Brian Jenner is a UK-based speechwriter. This blog is a selection of his thoughts on the subject, reviews of the speaking performances of public figures and articles of general interest on the subject of rhetoric. If you need a speech, please get in contact.
A couple of years ago I watched The Fog of Waron TV, a film by Errol Morris about Robert McNamara, the former American Secretary of State for Defence during the Vietnam War. Morris got him to be astonishingly frank on camera, posturing the idea that had he been on the losing side of any of the wars he was involved with, he would have been branded a war criminal.
A few weeks ago I spotted Why We Fighton DVD, a documentary in very much the same mould about the Iraq War. It derives its theme from Dwight Eisenhower's final message to the American people when he left the White House in 1961. Again Eisenhower was very honest about the problem he saw. And it's expressed in bold terms. I enjoyed Eugene Jarecki's film very much, and while it has the benefit of hindsight in showing just what a disaster the war has been, it is likely that films of this kind will have a long-term influence on how we perceive the actions of our politicians. Eisenhower's comments are worth hearing again.
Every month I book a speaker for the group BomoCreatives, which I can occasionally use as my own think-tank/ experimental theatre. The trouble with speakers is that because the audience is aware that the speaker is going to go on for quite some time, attention tends to drift off. But interruptions, or the threat of interruptions, mean that they have to remain alert.
So rather than having just a speaker last month, we put up two stools, and the compère asked the speaker pre-prepared questions.
This meant that the compère could interrupt the speaker if he was starting to flag, and put into context some of the things he was saying. That may involve mentioning people in the audience, which is a great way to keep them on their toes.
For the speaker, it means he can be spontaneous. He's got someone to pick him up if he falls.
The audience hear's two voices, and the event has a modern feel to it. It's not like being back at university.
It reminds me of Alan Sugar's technique of not actually preparing a presentation when he's asked to speak. He just takes questions from the audience.
Gordon Brown and Mariella Frostrup had a 'contrived' discussion at the Labour Party Conference.
Part of the role of a speechwriter is just making dull information interesting by analogies and stories. One idea I rather like which can spice up a speech is the owl of Minerva.
The owl of Minerva is the owl that accompanies Minerva in Roman myths, seen as a symbol of wisdom. The philosopher G.W.F. Hegel wrote that "the owl of Minerva spreads its wings only with the falling of the dusk" — meaning that philosophy comes to understand a historical condition just as it passes away.
I had this feeling when I was watching John Moulton, the private equity entrepreneur and founder of Alchemy Partners, speaking to a Commons Treasury Select Committee about the credit crunch. He made a devastating attack on the behaviour of bankers, put together with a few PowerPoint slides.
It was gripping to watch. But actually I thought it was a bit bizarre, too.
It was blatantly obvious that the banks were behaving irresponsibly. In my local branch of NatWest, they were offering students cash incentives to take out overdrafts of £1,500. It wasn't banking, it was bribery. If unsecured debt is at a trillion pounds, and rising, there's going to be a problem when you start having to pay it back. When house prices rocket, that might please journalists and make everyone who owns property feel good, but it never cheered those who didn't have a roof over their head.
Should a Government have regulated a booming economy? Of course not. They would have got it wrong, and they would have elicited howls of anguish.
Moulton's analysis is chillling. And only when the corruption and recklessness in the system has been exposed, and the system crashes, does the owl of Minerva fly from her perch - and people listen.
But to blame the bankers, and even the Government, is pointless, and to some extent dangerous. We've been there before, too. If everyone's making money, you're mad to be the one to put your head over the parapet and say, "Actually chaps, I don't think we really deserve all this extra money."
Besides, the idea that we are part of a collective narrative of prosperity and austerity is nonsense. In our personal lives, our lives can boom in a Depression, and be thoroughly depressed in a Boom.
If estate agents and silly restaurants close, and the number of motor cars on the road falls, that's progress. If thousands of people lose their homes, it's very unpleasant. But it's manageable, if you are prepared to make great sacrifices in your lifestyle.
As Moulton pointed out, in the private equity business, there is less focus on making money, more on managing the businesses they have properly. There is lots of good news around, too.
Noonan is one of the world's most famous speechwriters. And Ronald Reagan is acknowledged as one of the great political communicators of the C20th. So When Character Was King, A Story of Ronald Reagan was a promising book.
It's a very weird book, however. Twenty years on and Noonan looks back at Reagan as some kind of saint. Even when he was exasperating, Noonan looks back and sees it as exhibiting a superior wisdom. I've noticed that British journalists like Charles Moore and Simon Heffer take this sort of line on Mrs Thatcher. They were young, they had privileged access, so they look back on those times through a deep romantic haze.
Noonan is treacly about her old boss, and it grates from time to time. But for some reason you just don't stop reading. Maybe there's a lesson there about speechwriting, the message has to be so positive, it's almost over the top. Listeners don't want criticism or edge.
I took away several lessons about politics. Reagan's rise was swift because he had a message and he'd honed it over many years working as a travelling speaker for General Electric (it was a very unusual job). Like Bruce Forsyth, he did his time in the provinces, perfecting his act.
Reagan drew most of his political capital from painting a picture of the Soviet menace. He picked on fear of an external enemy to win support. Thatcher did the same thing. The fact that, in retrospect, the fear might have been exaggerated, is forgotten.
He wasn't exceptional. Apart from his ability to act. He looked the part and did the best he could. Noonan isn't all schmaltz. She does suggest that Nancy was a bit of a nightmare. And Reagan's kids were not great fans.
Reagan was a man full of stories. And Noonan suggests they could become a bit wearing in the White House. But it backed up my experience meeting speechwriters in America, leadership is often just about being able to articulate through stories what has to be done, and the difficulties that entails.
It's a sad story with Reagan ending up isolated from the world, unable to recognise anyone or remember anything.
TV presenter Simon Amstell was in Bournemouth last Friday as part of his stand-up tour. You get a different person on stage: wafery-thin, melancholic, squeaky, relaxed, absent-minded. I enjoyed his intellectual humour, and his ability to send things up.
The first joke in any performance should be local, putting things into context. Amstell just said, "Yellow buses", which was spot on for Bournemouth. He was very poised, at one stage he seemed to forget what he was saying, but all he did was take out an A4 sheet folded in four, open it up and get his place back.
What Amstell does best is be rude or crass about celebrities. He only did it a couple of times. About Kylie and her cancer. "Nobody would have cared if Dannii got cancer." He said he got to know the producer of Hollyoaks, and asked her why they didn't make it better. She said they tried making Hollyoaks better, but the ratings fell. So they went back to the way they were doing it before.
There were funny bits about Fairtrade, innocent smoothies, ethical shopping and a wry account of being caught up in the tsunami. Amstell has a super comic persona, his vacant, slightly depressive manner is very appealing. Not just a TV presenter.
Sometimes it feels as if civilisation stops at Southampton, so I was very pleased to bump into a local comedian, Gareth Richards, this week. I really enjoyed watching his video. Not least because it illustrates an important point about giving speeches. Watch how the compère at the Comedy Store goes over the top to warm up the audience and big up the performance.
Whenever you speak you should make sure you've got somebody competent to introduce you. Sometimes it's a good idea to write the script for the introduction and give it to the host.
