On Friday, Bono accepted the Chairman Award from the NAACP for, well, Though most of my exposure listening to Bono talk is mostly through intermittent monologue from U2 concerts, I've enjoyed listening to him speak in other mediums as well. Regardless of what he is saying, the guy is a great public speaker.
In the study and practice of public speech, there are certain historical instances that have attained a certain notoriety for being quintessential examples of how to relate to the audience as the keynote speaker. One of such examples was Barbara Bush's commencement speech to Wellesley College in 1990 to a congregation of liberal feminists who were publicly determined to undermine her address.
I think this clip could attain similar status, although the crowd wasn't really against the speaker. Part of Bono's uniqueness is that he is so candid about the things that fascinate him; here, he talks about his near-obsession with black American churches of the south and in the last couple of minutes he incorporates a diatribe in the form of a zealous African-American preacher from the pulpit. And he really had 'em going...
Monday, March 05, 2007
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3 comments:
Yeah, he's a good speaker. You know the difference between what he did here and Hillary Clinton in Selma? She tried to become a black preacher. He acknowledged that he was not. It's embarrasing to watch a speaker try to morph into a member of their audience. That's the youth pastor "I'm cool too" syndrome. It's really phony. He was genuine, and that's why it worked so well.
That's my analysis anyway. (I know, I know: "You're deep, Ernie.")
I had actually just listened to the audio clip of Hillary shortly before you posted this. Truly embarrassing. I would have expected more from her because--and I know I'll receive some degree of backlash for saying this--but, as much as I really didn't go along with the Clinton camp, I remember being pretty impressed with Hillary's It Takes a Village speech at the 1996 Democratic National Convention.
I will forgoe the backlash for now since I don't remember the speech, just the idea. I remember because Lee Tillman says she took the phrase from an African proverb, and it was more or les out of context. But anyway, I've never been impressed with her speaking. She's always seemed to me cold and unappealing. Bill, on the other hand, was a master. He could win over just about anybody, which is what made him so maddening. I remember thinking, "damn. this guy is good." He's so good, in fact, that Hillary's campaign is going to have to be really careful in using him. He's going to steal the spotlight, and he's not going to want to give it back.
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