Superpowers on Stage

By Keith Hansen

• Delivering speeches can appear to be a Herculean effort.

• People are often greatly intimidated by the prospect of delivering a speech in public

• Sounds like a job for a superhero!• If I could choose three superpowers to help

me deliver a speech, I would choose nerves of steel, super strength, and mind reading

• According to the Phobia Clinic, Americans’ greatest fear is a fear of public speaking

• Jerry Seinfeld once joked “Americans would rather be inside the casket at a funeral than outside giving the eulogy”

A Boost of Superhuman Confidence

• Back in my informative speech, my leg kept twitching because I was nervous. This made filming the speech difficult.

• If I had nerves of steel, I would have simply sod there and not moved. I would have mumbled less and spoken clearly as well.

Super Strength

• According to Rikard Ingvarsson, a Swedish fitness enthusiast, muscles are viewed as a source of power.

• People are more likely to remember a person with a strong and toned body.

Would you forget a man with this body?

• Superheroes not normally known for their strength, such as Spider-Man and Mr.

Fantastic, still appear to be very strong.

Mind Reading

• Many people would assume mind reading would be useful for crowdsourcing, but I think not.

• Crowdsourcing helps in finding a topic for a speech; it won’t do a speaker much good when he’s on stage!

Then why have it?

• Mind reading powers would allow me to learn if my speech is working.

• Is the audience understanding what I am saying? Am I convincing them and swaying their beliefs? Mind reading would give me these answers.

• Mind reading powers would also alert me if people are struggling to focus or understand what I am saying.

• Using super powers to help deliver a speech would be unusual, but undeniably helpful.

• Nerves of steel would give me superhuman confidence, Super strength would give me a presentable body, and mind reading would give me instantaneous feedback on my performance.