Thoughts on Tempo
Tempo should be varied according to the quality of the statements made. An important point should be delivered slowly, and with emphasis. Amusing or somewhat incidental sentences should be said more quickly, and in a somewhat higher pitch. As soon as a speaker feels that the attention of his audience is leaving him, he can retrieve it at once by speaking in a louder, faster tone, using a good deal of emphasis to drive home a point. This mannerism must be used with discretion, as too frequent use will make a speech jerky, and unless the speech continues in an interesting fashion, the audience will find attention unrewarded and the faster tempo, repeated, will not succeed in regaining their regard.
The most satisfactory tempo, then, is one that suits the subject and allows the audience sufficient time to understand, yet does not drag. A sense of "timing" is another quality essential to a successful speaker. Timing of a speech includes tempo with the addition of effective pauses. A pause must have meaning, else it simply indicates that the speaker cannot collect his thoughts sufficiently to go on. As a matter of fact, pauses do give the speaker time to marshal his thoughts, but a definite pause is allowable only if the point is dramatic enough to call for some time to let the statement sink into the minds of the auditors, or if a rhetorical question is asked and the speaker wishes to have the audience frame an answer in their own minds.
If a joke calls for a laugh, experience will teach a speaker just how long a pause can last to be effective. But it should be remembered that the persons in the last rows of a large audience receive their impressions perhaps a fraction of a second later than those in front. A large audience is generally slower in understanding, and the entire tempo of a speech should be slower, more deliberate, and more obviously pointed than for a smaller, more intimate gathering.
To be effective, every discourse must have a climax as a whole, as well as several minor climaxes. The wise speaker saves his most dramatic moments to the last; an anti-climatic ending in a speech is as bad as a similar ending to a fascinating story. It leaves the audience a little bored, wishing the speaker had sense enough to stop while he was still interesting, as well as a little vague as to the importance of the points presented.
Some slang phrases are amusing and apt, and have their place in an informal speech, but constant use of such words or phrases lowers the whole tenor of a talk, gainsaying the erudition and education of the speaker. Slang and humor should be used only if they will drive home a point.
Humor is an effect in speech-making that must be handled with extreme care. To quote the words of a former motion picture producer, "Making comedies is no joke!" A funny story must really be amusing to the majority of the audience; it must be the type of joke or story they can well appreciate, and it must have an essence of novelty. For a joke that misses fire is deadly, often upsetting the speaker’s equilibrium and causing the audience to feel that the entire speech is missing its point. Indeed, when a speaker attempts to inject humor into a public address he is risking his reputation as a speaker, because few things are so derogatory to an orator’s success as futile efforts to be funny. To be witty is to be entertaining, but, alas! all speakers are not witty! Unless the speaker has the ability to be witty and amusing in ordinary conversation, he would be well advised to make no attempts to inject humor into his speeches.