Can you deliver a speech in front of a large crowd without looking nervous?

[Iloko]

I sure as hell can't lol

poll added..

[Harley]

Yes. If you know your talking points, there should be no reason to be nervous.

Now, being a stand up comedian delivering your first couple of sets ever, THAT sounds really nerve wrecking.

[Selurong]

Yes, won best Orator and best Debater in High School and College. Speaking in public is natural to me.

[Westbrook]

Yes. It's easy because I imagine I hate every single person in the audience.

[♥ Lily ♥]

No, certainly not. I think I'd die from fright. Even the mere thought of doing that makes me tremble.

I also feel nervous and tense if a few strangers watch me whilst I'm playing on my piano or Irish tin whistle. I've had workmen previously visit my home and they've noticed my musical instruments and asked me to play them a song. I've tried to make excuses to avoid doing so, but after they persisted, I gave-in and started playing Moonlight Sonata for them on my piano... even though I felt tense and uncomfortable with being watched by strangers in my home.

I also dreaded having to play music as a small child infront of the rest of the school at my infant and junior schools sometimes during school assemblies. I would play together with about nine other girls. My mother had to psychologically prepare me to reduce my nerves. She made me practice playing music infront of my toy teddy bears and she told me to avoid looking at the audience and to imagine them as being teddy bears... it helped me feel less anxious.

At senior school, drama lessons were my worst subject as I was petrified of going on-stage. I hated acting and being stared at, so I would silently sit in mental anguish and agony during drama lessons... silently pleading and wishing for my name not to be selected. Once I got stage-fright and the other kids laughed as I had to be pulled onto the stage... and then I just froze and couldn't remember my lines as I was too nervous. The teacher let me sit down off-stage, but I felt ridiculed and embarrassed by being forced to go on-stage.

My voice was so quiet that the teachers struggled to hear me. I'd always sit at the back of the classroom and felt nervous if I was asked to speak. My cheeks would blush bright red and I'd get palpitations in my heart, and I could still feel my heart beating fast for a minute or two after being asked to say something.

Each year, my grandmother and mother would make fancy dress costumes for me and my sisters to wear... and then we'd have to parade in competitions. Usually the costumes would be nice and age-appropriate, like Little Bo Peep, etc.

But one time, when I was aged 6, my parents didn't have enough time to design a costume... but they still wanted to enter me in the kids fancy dress competition. So they quickly decided to dress me up in a red bikini with flowers in my long hair and flowers all around my neck. I cried and acted up that day, as I didn't want to do it. I didn't want to parade in a red bikini. I thought they were trying to humiliate me, but they said it would look 'lovely'.

As I walked around on-stage in a red bikini with flowers around my neck and in my hair that evening, and then was forced to parade with the other kids in front of the audience full of adults and judges, I felt shaky and upset.

And then when the 3 winners were announced, I felt upset when they called my name as it meant I had to go back on-stage infront of the audience to collect my prize (a kids board game,) and also to have my photo taken in a red bikini (third place winner,) next to a boy dressed in an imaginative robot costume (second place winner,) and another boy dressed as a weetabix man (first place winner.) All three winners had to stand on these blocks numbered 1, 2, 3. My parents and grandparents and my aunts and uncles who were in the audience were proud, but inside I was dying.

I also feel sad for these other stressed kids who are also forced by their parents to wear make-up and parade in bikinis for audiences at early ages.

Look what happened to this 6 year old beauty pageant JonBenet Ramsay who was raped by a paedophile and found murdered in her bed.




Forcing kids to act like strippers makes me feel sick. 0:30

1:20


I don't think introverted and shy children should be forced to feel nervous, traumatised, anxious, and uncomfortable and forced to go on-stage if they're not naturally extroverted types.

As a result, I started skipping drama lessons, and then I was hospitalised as a teenager due to my social phobia. I had to finish my secondary education in a hospital in the Hampshire countryside. The classes in the small hospital school were therapeutic and we only had 3 teenage hospital patients per class, so it felt much less intimidating than a regular school.

I still feel panicky and nervous if I have to introduce my name in classes or therapy group discussions.

[♥ Lily ♥]

Each week I see politicians (both male and female) loudly speaking and yelling infront of hundreds of other MP's in parliament and with TV cameras on them for the nation to watch.

I don't know how they manage to speak infront of the nation without looking nervous. You have to be very self-confident to be able to give public speeches in front of lots of people.

[nittionia]

I often give presentations for school and I'm fine at it. I don't care as long as I know the topics I want to talk about.

[Mr.G]

I would be nervous, but I have given presentations before. Not my favorite thing to do, had to push myself a little bit.

[The Lawspeaker]

I have been told I look nervous but I force myself to get it right. The funny thing is, though, that I'm always completely exhausted once a presentation is done.

[The Blade]

I have done it and it has come natural to me. I don't feel nervous because of others watching me.
However, you need to know what you are talking obviously. I wouldn't feel ok talking about anything related to chemistry as I'm not good at this, for instance.