A photo can be worth so many words and stirr very strong emotions

All this great photographers have chosen me as their contacts this last days, but because my eye, it is only today I have looked at their photography. What a wonderful gift!

I favorited in turn some of their images I just discovered, here is from today.

Strange, strong, intriguing, photographes, some strong paintings almost, dreams or special effects, each has in turn given me a strong feeling. And taught me to be more open with my own photography too. Photography on Flickr, what a wonderful way to communicate also with others all over the globe! Some from UK, others from Brazil: or Alasca, the web opens us a whole word and contacts so many human beings!

Photographies sur Flickr par

Ady Negrean, 

 Pano70

Joe1642

Flood

James Fear

Zita Kamugra

For my photoblog I needed a black background, and suddenly all changed!
What a difference, it can make.

Standup at Angel, north of London

Julie Kertesz stand-up, Barry compère,
2, Camden Passage, near Angel underground, London
4th December 2011

Ben Dunlap talks about a passionate life | Video on TED.com

From TED.com, one of the favorite places to listen to speeches, one of the master storytellers, Ben Dunlop, talks about old Hungarians, with a great appetite for learning and experience, This professor from South Carolyna, with a South USA accent, is one of the best storytellers I have even listened to,

Listen, look, learn!

Of course, it helps that half of his speech, or more, is about an old Hungarian Jeu, Sandor Teszler, who did take from age 80 to 90 all the courses...And I am Hungarian and continue learning.

 Ben Dunlap talks about a passionate life | Video on TED.com

Everyone has stories to tell - just give them a "voice"

Yesterday I told a story at the Canal Coffee theatre. Not so bad and not extra either.

Yesterday, it was not about me, it was about four immigrants in England, having arrived in London from various continents of the world, to which we have succeeded 'finding their voice'.

Joanna Yates from Spark London had given a True Tales workshop free at Nova Portobello. In this photo, at Brixton Open Mic event she also organizes.


This time, I have had the privilege to assist her and by my example give courage at the beginning, in Septembre.

Iris, a refugee from Chile, now Director of Nova, organization helping people motivated "to obtain their goals." Iris told us of her early difficulties, with authorities and with the language and last night she even showed me an album as "the Queen could not give me the medal of honor of British Empire, because I was from Chilli, but I was invited the Prime Minister's residence, and given it by... look, by him, the son of one of the PMs. "

An old gentleman of 83, Alex, arrived from Uganda, he has full of interesting stories about his country of origin, and even the energy falling on the stage to show us how he fell, when he was a little boy and had cut the feet, using the traditional "knife" inherited from fathers to oldest son, and bleeding even thought dying. He told me again: "you telling the story that first day of workshop gave me confidence" to tell mine's.

Jacinta arriving from India, told us the story of how she put two more years to her passport to be able to come and how the family she worked for in London, used her day and night to work for 16 children and even confiscated her passport. The dentist hearing it helped her (and the police) so she was finally "released" after two years! Now she is married, three children of her own and in London for around 20 years. She told her story with such a brillance!

Tseghe, Etrusquaine d'origine, told to me her story first during the workshop task "how you got your name". She hesitated, how to tell it, and finally she did it brilliantly! Her sister was married at age 11, and she was the only child of her father to be send to school, and she told us a story how 11 year old, she fled from familly and village to a city, there was taken in by a nice but strong woman "do you know work?", met by change her father who finaly let her stay, that helped by the woman's daughter when 14 years to go to Saudi Arabia where she found a job well paid.

She and all of them have many more stories to tell!

All, had no "voice" until Joanna Yates, producer of Spark London did not offer free the workshop of "Personal Storytelling," for Nova Portobello.

Run a great Workshop

This book that I did not finish yet, explains so well the necessity of interactive workshop.

How each learn differently.

How important is to learn by doing.

How to combine, lecture (seminar like) with doing and interactivity. How can a workshop be divided by higher energy and lower energy.

How to plan and go through them.

Important for everyone who wants to run a workshop or improve on one.

An image, a poem communicate and tell a story, too

Warning, or the Red hat/ Warning, Jenny Joseph,

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple
With a red hat which doesn't go, and doesn't suit me.
And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves
And satin sandals, and say we've no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I'm tired
And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells
And run my stick along the public railings
And make up for the sobriety of my youth.
I shall go out in my slippers in the rain
And pick flowers in other people's gardens
And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat
And eat three pounds of sausages at a go
Or only bread and pickle for a week
And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry
And pay our rent and not swear in the street
And set a good example for the children.
We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practice a little now?
So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised
When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

======================

I just did buy my red hat now, at age of 77 and begun to stand up in comedy clubs

Storytelling Workshop for Lewisham Speakers Toastmasters

Personal story makes or breaks a great speaker. I do believe in it, more and more do too. Weather in a corporate or any kind of work environment, in politics or community (and even personal life) it is important to be able to express an important idea (point, theme) through a story, a personal story going directly to the audience heart and soul and connecting.

We began a  Personal) Storytelling Workshop at Lewisham Speakers club, meeting each month from 30 November to March, learning and experimenting the different aspects of crafting a great story. there is much to learn and experiment:

1. Their importance and how to find them from our life, what we learned and what point we want to make to, digging deep into ourselves (and what is a 'story')
2. What we put in from our experience and what we leave out, (depends on the most important point we want to make each time and how craft it into a Story, adding Dialogue, Drama,  Humour
3. How we embody (learn) it and find the best ways to convey it with body language, voice, and all the ways we have in oral storytelling.
4. How we deliver it to the audience living in the moment, and connecting,

At the end, our goal, beside understanding and learning, in an interactive Workshop environment, is to deliver a story, have a showcase, most of us, outside, with Spark London true tales at Canal Café Theatre,  first Monday in March with the theme Change, but also in our community,  to show what we have learned (any story can be also put in a Toastmasters manual project).

We can even have one more meeting to give each other feedback and use also audience's feedback and go on, to another level.

There is so much to learn! Together, we can learn better.

Use what you have

I learned from photography and Stand Up Comedy, the same thing:

USE WHAT YOU HAVE

Instead of saying, "it is fog" what can I do, one does not see far away, or "I am old" (or fat, or black, or red or freckled" use whatever you are as starting point.

It makes good communication!

Gestures that go with what we say

It is my 7th Stand Up in London and from each I learned.

Stand Up Comedy from Laughing Horse, Green Park from Julie Kertesz on Vimeo.
This is the first half of my stand up, before my battery failed and my friend stopped taking it at the "heat" of Laughing Horse, Green Park, in 18 November 2011 - at least here my black outfit worked very well, as did, I think my movements.

Also, different audience, different reaction.

This is an end in Cavendish Arms club, a week before.

Final, Trophy, standup comedy by -LiLi-

How to Evaluate

Evaluate, in Toastmasters clubs term, means tell your opinion about a speach and a speaker, so as to help him develop and those listening learn. That is the added value, of all the Toastmasters club.

Not only we listen to speakers that prepared their speech after higher and higher difficulty projects, but also someone gives opinion on the strong points and how to improve and always finishes with what he liked most or the speaker strongest points.

That help us develop while not destroying but busting our confidence.

Here are some random observations of yesterday workshop about How to make a great evaluation held at Citicriers Club by Freddy Daniels. I will add here, soon, my speech and the three evaluations of it, and perhaps also so;e of his points. For the moment just from memory.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Freddy Daniels taught me yesterday a lot.

First, how to held a workshop, then how to speak about a speech and speaker.

How to evaluate him, or her, either in a club, a contest or, at the end, the short Table-topics.

1. Let me begin with the Table-topics, the most difficult to tell opinion about because the shorter.

Find a good point a recommendation and end by the best point; if you have time, if not, only one of the three but developed specific and useful to learn for the club. Write down the first thing you observe, do not wait to the end, as other speakers come in and it is not easy to remember.

For the evaluation of a longer speech when you have more time, write down all you liked and all that could be improved, then note in order which three where the best points, 1, 2 and 3. Begin telling the 2 and 3, then one or two detailed specific recommendations, followed by 1 the strongest from that speech.

At the end, summarize telling what you felt is the strongest point of that speaker or that speach.

Never use BUT in your evaluation. Keep it on the level of the speaker expertise. Do not use "you" but "him" or "she" so you address all the audience whom you speak and who then can learn more about speaking in public and what made great and how it could have been improved and, what you felt was the most wonderful from all.

I was the target speaker yesterday.

It was a humorous speech that could have been more humorous if I was not somewhat disturbet to tell two short four letter words at that Toastmaster meeting. When I was at ease, I got laugher. Good lesson. Also I could have ended like I begun instead of rushing to the end, and even added some, at least one of my setup punch. Paused more in some places, too.

It is recorded, so I wil be able to look and tell more about it, and also listen more carefully to the three evaluations of it, and what else they said, But, yes I can use here but perhaps, the most important is all I got, learned from the great Workshop.

What was the most important I have to remember?

Be always specific. Tell what, where and how. In third person, using I felt, I oberved, and no But. Instead, the speech could have been even stronger, or next time, try also.... Always find a recommendation, at least, and not more then two. End on a very positive point.

Otherwise, look for the Delivery, Structure and Content and try to find some points in each. Content being not the point made, but the short or easy to understand words and sentences, use of story or facts, number and strength of those, and so on.

Not bad all this remembered from memory!

That shows, how wonderful the two hour workshop of Freddy worked.!

Julie's Stand Up Comedy showcase at Laughing Horse, Brixton

Thanks for Chris Rose son to have taken the video of all of us from David T Johnson workshop, in September /October - great workshop and showcase that get all of us going to Comedy Clubs all over from that date on.

This show was live at 30 October in London, Brixton's (London) Laughing Horse

Direct from Canal Cafe Theatre, with my small dictaphone

this is the version recorded at the theatre yesterday evening, with my small Dictaphone,
 I'll put their professionally recorded version here as soon as I get it.

I was told, some cried, and I did hear also some laugh here and there. I got very good feedback, but the most important is was someone telling me: "It felt so near, as if have had happened - when you told us.

And also, they had "seen" how it happened, with me.

The war cought up with me when.mp3
 

Do not change the begining

We learn at Icebreaker, at Toastmasters, and it is told again and again, the golder rule (one of many): do not change the beginning and the end, even it you last minute think you found a better one.

At rehearsal, yesterday, I did change the beginning, going against the rule I knew so well. It went downhill from there. Sometimes, the rules have solid reasons to be there.

Olivia on Importance of Storytelling

Richard James on the Power of Pause

Richard James workshop on use of voice, at All Saints Church Hall in Marlow. A great lesson for all of us, but a long journey for me. He took us through relaxing exercises, then through different use of voice and how much one can alter the meaning just by inflection speed volume and tone. Then, some of us read a poem.

The most important lesson learned is how much we can hold the audience in our hand by prolonging a pause.

"And they like being held in suspense, leaning forward, physically or mentally." And he did demonstrate it. Indeed. What a great actor!

"You can prolong it more, it does seem longer to you then to them."

Use a story, show vulnerability & have a point

If you want to build a connection with your audience, as Steve Jobs did, follow his techniques.

1. Share your vulnerabilities. They leader does not always have to be perfect. If they are seen as always perfect then they will be out of reach to the audience
2. Tell stories. People love stories and will bond with them. Telling stories is the key to engaging your audience
3. Have a point to the stories. Every time you tell a story you need to have a point to it. The audience will remember your story and the point that goes along with it.

So well expressed on Darren Fleming's blog, but it is what so many books express these days nowadays, too and I completely believe in.

Sally has given a speech two weeks ago at the Lewisham Speakers club that illustrated in fact all that. She told a story about herself, her vulnerability and had a great point "just do it" and she delivered it with great maestro too.

How to answer to difficult people/questions

Steve Job, coming back to Apple, had to make difficult choices. Here is how he answered to a rather difficult question from a very unhappy developer.

We had an interesting Workshop at London Toastmasters Conference and Contest the 15th of October, 2011 (yesterday) addressing how to handle difficile audience. Other ideas will follow but this speech from Steve Jobs, in 1997 is a great example of how to answer.

Humor : Exagerate / Drama : Be subtle

Hamming it upAs you get more experienced and start to get in the swing of telling stories and acting them out, it gets tempting to ham it up. Once I decided to act out the drama I have in my head about people being able to see that I’m nervous as I’m giving a presentation.  The more I ham it up, the more people laugh.  But there are other situations where hamming it up has no effect at all on the audience. The distinction between these two situations had eluded me.

Doug Stevenson had the answer:

    Humor is big, drama is small

When you want people to laugh exaggerate. But when you want to portray emotion, think Colin Firth – be subtle.

It is important to make books

Prepare books either to print them or make them available for printing on web. No one will make you seem "pro" if you will not. So make your own work known.

This will accompany my Stand Up Comedy Showcase, so it is meant to have a comic impact. TODAY MY TWO BOOKS ARRIVED, ok, so there are three photos three time in it, but in all it is a fun book and I can change for the next time those and also add some text.

Speak to their emotions

Short video send by Darren La Croix from Las Vegas a two minute tip (to apply and ponder longer) - and so true, too: instead of telling facts, provoke their emotions from the start.

Take the first step, my Humorous Speech at Area 35 contest

Thanks a lot Peter, Area 35 governor, for the wonderful recording and putting it on YouTube!

If there was a Competent Communicator... Steve Jobs was

Still difficult to write "was" for me, instead of "is" but in this videos he comes alive for us again. There are 11 of them, I watched through all this morning.

Gig at Laughing Horse

Stand Up Comedy at Laughing horse 2010-30-10 by julie70

Open Mic at Ritzy near Brixton, London

Story told live by Julie Kertesz at the event organized by Spark London, "Want a separate holiday?"

Stage time, stage time, stage time

Darren, from Vegas, made a whole workshop at the Toastmasters International Conference, telling us how important is to go out and speek as much as possible. Nothing at the end replaces stage time.

Tonight, Brixton Upstairs Open Mic at Ritzy's, I will tell a true story with Spark London, on Holiday theme, about a holiday when I was 35 that changed my life. When bad things turned to good.

Tuesday, I will be participating and helping in a Stoytelling Workshop at Nova Portobello, telling again the story how I moved from Paris in London "Now or Never" it was called two year ago when I told it at the Canal Cafe Theatre with Spark London.

Wednesday, Humorous Speech Contest, at Lewisham speakes, yet a different story, about the time I was 45. Friday, the Stand Up Workshop, I found a whole new routine, of course, now instead of writing I have to practice, practice, practice. Write, tell, practice then begin again. Before stage time.

We should use all the oportunities to speak!

Personal storytelling opportunities

Spark London Open Mic nights are an opportunity to get on your feet and tell your story. Venue: The Ritzy Picturehouse, Brixton Oval, Brixton Oval, London, SW2 1JG, UK
Stories are five minutes. Personal storytelling around the theme of the night, largely interpreted.

Spark Open Mic - 19th September 2011 at 7:30pm Theme: Holidays

Holidays are a time like no other. Whether you find yourself miles from home journeying to foreign lands or whether you find yourself taking a break much closer to home, holidays are a chance to change the regular habits of your normal life and do something different. Holiday romances, family trips, soul searching adventures - we want to hear your stories.

Spark Open Mic - 17th October 2011 at 7:30pm Theme: Fatal Attraction

Even though you know it may be bad for you, we all have our weaknesses, our vices, our fatal attractions. Whether it's a person, an object or a way of life - sometimes there is just no accounting for the heart and what it wants.

In Brixtonm we speak through microphone, with some noise coming from the bar under the place. Audience are usually 40 sitting around tables.

Spark London True Tales is even a greater place to tell your true story at a Theatre.
Venue: Canal Cafe Theatre, Little Venice, London, W2 6ND, UK
To be audience one has to buy tickets soon at: Box office: 020 7289 6054 or online

Stories are around seven minutes and must be connected to one of the theme of the night.

A great audience each time of around 60, we speaks from up the scene, 6 to 8 each first Monday of the month, the lights on you, audience in dark around tables, no microphone, but if you agree, Spark records and makes a video of the story you tell.

You have a story to tell? Before the show email a paragraph outlining what happened in 400 words or less and take part in a rehearsal (usually Sunday afternoon). Email: sparklondon@gmail.com

Spark True Tales - 3rd October 2011 at 7:30pm Theme: Kindness of Strangers


As strong and independent as we like to think of ourselves, we rely on the kindness of strangers more than we think. Perhaps you've been in trouble, or in danger and a good Samaritan has come to your aid? Maybe you're a have-a-go hero and have been someone else's knight in shining armour?

Spark Stories - 7th November 2011 at 7:15pm Theme: Transitions

Shifts of scenery, changes of circumstance, times of transition. What triggers them and what do they lead to? They happen in everything we do and they can change the course of our lives - often forever, but not always for good.

Lipmann on Emotional Authenticity

******************************************
 EMOTIONAL AUTHENTICITY FOR STORYTELLERS
******************************************

(Twelve Skills of the Storyteller, Part 4)

The prior four articles in this series described:

"Preface": The dangers of focusing on storytelling skills;
Part 1: Imagination skills;
Part 2: Oral language skills;
Part 3: The skills of relating to your listeners.

In this article, added here with Doug Lipman's permission, he takes up the skills of emotional
authenticity.

The first of these skills is to imagine and communicate
the emotions essential to a story; the second is to make it
safe for your listeners to experience those same emotions.

***Skill 8: Allow Emotions To Flow Through You***

The best tellers imagine all the emotions felt by each character in a story, as well as the likely reactions of their listeners. Emotions, after all, are a significant part of human experience.

But here's the rub: you're a human, too.

You have lots of emotions inside you. Some of these emotions are fully processed and easily available to you, but some aren't.

Telling a story that requires only fully processed emotions isn't hard. It's like a pleasant review of a well organized photo album. You "open" the feeling, tell about it, then "put it back" where it was. In this case, imagining how your character felt is not too different from imagining the color of your character's eyes.

Other emotions, though, aren't just memories; they are
more like unfinished tasks. Letting these unprocessed
emotions flow through you while you try to guide your
listeners isn't so easy.

***Your Emotional Closet***

Telling a story that brings up unprocessed emotions is not
like paging through a photo album. Instead, it's like
opening the door to a closet crammed with a thousand loose
photos.

First of all, you've probably learned to avoid anything in
that closet, because you know what a big project it would
be to get the photos back inside if you were to open the
door even a little.

Second, you can't just go straight to the photo you want;
you'll have to at least paw through the ones on top of it,
tear off the ones stuck to it, and look at each photo
closely to decide if it's really the one you want.

Third, some of the photos will have unfinished tasks
associated with them, like sending the copies you promised
to Aunt Nancy or deciding whether to order more copies of
your publicity shots.

In other words, the fully processed photos in an album
don't require much of your attention; you can go straight
to them and easily close the album when you're done. But
the photos piled in the closet represent a backlog of
demands on your attention.


***Telling About a Dog***

If your dog died last week, telling a story about Jack's
dog might remind you of your unprocessed grief. It may well
bring tears to your eyes, tears that desperately need to be shed.

In this case, you'll be torn between your need to serve as
a guide for your listeners and your need to clean up your
own emotional closet.

Please note: the issue here isn't that you might cry while
you tell. If you can clearly indicate that you're okay
while you cry, you may be able to guide your listeners
through your tears. Rather, the danger is that the pull of
the unprocessed emotion can compromise your ability to
fully attend to your job as your listeners' guide - or that
your listeners might perceive your abilities to be
compromised.

***Closet Cleaning***

"Unsorted" feelings need to be processed emotionally. You
need to cry the uncried tears, laugh away the unprocessed
backlog of humiliation or light fears, face the accumulated
anger, etc.

Interestingly, the fully processed emotions also seem to
get "albumized" along the way. That is, they get stored
mentally in a way that allows you easy access to them -
with little mental overhead.

Now you can appreciate what Skill 8 really demands. It
demands that you have cleaned out your emotional closets
(or at least the ones relevant to a given story).

When you have done so, you can imagine the emotions in a
story fully and relaxedly. You won't need to keep the
closet door rigidly shut or else let out the whole mess;
you'll be able to open it exactly as much as makes sense
for your audience's optimal experience.


***The Hollow Reed***

Here's another way of describing this skill. Think of
yourself as a hollow reed. Images and emotions come in one
end of the reed and flow out the other to your listeners.
Everything in the story flows easily through you.

The key here is to let the reed be hollow. You want to
clean it out before you tell, so that feelings don't get
stuck on obstructions in your reed. You also need to hold
the reed gently; if you hold it in a death grip, it will
narrow and stop the flow.

In advance of telling, clean out the reed. At the moment
of telling, though, remain relaxed and delighted with the
emotions flowing easily through it.


***Skill 9: Create Emotional Safety***

When you have hollowed your reed (or cleaned out your
emotional closets), you have made it possible to feel your
emotions freely. Congratulations! You are halfway there.

What's the other half of your job? You need to make it
safe for your listeners to feel the story's emotions, too.

Keep in mind that we humans are designed to respond to
unspoken attitudes. That's a survival skill, allowing us to
distinguish between would-be allies and enemies. This means
that your listeners respond to your attitudes about your
telling, not just to what you say or do.

I have learned over the years that I can say highly
controversial things without producing a backlash, as long
as I say them relaxedly. But whatever I'm nervous about
saying, no matter how innocuous, is likely to be challenged.

Here's an extreme example. Suppose I said, "The sky is
falling," in a pleasant, relaxed tone. People would likely
show mild interest but no concern.

On the other hand, if I make the perfectly uncontroversial
statement, "The sky is blue," but say it with a concerned
tone, people may leave their seats immediately to check out
whatever danger might be descending on them.

One part of creating emotional safety for your listeners,
then, is to wrap your whole performance in a relaxed
attitude. The second part is to lead the way emotionally.


***Joy and Horror***

Back in 2005, a man named Bud Welch gave an unforgettable
keynote address at the National Storytelling Conference in
Oklahoma City.

Bud's daughter was killed in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Knowing that, I almost didn't attend. I didn't want to hear
about horror and loss. In the end, I went but sat in back
in case I decided not to stay.

To my amazement, Bud spent the first half of his time
talking about the joys of raising his daughter. He told,
with real enjoyment, how his daughter Julie was born
premature with a 10% chance of survival, but lived to
become Bud's best friend and constant companion.

He told how, in the seventh grade, Julie met a girl from
Mexico who didn't speak English. Yet the girl quickly
became bilingual, inspiring Julie to want to do the same.
By the time she entered college, she had mastered four
languages and spent a year living in Spain.

Bud, raised on a farm and the owner of his own service
station, said that the day he took Julie to college in
Wisconsin, "I didn't have a shirt that would fit me,
because my chest was swelled so big with pride."

Bud told about Julie with such joy and love that I opened
myself to him. To this day, I feel that I, too, love his
daughter Julie, who I never met.

Julie's love of reaching out across language boundaries
led her to take a job at the federal building in Oklahoma
City, assisting immigrants and the disadvantaged. That's
why she was one of the 168 people killed by the bomb set
there by Timothy McVeigh.

If Bud had been angry and tense at the beginning of his
talk, I would have discounted him. If he had been
completely unemotional, I would have remained uninvolved.
But he shared his feelings about Julie for nearly 30
minutes, relaxedly and unabashedly. He was clearly
experiencing feelings of pleasure.

In other words, he walked through the gates of joy and
invited me to follow. Once we were there together, I could
go with him through the gates of horror and rage, too.

By leading the way, he made it safe for me to feel things
I had been reluctant to feel only an hour before. I have
been grateful to him ever since.

***Still More Skills to Come***

Storytelling coach Doug Lipman is the creator of the acclaimed Storytelling Workshop in a Box - a comprehensive storytelling workshop that comes to you! I did the first ten lessons from it, great!
And also of two books I read and re read again and again, one of which is the Storytelling Coach, the other the above in the picture.

If you liked the above, you'll love this step-by-step course, guaranteed to be the most complete and
enjoyable guide to meaningful, commanding storytelling. Read more and hear an audio sample at
http://www.storydynamics.com/swb .

Doug also offers free articles and other resources to help you master storytelling, become a transformative artist, and integrate storytelling into your work life - including how to market your telling by creating a supportive community around you. Learn more now at
http://www.storydynamics.com .

In future articles, I'll describe three skills in these
two additional categories:

- Being and showing yourself.
- Flexibility in performance

All six categories of storytelling skills are important.
Yet the skills of emotional authenticity have a privileged
place among them. With these two hard-won skills, you will
have a key for connecting more deeply with your listeners -
and for opening your listeners to a more profound
experience of your stories and perhaps of the world.

Why to take so many Stand Up Commedy classes?

Sometime, I asked myself what got into me to go into Stand UP and take in 2011 not one but three Workshops!

This morning; I did what Judy Carter suggested in The Book: I begin to write as I woke up.

I wrote a whole gag, two pages about my Cataract Intervention, and being old. I can now see things that happen to me with a new eye... haha. That I just found! All events that seem sad or frustrating can be transformed if seen differently, with another "attitude".

And when I finished this morning, I realized that I made laugh 9 other who waited to have their  left eye cataract operated twice! So yes, now I am no more asking myself why I did it!

Judy Carter; The BOOK

The Stand Up Comedy classic by Judy Carter is still very active after so many years!

Oh yes; a classic is a classic and lives long long long!

I begun to read it again and arrived to chapter two at middle, what I learned; again so far?

Be authentic, open yourself, speak in present, not too long stories but tell your frustrations and worries and angers; those you feel most about. We all have stage fright but for most it goes away as we arrive on scene. Prepare a lot but appear to speak in the moment.

What else?

Study other good comedians and their messages and attitudes and persona, but then find your own without imitating them. Get used to ups and downs and tell the material important to You. Tell seriously to make others laugh without trying to become a clown; tell your own material.

It is your uniqueness that interest; your frustrations and worries that make laugh. And it all depends also on their mood and the place; do not get upset the day when all bombs and no one laughs - other good day will come! Persist.

And that is only the begining!

Olivia's speech

Her speech at the International contents was the most wonderful one but went over the time: and she was disqualified: you know why?

Her heartbreaking story I felt it in me; as something similar happened to me too; and so many of us!

At the same time; as she did want it too; made people laugh... to long! to often.

The story itself lasted only seven minutes and fifteen seconds; 15 seconds under the maximum time allowed at that Toastmasters International competition of seven and thirty; and that with all the long and important pauses! But with the people laughing; and one can not speak until the laughter dies down almost; it went over.

If your speech contains humor, and every should, allow one minute for people reactions! For a seven minutes speech finish at home at six minutes maximum for example.

What I also learned, listening to it many times today; that self revelation works! Of course with the right attitude; I loved also her speech morale: do not let a defect you have - and we all have some - have a too big impact on you and dominate the rest of your life!

PS
Sorry: the soundtrack is no more here, at her request I took it out. And it is true that I have also her movements in my head that contributed to the greatness of the speech and its powerful effect on me - and so many others. And I had only the voice...

From Australia to China

Winner of second price on the Toastmasters International Contest in Las Vegas, there is a lot to learn from him and the reaction to his speech, too. It is also a very humourous one.

Congratulations to the International Speech Contest Winners!

The title of 2011 World Champion of Public Speaking for Toastmasters in Las Vegas, was awarded to Jock Elliott from Bongaree, Queensland, Australia, in the middle here. Second Kwong Yue Yang of Guangzhou, Guangdong, China and third was Scott Pritchard of Henderson, Nevada, United States.

In fact, Kwonng Yue Yang was also born in Australia, and he told us the story in a funny way of how he went to China in his speech, and how he asked all around 'what to do' until finaly he realised he has to ask himself.

Scott Pritchard, native of Vegas, told us about a box, her mom gave him. "There is nothing in it!" he finally told her. "It is full of memories" - build your memories and pass it farther, was his message.

Workshop on Leadership Assasination

Be prepared, he told us in his hour workshop, to those who are against leaders, and each time one is rising up, try to 'assassinate' him or her, by false accusations.

“Speak Outside of Toastmasters for Fun, Profit and Club Building!” (C)

Darren LaCroix

• Learn how to build your club – and your confidence – by giving paid speeches
• Realize your Toastmasters experience shouldn’t be undervalued
• Learn what to speak about
• Learn where you can start speaking next week!
• Get an exact outline of what to say in your presentation 

Darren encouraged us, in his Vegas workshop, to go out, and speak outside our Toastmasters clubs. Then, encourage others to go out to the community too and speak... about speaking and our clubs too.

Of course, our clubs are a warm environment we can experiement, but then, our main goal is go out!

“On Life’s Journey – Get Lost!” (L)

Mark Hunter, ATMS

become explorer, do not remain a tourist, he told us in his workshop

• What it is to be a tourist and/or an explorer
• The role of the mind when we manage our journeys
• How a Toastmaster’s journey is affected by whether you are a club member or a leader
• The importance of choosing when and how to be explorers
• What we need to be explorers 

Mark Hunter gave a fantastic speech encouraging most of us to become Explorers, go on the path of discovery and not remain only on known roads. Also we do need at first to be tourists and guided by others, and it is best to go exploring a bit later on in our journey. 

How to be a Standup Comedian, by Dave

Some paragraphs from Dave's advices on Dress and on Freedom of Speach

Dress for who you are on stage.
If you’re upscale, dress the part. If you’re on the streets – look it. Don’t dress like a bank president if your material is about being broke. And if you’re not crazy – don’t dress like Phyllis Diller. But you need to give this some thought and make a personal decision about your image and how you want an audience to see and remember you.

 Another consideration is where you are performing. If the clothes fit the material and the performer – who they are on stage and where they are performing – then it works.

-------

Freedom of speech is the center of the comedy universe.

From talking about your family, (Ray Romano), to taking on the government, (The Smothers Brothers). It’s about telling it as you see it and why comedians look up to legends such as Lenny Bruce, Richard Pryor and George Carlin.

On the flip side of this universe is the comedy “business.” What you say can sometimes affect your career.

On stage in a comedy club, comedians can say F. or other things, that you can not on TV.
You can make fun of companies, religion or whatever you want as long as – and this is the business side talking – you bring in paying customers. Many club owners support the art and creativity of stand-up, but are still in it to make a living.

Practicing the art of free speech and made a choice about how far he would go. One has to live with the results. That’s a personal decision and you have a right to make it. But just make sure you have both your artistic and business thinking caps on when you make it.

Dave Schwensen is the author of How To Be A Working Comic and Comedy FAQs And Answers. http://thecomedybook.wordpress.com/2011/08/

Ralph C. Smedley

It is usual, for Presidents of Toastmasters Clubs, to begin the meeting, by telling, mostly for the guests because the club members heard it over and over again, that Toastmasters have been founded almost hundred year ago, by Ralph Smedley.

Sometimes, one adds to it, that he hold the first meeting in the basement of YMCA, for the young boys from the Christian Association, where he become Education Director after he finished college. But that happened more then 100 years ago, in 1905, also only later the first men's club was formed and even later Toastmasters, with some clubs also in Canada, incorported.

No mention is made of Smedley any more.

I am pHd even if not in Communication and i am curious, liking to go to the source, so I tried to buy a book written by him. The first one, a short collection of chapters shortened from a 400 pages book he in fact wrote, showed me a very interesting fellow.

A living, fighting, experimenting man I become fond of.

So I went to Amazon to find more books by him.

In England, where the firsts clubs where formed a lot later - first was in fact Glasgow, in Scottland - and then they stopped for a long time during the second world war, any book by Smedley is sold way to expensive. Then I did found from Amazon America some of his books, manuals, I could afford, publication dates from 1940 (I was 5 years old) to 1949.

The first, for me perhaps the most interesting, revealing his character and his intents, is called "Speech Evaluation: the art of constructive criticism" and published already by Toastmasters International Inc, Santa Ana, California. It is illustrated by funny cartoons by Edward Burns.

Smedley was told later that 'critic' and critisism, has negative connotations in many minds, and let the organisation name it 'evaluator' 'evaluating', but I liked his stubborn character: he sticks in his book to his own opinion, not being afraid to explain why and use whatever word he is believing in. The book explains very clearly how to give positive and helpful feedback, and many different ways it can be done in the club meetings.

Never the same!

Ralph Smedley suggest variation on the theme, so each time is different, each time something else can be learned from it, as well by the one who spoke, and also by the one or many who gives the feedback of the speech(es), and always also by all the members present.

One interesting example is, when the General Critic called also Master commentator, distributes to the others the speech: one will analyse all the beginnings, the second will analyse all the endings, or yet other one will give feedback on voice variety of all speeches, or will critic (evaluate) the body language or use the of words.

I will have to read again and again this small 36 page small book or manual, brown by age, so many ideas and suggestions, so much explications easy to understand are in it.

Even more, it shows so well the spirit of Ralph Smedley, of wich I become more and more fond.

When I will speak about him, it will be his living spirit not a dead founder of a club or corporation.

As also the millions of men, and later - a lot later- near the time, I first joined a Toastmasters club, also women passed by the clubs. They are not numbers to me but human beings that got for all the rest of their life more confidence in themselves and courage to stand up and speak their mind, knowledge to persuade, to make a speech in conversational style - not orathoric as was still usage in most places at the begining of the century.

The other books by Dr. Ralph Smedley I found are Basic Traning, 12 procects so well explained and so well written that even today what we use in not much different. The one I have was published in 1943. The basics of public speaking, today we call it Competent Communicator manual.

The amateur Chairman, one of his first books, explains how to chair a meeting, 'Toastmaster of the Evening" but also any other Committee meeing, in a more or less 'parlamentarian' way, this one was published in 1947.

Still another one, I found from 1947, is autographed by him, he sold it directly at the Toastmaster Convention : The Voice of the Speaker. "First of all, learn to speak in a friendly voice! He also put a lot of pratical exercises in it, how to improve on the voice one has got.

I have yet to find, that one directly from Toastmasters, the collection of his different articles. Someday, I will be able to give conferences, about his intentions, his spirit, his advices. If we really follow it, we will become better speakers, listeners, thinkers, and faster. And also his later book: Beyond the basic training.

An image can tell more, sometimes

Evoking an image in the listeners mind of eye, or showing on the screen, can tell a message, a story even.

Here, four images four seasons, but they tell more then just 'spring, summer, fall, winter', so can a story, facts to which we add emotion, feelings.

What each of them, all from ny old pictures, evokes in you?

Use Storytelling to pitch better

The Elements of Persuasion, by Richard Maxwell and Robert Dickman, the last book I discoverd, almost by change.What a treat!

Its subtitle : Use STORYTELLING to Pitch better, sell faster & win more business.

I could hardly put it down, but it is a book to study, to experiment, to read again, and again.

I just finished to go through it the first time, and already learned a lot.

They define a Story by Facts wrapped in Emotion. The emotions that make your facts stick in mind, and make the story great and enduring.

The 5 elements of a story they discuss in detail and with many exemples are:

1. The Passion with witch you tell it.
2. The Hero, vulnerable yet courageous having a goal, giving the point the view for the listener to identify, the 'entry point' in the story.
3. The Antagonist or Obstacle he faces and has to overcome, to fight through the conflict wich keeps the audience in the story. Locking it into the memory, the fight releasing emotions.
4. The Awerness point, aha, turning point, that helps winning the fight. We all inspire a positive outcome.
5. The Transformation, change of the hero, through the conflict and awereness.

Who end up being a leader they ask? And they answer: usually those who can effectively telling the right story.  In business, collectivity, or home even, we all have stories to tell!

And that are only from the first pages... then the book takes the five elements one by one and go in depth and explain, teach, suggest. It is a book worth having! And I found in it also many suggestions applicable to my Toastmasters International, speakers club and its members.

Different methods of answering

I have also looked at all the questioning, World Phone Hacking Enquiry in Parlement, and was impressed by how long pauses Ruppert Murdock made, often, without answering, and how much a Leader he come out of it. Yes, we felt, he knew what he was doing.

Of course, I was impressed also that he did not move even when an attempt was made against him, but how fast the young woman, bodygard (and wife?) did move the strike the man who went against him. After, as his coat was probably smeared, he just took it off, and quietly, with the same poise, continued to answer, with as much apparent quiet and thinking before answering, and looking straight and long in eyes.

Vour speaking voice

My books soon online!

I discovered, through my son, a new feature on the web: registering and categorizing my books.

I have begun with my Public speaking, Storytelling and Stand-Up Comedy books, still more to come. Here are the latest one I put on.


In the LibraryThing, they find the covers and exact titles, as one enters ISBN number, or title and author, and one can add tags and arrange them in categories. Plus different other things I have yet to discover! So far, more then 40 books put in, all around Communication in Public.

So which of them I like or use more?
As for storytelling and even, public speaking, there are the first two in this image.
The power of personal storytelling by Maguire, and the Improving your storytelling by Lipman;


To learn about humour perhaps:
Judy Carter's classic Stand-Up Comedy
The comic toolbox but also Logan Murray's book and workshop.

After all, one should read and study, but also practice practice practice. Then reread again, re-study again the same books, understand differently and practice again.

Of course, there is wisdom to be taken from lots of other books too!

Doug Lipman - between you and your audience

***Adjusting As You Go***

Your listeners don't always respond the way you
want. In this case, you respond by adjusting your telling
to produce a different response.

Whenever synch builds, the feeling of rapport builds, too.
When you are in such a state of rapport with your
listeners, your influence is magnified.

At this point, a nearly invisible raising of one corner of
your mouth, for example, may create a ripple of laughter.

But if you break the rapport, you lose the "multiplier"
effect of synch, and will need to expend more energy again
(perhaps you will need to speak louder or gesture more
broadly for a moment) to have as much effect.

Intense rapport with an audience is a highly rewarding
experience.

It requires you to maintain a precarious balance between attention
on your listeners and attention on your story.

A moment of distraction (such as when someone new enters the room or when your mind wanders) can sometimes be enough to break the spell.

Then you need to re-create it.

Learn to pay close, delighted attention to your listeners.
Learn to respond, and to swim in the currents of the
resulting endless feedback loop.

Some talked about responding to individuals:
"Tell to one listener at a time," one said. "If you can get
one person on your side, the others will follow."

Many tellers, however, described a sense of the group as a whole.
Jay O'Callahan said, "It's as though the audience offers
their energy to you so you can mold it for them. Their
energy seems to meld together above their heads.

When Pam McGrath and I give workshops called "Dancing with
the Audience," we have each participant tell a story to the
group while blindfolded. Afterwards, we ask what the teller
noticed about the audience. Most tellers describe being
more in touch with their listeners than usual. I believe
that, denied the convenience of sight, the tellers turn to
additional ways of sensing their listeners - ways that
great tellers call into play at all times.

When you connect deeply, with all your senses, to your
listeners, you form a bond of trust with them. The audience
gives you a gift of power over them. In a way,
you are like a coach driver: you are hired to direct the
horses, but the horses don't belong to you.

All this talk about connection with your audience is
necessarily a bit indirect, because the bonding happens
primarily at a subconscious level. Generally, connection is
experienced consciously only after it is established; it is
created through a myriad of adjustments, each too small and
rapid to be noticed individually.

Describing a strongly connected storytelling event, we
often use words that suggest being highly present in the
moment, such as:
- immediacy
- vibrancy
- vividness.

More commonly, though, we turn to metaphorical language to
describe the effects of linking with your audience. These
effects are difficult to analyze but unmistakeable to
experience. To describe these effects, we compare them to:
* physical force:
- powerful
- compelling
- captivating (which derives from "to make captive")
- moving
- "She had her audience in the palm of her hand."
* being engulfed or submerged:
- absorbed
- engrossed
- immersed
* the effects of magic:
- conjure
- "The teller cast a spell..."
- enchanted
- spellbound

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Read his book

TEDxYaleWorldFellows - Huzir Sulaiman - Mentoring Creativity

Some simple but very good ideas that apply not only to play writing, but different creativity, as speaking in public or storytelling, too.

Southwark young humorous speech

He won the Speakout contest this year with this humorous speech about Sleep

As a film: Paula - for Grant's Whisky

Grant's True Tales : Julie from Geronimo London on Vimeo.

I told Paula's tale, the whole of it, at Canal Café Theatre during Family Theme with Spark London. Paula, my great grandmother had a huge impact on my view of life.

It does gain, in this rendering, turned by a professional filming crew, nicely edited, with some nicely inserted videos, filmed through three hours that we worked together to produce this few minutes. Very pro. And in bigger size, I like it even better then before, seen also in a tiny window.

It does loose some alas, as they did cut (with my permission), all I told initially about her childhood and even more, details about her problems as woman managing a business alone, in the years 1880th, way back. And, next time, I will not tell a tale without audience either, I missed a lot being "on the podium" with real people facing me, as it was filmed only with me and the crew.

We do learn, all the time, do we not?!

Please go also to the Grant's Whisky Facebook site and vote for me, or, look at others and vote for them. Using True Tales as publicity is a great idea!

StandUp Comedy Books

Here are ten I did buy, read and study from January till now.

Some are more useful for me then others, but from all I learned, was inspired and have to go back to them again and again.

The first I found was Logan Murray book, whose very useful workshop I attended in May.

But there are others, classic or very useful ones, each helping me one step farther;



The Tookbox was the second one I liked a lot and Judy's old and still very actual book is a classic by now. From her I learned the use of instinctive afterthought movement or/and phrase, just after the punch and laugh. Usual it provokes an even bigger laughter.

At Crossroads, Julie in Communist Romania

Delivered live at the Canal Cafe Theatre, With Spark London, Crossroads theme
Tuesday 6 June 2011

Of course, there is a lot more to tell about it but this is how the story was told.

When I suddenly met Elena Ceusescu, and my life crumbled, all I worked for the six years before disapeared...

Second Stand Up & Deliver

Delivered at Covent Garden Amused Mouse; at Walkabout Downunder the 30 May; by Julie, at age 77 This is from the soundtrack of my second standup comedy, this year - and ever, I hope other standups will follow.

Logan Murray Workshop in Barcellona

Humor and Roasts

Regan roast Frank Sinatra
he could be president, but is it worth it if he has to give up being a king







and humor from Obama at press conferences

I did it my way

Those are the words, and I begun with reminding Sinatra and his I did it my way, my two Educational tasks from the Better club series.

Contrasts

It is not how up we are and how low we get, or the difference between our dreams the reality and the worst that can happen too, but the surprise.

In fact, the contrast.

Here, in pictures for exemple, the dark and the light.

Those are pictures taken Thursday, inside the Royal Festival Hall.

The same place, different rendering.



Different mood results.

Does it not?

The same is true with a story or a "joke".

Also it can be also the looking up, vertical then down and the difference the surprise.

Surprise can produce laughter. The unexpected. The suddenly revealed.

I learned yesterday, from Logan Murray, there is a "comedian answer" to all. A different one then usual. Another point of view. Revealing often what is under.

The best, but more often the worst that could happen.

Books about Humour and Stand-Up Comedy

I have by now six or seven books about Comedy and or Stand-up: those three are the ones I could learn the most.

Of course, so far I only read then once and did not have, yet, time to study and reread again and again.

But I will!

Judy Carter published hers in 1994, she is from Caliifornia, and Logan Murray's book fwas published first two years ago : he also has the Stand-Up and deliver class in London.

I have understand from the Toolbox also a great description of what IS a story!

I will analyse the books one by one another day.

One can learn a lot more from all the books that we think at first.

celebration Trafalgar Square

I did not understand at the begining, how come so many went out : they will miss the Wedding images.
Of course, I forgot how many have Iphones, Ipads etc and can follow teli through it, also the huge screens that transmitted the images.

It was a wonderful feeling to be there even only for an hour or so between all that different people celebrating joyfully.

Video of project 5 Speaking to Entretain

Where did I put my feet by julie70Delivered at Meridian Speakers Toastmasters meeting, that is my last project for my Advanced Communication Silver Award - the invented audience was an After Diner for Celebrating the Competent Communicator manual... and I tell here my trajectory and how one thing lead to the other,

what is the point? if there is one, other then to entretain, is to make remember the difference of audience and how one has to adapt to them

Target at Citicriers Toastmaster club

Tribulations of a Stand Up by julie70
Thanks Sony for having taken this with my flip camera!

So I can see what I did well and what I could have done (a lot) better, the tale of my last StandUp comedy class - or at least part of it.

And here is "Two years ago I died" only recored sound.

Stand up and deliver

Logan wrote a book about Stand Up comedy, that was the fist in this genre I read and liked. His class are fast filled, but I registered in time.

Tonight, information evening, also not as I hoped with all of us participating, but in May, the intensive class begins.  Logan and some of his friends, and pupils will be at AmuseMouseCamden.

I am sure, I will learn again, something new from it.

And in June, two days of Impro class.

I feel, I will arrive to July, prepared to host my club meetings, of course, if I am elected.

Paris romance

Paris did not seem romantic to me until, one day...

Speech and its evaluations

Snowball effect - speech Julie at Croydon Communiccators contest


Evaluated by Vathany


Eval by M


Eval by Hanna


Others evaluation : Assomption / Reality

Paula, the mother of my grandmother

As prepared for Canal Cafe Theatre at the Spark London "Family" theme evening. When told, I did repeat her message after all three of her tales.

Stage presence and movements from Dalida

We can learn a lot from singers about stage presence and movements, and of course, voice variety

Here Dalida, Besame mucho

Open mic in Washington DC with SpeakeasyDC

Adam Ruben tells a true story at SpeakeasyDC's open mic. from SpeakeasyDC on Vimeo.

Standing up to a bully

Amy Saidman hosts My So Called Jewish Life from SpeakeasyDC on Vimeo.

So called jewish life

And there are so much more great stories and storyteller I found there!

SpeakeasyDC hosts a monthly open mic storytelling series on the 2nd Tuesday of every month in Washington, D.C.

Listen, open up with all your body

Fascinating Ted conference, about listening with our whole body and soul.
First listening to ourselves then to the instrument then to the others.
Relating and say something not only interpret... every time differently.

All of us, depending what we are willing to experience.

Truth and a story

Yesterday, I did entretain the audience, but not well enough.

The truth, came into my story, instead of the creativity and also they did laugh at my cape and movements and were with me from begining to the end, I could have told a more amusing story of how Dracula did not die, just disapeared and took another of his forms at the end of Bram Stoker's book.

I play now with the idea.

Using all I know, read, seen, people thinks about him, making up a new story, of him reappearing in today's London, near the London Bridge...

There are so many deguisements and way of dressing at the evening, that even if het appeared first in his old clothes, until he purchased new ones, to get less remarqued between unsuspecting Londoners, no one would notice!

Yes, why let him be non existent or killed, when so much fun and adventure can still go on...

Mistaken Identity on Vimeo

Mistaken Identity from Julie Kertesz on Vimeo.
this spectacle was the one that decided me to learn more about humour, to understand why the audience did laugh at cetain points, what provoced laughter

Audacity

Audacity is a free voice / sound Editing software. I discover with time more and more use of it.

Not only you can copy and paste, cut and add, in this case below shorten from 12 to 6 minutes cutting out all the non essential parts, becoming more aware what is not absolutely necessary for that most important message you want to give "now" the next time you tell it, but also has many other features.

You can 'find the noise" and then reduce the noise from all the audio file.

One can amplify or reduce the sound but also 'see' the voice variaty and add or reduce pauses. And of course, listen to the parts when the audience laughed... and think about it why. Sometimes it is not in the voice but the mimic and body language but you can remember that, or see if you have a video recorded too as I had in this case.


That is the last version, of Multiple Identities, - originally Mistaken Identity told at Cafe Canal Theatre, only 6 minutes of the original 12! but still, I think all what is important is still there!

So much more can be changed about which I do not know yet, but already using some basic features can mean a lot for the result. And after all the changes, one can Export in uploadable format to the web and embed it from there, like I am doing now here.

And this wonderful and free Audacity exist as well for Macintosh as for PC computers!

Busy month of March for me

Monday, the 7th for the Family theme with Spark London at Canal Cafe Theatre, near Little Venice.

I told some of the true stories about my Grand great-mother, Paula.Done! "Dramatic entertaining". She was 92 and I was 12 when she told me most of her stories. Now, at 77 I tell them to my 12 year old grand-daughter to transmit them through 6th generation. Not only the family stories but also the believe that she transmitted me: from bad things something good arises.

Wednesday, 16th at Lewisham speakers, I will speak about the Going outside the Club, and how by daring to fail; experiment and stretch comfort zone, I learned and come to become a Storyteller.

Friday, 25th at the Bermondsey Square bookshop with 20 pictures and a ten minute story at the True Story cafe event. The theme is Time, for me stays or flies but is not regular as a clock would be.

Most of my story will be about a Romance in Paris that changed my life and endured after it flew away. A few hours that left such a powerful impact on my life and my view of relationships and even, myself.

Aie, and here is an event that I do not yet how I will survive: the end of my Humorous Class in School of Comedy night with, each of us a 5 minute "gig" or act, Saturday 26 at 14 h I don't know yet where. Me make laugh on purpose a tough audience... And I just read that men and women laugh at different things.

Tuesday, 29th an Interpretative reading at London Bridge Speakers, a dialogue of Dracula from Transylvania and Mina the English woman. Also only a literary invention, Dracula seems alive to many.
Or, will I tell instead a Humorous Entertaining Story about Dracula and me coming from Transylvania? Also I just realized that Irving come to Dublin from London;;;

You are welcome to any of those events!

The courage of Steve Jobs

Steve Job presented the 2nd of March 2011, the Keynote for introducing the new IPad 2.

He retired from everyday work of Apple, and is very thin but his courage did not falter as he told us in an more then an hour speech (as ususal with others helping in from time to time) how Cool the new IPad was.

I specially liked this image as he told us about the "post PC era" at the crossroad between Technology and the Liberal Arts.

I admire the way he presents, and always with a black teashirt, only his face and arms visible, and behind, on the screen, dark blue almost black, a very few and very "speaking" images.

His presentations and use of screen can be an exemple of "how to" to all of us. The new IPad with video toward out and toward inside, interesting feature, and two great Apple software (Video editing and Instruments and Mixing) for 5 dollars each! will be available soon in USA and at the end of this month in UK and, then also in hundreds of countries.

My question would be, aside from the price, can one use it now to write with Accents?

Yes, cool features! Steve Jobs performance give us also a courage against odds and adversity.

I was there the day he was outed from Apple by Skuley and have taken a photo of him then as he come to our boot in Paris, producing with our products and Apple's Lazerwriter printer, an add hoc newsletter celebrating him being in the Apple Expo, A long time ago, He was so young then. And yes, courageous against adversity.

A great example of not giving up. Of rebond as soon as possible.

Know what you want

Through facebook, and published there by the author of the Naked Presenter, I stumbled on this great speech. Of course, he is right, but what a great example also of personal storytelling enhancing the speech and a wonderful expressive moving face, too!