From Magician to Speaker Part 7
By Quentin Reynolds

I hope since the last issue you've made your list of all the stories, incidents and obstacles that you can recall from your time as a magician. We're now going to turn them into a talk.

You will find the whole speech falls into place much easier when you have a title for your presentation and you know it's theme.

There are many possible structures for a talk. Here is one of the simplest and also one of the best.

Dynamite opening which gets into the theme of the talk
Make a point
A story to illustrate the point
Make a point
A story to illustrate the point
Make a point
A story to illustrate the point.
Wrap up and powerful close.

Now you can't get much simpler than that and the structure should give you a 25 - 30 minute talk. I'll also show you how to expand the same structure into a 45 - 50 minute talk.

The backbone of your talk is the stories you tell. That is what sells you to the audience. That is what they will remember. The greatest teachers use stories. Jesus taught with stories. Stories touch people emotionally. People love stories. Get the point? Use stories!

And the stories you use should be from your own personal experience. That's why I asked you to write down all the stories, problems and funny incidents from your career as a magician. (You can of course use stories from any aspect of your life - but I'm assuming this particular talk will be to do with magic).

And when you use events from your own experience, they are unique to you. Your audience will not have heard them elsewhere.And because it is your unique story it will ring with authenticity.

Your story can be anything from a simple incident to something more involved. At the beginning it shouldn't be more than five minutes. It will grow as you tell it, but at the start keep it short.

And it's not enough just to tell a story. At its conclusion you must give your audience the lesson you learned from the story. Then you must show them how they can apply the lesson to their lives.

For example one professional speaker has a trademark story of turning up at a hotel for a speaking engagement only to discover he hasn't packed his cufflinks. He then describes a mad rush as he takes a taxicab to different menswear shops looking in vain for cufflinks. By the fourth shop he's in a major panic and the assistant calms him down. Hearing the problem, the assistant suggests why doesn't he just buy another shirt that doesn't need cufflinks? Problem solved.

Now the lesson:

He then makes the point about rushing to solve a problem without properly analyzing it and looking for alternative solutions.
Then he talks to the audience about applying the point to their own lives.

Note as well he is not the hero of the story. The shop assistant is.
Don't be the hero of all your stories. It adds to your humanity.

You can expand the talk by using extra stories to illustrate your points. Zig Ziglar frequently uses three stories to make a point. One story
will be from his own personal experience, one from an article he read in a newspaper or magazine and the third is usually based on a joke and is used specifically to get a laugh.

In the next part we'll look at putting your talk together.

© Quentin Reynolds. Quentin Reynolds works as both magician and speaker.
You can read about one of his programs at http://www.PsychicGameShow.com

Quentin's Articles list on IrishMagicNews