Oscar: The Great Leveler

March 17, 2010 by Jerry 

oscars

As readers of the prior post saw, one of the most common and pervasive maladies known to humankind is the fear of public speaking. Even professional performers have stage fright. Actor Sir Laurence Olivier, singer Carly Simon, pianist Glenn Gould, jazz musician Benny Goodman, choreographer Jerome Robbins and actor-director Orson Welles all experienced nervousness about their appearances in public. The anxiety heightens when performers step out of their professional roles and appear as themselves. Witness the Oscar award ceremonies.

In the high pressure circumstances of the primetime live broadcast last week, almost every one of the actors had the jitters—despite the fact that all of them used a teleprompter in their roles as presenters. Those who became winners and stepped front and center to make their acceptance remarks—without a teleprompter—were even more jittery.

Oscar is the great leveler. It demonstrates that every man and women on the face of the planet—being human—when confronted with a stressful situation, responds the same way: with a spurt of adrenaline that produces the Fight or Flight Syndrome (the subject of another blog.) Hollywood’s superstars had the same anxiety that most business presenters have when they stand up in front of a mission critical audience.

In the words of a 1977 Oscar winner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, “You are not alone.”

Bookmark and Share

Filed under: Blogs, Delivery
Tagged:

Comments

One Response to “Oscar: The Great Leveler”

  1. Fred E. Miller on March 19th, 2010 7:49 pm

    Excellent observation!

    It’s nice to know that even the ‘Pros’ can be nervous at the lectern.

    The best way to lessen this is to face the fear, and do it anyway!

    Then, on a regular basis: practice, practice and practice some more.

If you want to interact, please leave a comment...
and, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!