An actor playing the part of a speaker

The famous nineteenth-century magician Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin, generally credited with being 'the father of modern magic', once said: A conjuror is not a juggler; he is an actor playing the part of a magician, an artist whose fingers have more need to move with deftness than with speed.

This way of thinking transformed magic from being simply a demonstration of skill to having elegance and a story. Instead of standing in marketplaces as they had used to, magicians moved into theatres and salons, and magic became a sophisticated entertainment.

It seems to me that public speakers can learn a lot from this too. When we're in front of an audience, we're not there just to speak, we're there to engage with the audience. And, contrary to popular opinion, we're certainly not there just to get through it as quickly as possible! Deftness rather than speed is what's required. When we're speaking in public, we have the freedom to speak much more slowly than we normally do, giving us more time to think.

Public speaking is a performance like any other (which is why it's so essential to practise). As at a theatre, the audience has come specifically to listen to the presenter and, either literally or metaphorically, we have to give them their money's worth.

If you think of yourself as an actor playing the part of a speaker, it may actually remove some of the fear of standing up in front of an audience. As I've suggested on the Delivering Your Speech page of the website, if it helps you, pretend to be someone else entirely. Before speaking in public, I've occasionally persuaded myself I was Madonna or some other confidence-oozing character but more often I just go into public Georgie mode, the version of me that's a bit larger than life. It works for me.

(If you're interested, you can read more about Robert-Houdin on my website Paris Magic.)