the talk is so weak.
Florestan: I can't concentrate with you whining all the time.
Eusebius: I wouldn't complain if you exhibited the slightest bit of competence.
Florestan: Shut up shut up SHUT UP!!!
Eusebius: You shut up! I'm taking over!
Florestan: You can't do it! You had your chance and that's why you've been relegated to the subconscious! Go awa--
John and Dr. R exchange glances.
Dr. R: Uh, Mike? Are you still with us?
Yet somehow, I made it through the rehearsal talk. John and Dr. R both said that it was fine. I was conscious of several pauses, um's, uh's, and several awkward stops and starts. Both John and Dr. R made no mention of those and thought that the level of those aforementioned blips would be fine even for the actual talk on Thursday. It's weird how your mind distorts your perception when you're on the spot. So, I've come up with a theory:
As painful as this rehearsal was, this was a great way to find out where the weak points are in the talk. I think I've found the right tone and approach for the presentation. Now if only I can come up with enough jokes to fill in for the paucity of data, I'm Golden.
Florestan: And here are some of the systemic effects of the cytokine IL-1β, but most notably, IL-1β is an endogenous pyrogen, acting on the hypothalamic-pituitary axis.
Eusebius: Good...good...now careful here...transition coming up. Don't blow it!
Florestan: Uhh...and this slide displays the role IL-1β plays in disease.
Eusebius: YOU BLEW IT!!! It's over! We're done for!
Florestan: ...it plays an important role in septic shock as shown here. More recently, IL-1β has been shown to be an important player in the pathogenesis of diabetes mellitus...
Eusebius: Okay, nice recovery, we've still got a chance...
Florestan: ...and perhaps multiple roles in cancer biology. Ummm......
Eusebius: Oh, No!!!!! Dead air! WE'VE GOT DEAD AIR DO YOU HEAR ME? This is like the 134th 'Um' in the talk and we're only on slide 7!
***
Later in the talk
***
Florestan: Now I'd like to explain how we performed the analysis of this chromatin immunoprecipitation assay. This slide is a representative graph of the output data from a quantitative PCR reaction and...uh...you can see we have three different samples...um..Later in the talk
***
Eusebius: I totally told you last night we needed an extra two slides to explain this. But did you listen to me?!?! NoooOOOooo...
Florestan: Would you shut up? I'm trying to talk here.
Eusebius: Don't tell me to shut up, you fool! You're the reason the talk is so weak.
Florestan: I can't concentrate with you whining all the time.
Eusebius: I wouldn't complain if you exhibited the slightest bit of competence.
Florestan: Shut up shut up SHUT UP!!!
Eusebius: You shut up! I'm taking over!
Florestan: You can't do it! You had your chance and that's why you've been relegated to the subconscious! Go awa--
John and Dr. R exchange glances.
Dr. R: Uh, Mike? Are you still with us?
*****
Yet somehow, I made it through the rehearsal talk. John and Dr. R both said that it was fine. I was conscious of several pauses, um's, uh's, and several awkward stops and starts. Both John and Dr. R made no mention of those and thought that the level of those aforementioned blips would be fine even for the actual talk on Thursday. It's weird how your mind distorts your perception when you're on the spot. So, I've come up with a theory:
Mikey's Theory of Relativity (Speaking)
The speaker perceives the pauses and interjections (such as 'uh' or 'um') to occur at a length or frequency 5 to 10 times greater than does the listener. Your speech isn't going as poorly as you think it is. Or so I hope.*****
As painful as this rehearsal was, this was a great way to find out where the weak points are in the talk. I think I've found the right tone and approach for the presentation. Now if only I can come up with enough jokes to fill in for the paucity of data, I'm Golden.
posted by Mikey at 11:45 AM
1 Comments:
Best advice anyone ever gave me to combat "ums" and "uhs": Swallow it! Take a breath and move on to your next point. Your audience will perceive a pause that says, "please study my beautiful slide while you absorb what I just said." If your pause is preceded by an "and," the pause says "don't tune out, because what I'm about to say is really important/interesting."
And don't forget to get a good night's sleep. You're gonna be just fine!
Jocelyn
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