Video Transcript
JOHN: And those of us who work in this business have the privilege of shaping how the world perceives this country we love.
GIO: If celebrities represent our country we’re in a really bad situation.
John Legend gave a quick two-minute speech on Donald Trump and his policies at a recent awards ceremony, and I wanted to look at the speech and tell you what can you learn from that—both positive and negative—for public speaking.
As usual I’m going to ignore the political content of the speech and instead focus in on whether it’s achieving its goals. There are a couple things that I think John Legend did well. The first is using Anaphora. Anaphora is when you start several sentences or phrases in a row in a speech with the same few words. For example John Legend says Los Angeles is the home of so many immigrants, so many creative people, and so many dreamers. And here’s another example of anaphora that he used in the same speech.
JOHN: our America is big, it is free and it is open to dreamers of all races.
GIO: The second thing that I think John Legend did really well was that he had a kind and calm tone throughout the speech. It’s easy to get over passionate in a speech like this because obviously John Legend cares about the topic but he also realizes that not necessarily everyone in the audience agrees with him.
If this was an audience that was gathered together to protest Donald Trump, for example, he could take on a little bit more of an angry or more passionate tone because he knows that people are there for that purpose. In this case he was just talking about Donald Trump even though he was supposed to be talking about La La Land. And I don’t mean that figuratively, I mean the movie La La Land.
However there are few things that I think he could have done better. The first problem with the speech is that at times he had awkward pauses in the middle of a phrase. For example when he’s talking about how Hollywood has the ability to change perceptions of the United States he says “how the world… perceives…this country… we love…”
JOHN: And those of us who work in this business have the privilege of shaping how the world perceives this country we love.
GIO: I think what he was going for was to slow down to emphasize what he was saying but instead of doing that he just kind of awkwardly paused between a couple of words, and that didn’t come across well.
The second thing that I think he could have done better is hyping up the crowd. Probably the pinnacle of his speech was when he was talking about how America is open and free to people of all countries, all races, and all religions. You could tell that this was going to be a big moment in his speech but he didn’t use the energy of the crowd as they were beginning to clap and hype them up even further with his voice.
Instead of just saying all races all countries all religions in a flat voice… he should have grown progressively louder as he said it.
JOHN: and it is open to dreamers of all races, all countries……all religions.
GIO: The third thing that I think he should have done is he should have complimented the crowd in a critical moment in the speech. At one point in his speech he talked about how he felt a little guilty that he was at an awards ceremony instead of out protesting with the people at multiple airports. He concludes by saying “well we’re still here but we made a donation towards the ACLU and we hope that you’ll use your money wisely as well”. That would have been a great moment to compliment the crowd and kind of flatter them a little bit because he’s about to ask them to donate money to a good cause. Complimenting them and saying I know you’re a generous bunch or something like that would have helped the crowd to feel a little bit better about themselves and made them more likely to donate.
JOHN: my wife and I were a little bit conflicted about being here tonight. We know what’s happening in the streets, we know what’s happening at LAX, and at airports around the country but we came here tonight but we also wanted to put our money where our mouth is and we made a donation to the ACLU… and to other organizations who are committed to fighting for freedom in the land of the free. There’s a lot of money and power in this room and I hope you all will use it for something good.
GIO: And the fourth and final thing that I think John Legend could have improved on is that he should have used more hand motions. Throughout the speech his hands were firmly gripping the lectern in front of him which is something that’s usually a sign of nervousness. Watch this example of the only hand motions he used throughout the entire speech.
JOHN: We are the voice, we are the face of America.
GIO: Again hand motions are great for emphasizing key points in your speech, so when you have your hands firmly planted on the lectern you’re missing out on a lot of potential audience energy. Overall I think this speech was well delivered and I think john legend is well on his way to Potent Speaking. Thank you for watching.
I love how you broke down the speech, explaining the rhetorical device he used, his pace, his delivery, and pointing out what John Legend could have done better on. Furthermore, I enjoyed how you posted a video and transcribed your words as well as John Legends beneath the video. What other tips would you suggest for body language? Sometimes I talk too much with my hands and it can become a distraction for the audience.
Thank you for the kind words.
Body language:
1. Obviously, good posture with shoulders back and head level
2. Be comfortable with your hands falling to your sides or meeting in the center of your body for a bit.
3. Overuse of hand motions is usually better than underuse, especially if the hand motions are diverse (not the same thing over and over again).
I tend to use my hands too much as well, but most people don’t seem to mind.
Thank you for the tips! They are much appreciated