Friday, April 3, 2009

Acting coach analyzes a Politician

Found by Ed Hooks, an acting coach (Howard Fine) analyzes a politician's speach

What is a common mistake? It is focusing on The How. The actor or orator in this case is thinking about How to make the speech effective. If you supply the Why, The How takes care of itself. What Jindal did is focus on How he wanted to come across. In acting I call this a General Attitudinal Choice. He thought of the effect he wanted to have on the audience. He wanted to come across as likable and friendly. He wanted the audience to think that he is a good guy, so he adopted a general demeanor of kind and empathetic. This is why he came off as condescending. No matter what he talked about the the pose was the same. He was trying to project his idea of a warm and friendly guy. Therefore he came off as patronizing.

True emotions travel. This is reflected in body language and in the voice. Manufactured emotions remain static. If you look at Jindal's eyes and listen to his voice in the prepared speech, you can sense the hollowness. His pitch did not vary. His expression barely changed. He tried to have variety in his manner but it was predetermined for emphasis and to give the impression of a real expression. He chose was and/or coached on where to pause and what words to stress. None of this happened organically and he therefore came across as insincere.

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