Monday, November 21, 2005

the continued oratorical misadventures of jeremy freese

I gave a talk today here in Orlando. When I finished the slides for the presentation, I figured that I really had about a 18 minute talk and would have to move at a good clip in order to get it done in the 15 minutes I was allotted. But, then, when I got there, I learned that a scheduling problem reduced my slot to 12 minutes, and then give some issues with the set-up after the preceding speaker had finished and some other matters, it was really maybe on the short side of 11.

In such contexts, I often turn out to give impressive presentations, but they are impressive not for their substance or insight but because of how fast I can speak and still manage to sound as though I'm saying things that, were they said slower, would be reasonable and perhaps even sporadically eloquent. And, lo, while I did also get some positive remarks on the substance, once again more than one spectator offered a reaction that was mainly a marvel at my vroom-vroom-volubility-velocity.

"I wish I could talk that fast and still make sense," was one person's comment. On other occasions, such a remark might be the highest praise I receive for a talk. Today, however, that honor went to another person's statement that the opening example I gave for my paper "grabbed the audience by the [spanish word for a part of the body where, had I actually grabbed even one audience member by it/them, I would be languishing in a squalid Disney jail right now.]

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love it when you grab the audience by their unmentionables. If more speakers did this I would enjoy academic conferences much more.
--Elbert Almazan

dorotha said...

will this be the same talk you are giving in december in wisconsin?

Ang said...

I'd like to know this as well. If I'm gonna be grabbed by the unmentionables, I'd like to know about it ahead of time.

jeremy said...

I'll be giving a different talk in Madison.

Anonymous said...

but more importantly, will you be grabbing your madison audience by the mentioned unemtionables? ;-)

sr

Anonymous said...

Wow, I wish I had the ability to talk quickly and understandably, and to grab, uh.. yeah. Eleven minutes, huh?
=jnsys