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Peanuts De Milo's avatar

I’ve watched a lot of you on video, both seated and on a stage. Three things pop out at me. First, you use a lot of odd public-speaking gestures that don’t quite line up with or exactly seem to go with the point you are making, rather like Spaulding Gray in David Byrne’s True Stories. As with Gray, however, the effect of all the hands raised up or fingers pointing into palms or making circular motions at random moments is rather mesmerizing and makes me pay more attention. Second, your speaking style is a bit stilted. Yet you make up for it brilliantly through a rich vocabulary, a careful erudition, and through conveying a sense of the overarching structure of your remarks, no matter how long they are. As Byrne said once in a song lyric, I want to talk like I read. And you do. Lastly, you tend to repeat yourself, even from one talk to another, rather like Dexter Gordon or Thelonious Monk returning to a favoured riff or quote. The effect serves to make what you say more memorable and conveys a vision that connects all your speeches and writings. A lot of effective public intellectuals do this, from Noam Chomsky to Jordan Peterson. If you’ve heard them a few times, you get their overall vision. As a communicator, you are in good company. Ever thought about running for office? haha

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Peter Gerler's avatar

Love it, Ted! I do jazz history presentations, and I learned long ago that the audience doesn’t come for the slides, but for me. They want warm blood, and humor, and life. I’ve been told over and again, “Your enthusiasm is contagious.” Recently one of them told me, “I never liked jazz until today.”

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