Rookie in need of advice/help!

[Airwick]

My coach just entered me and and someone else on my team in impromptu at our next meet. The problem is we have never done it before and have no idea how to practice and prepare for it. Is there anywhere we could get sample questions? Can anyone give me any tips on how to prepare and how to perform it?

Any help is much appreciated. Thanks!

[Draborn_LA]

Hi,
It is always wonderful to see new competitors interested in Impromptu Speaking! Impromptu is a great event that melds the speaking and delivery skills necessary in extemp and oratory with the flair and creativity of interp.
I was lucky enough to make my way to finals at NFL in 2009 in Impromptu and have been coaching the event for the last three years. I’d love to give you a few basic tips that might help you be successful.

1: BE CREATIVE! This is one of (if not the most) important factors of crafting your speech. You’ll see a variety of different topics while competing. Sometimes you will draw a quotation and other times it might be a single word. I believe one of the worst things you can do is be too literal. One time, I drew the initials UPS. Now, I could have given a speech about package delivery, but any judge would have found it boring and uninspired. Instead, I focused on UPS’s slogan “What can Brown do for you?” and crafted a speech about focusing on others needs. You need to find a unique angle that is both interesting and can be connect back to the original topic logically. Have fun with this! Use your prep time to find the creative topic within the standard topic.

2: Have a solid structure! Like any speech, an impromptu speech should have a well organize, easy to follow structure. Now, it doesn’t have to be as ridged as your average extemp speech, but should have an intro, easy to follow points, and a conclusion that ties it all together. You cannot expect a judge to give you high ranks if they cannot follow what you are trying to talk about!

3: Create a pool of “evidence”! When I say evidence, I’m not taking about files and facts. Impromptu doesn’t call for the research and figures of extemp or even oratory. What you do need is various examples from literature, movies, and other popular culture that can be fitted into any example. Think of the movies, books and television shows you love and USE THEM! Pull quotes, use the situations, and connect with your audience using examples they will recognize. I would always use quotes and situations from my favorite movies and books. The Will Smith movie “The Pursuit of Happiness”, the book “Fight Club”, and a quote from the Dalai Lama were always my go-tos in my stable of impromptu “files”. One of my students loves to use Jurassic Park in her speeches. Use what you know!

4: This should be obvious, YOU MUST SPEAK WELL! This a forensic event, quality communication skills are a must! Voice, inflection, pacing…all the important elements must be there. Engage your audience with both voice and facial expression. Make sure to use transitions in both speech and physical movement. You can craft an incredible speech, but if you don’t deliver your efforts will be fruitless.

Those are just some basic that should help get you started. Remember to have fun! As cheesy as that sounds, the competitors that have fun are always the ones to go that extra step further. As far as practice goes, type up some common objects, movie titles, colors, quotations you find on the internet…ANYTHING really. Do a mock draw and speak. Speaking on any random topic will help you get the feel for finding original ideas from your draw.
Also, look up the impromptu rules for your area. Some states use different methods in drawing and prepping.
Best of luck to you!

[tgjdlc]

^^^^ awesome advice. Take it and use it.

[CLT787]

Drawborne_LA's advice is bang on perfect! One thing that I find always helps me is to stretch myself. Start by not giving yourself an option on topic--have someone give you a topic--anything and give a speech on that topic. After that, do a normal draw and start speaking--NO PREP TIME. After you have a solid level of comfort there, combine them. No choice in topic and no prep time! After a while, it becomes a really great game and a nice way to pass the time on long car trips--which are also great times to pratcice this way! (Billboards, other cars, roadside attarctions, etc make for great topics!). This worked for me when I competed and it's something I made all of my novices do as captain! Try it!

[IainGabriel]

The above advice is excellent, and I just have a little more to add.

TOPIC CHOICE:

When you draw your list of topics, you want to IMMEDIATELY choose the first topic that catches your eye and stick to it, so as to not waste any time. You should only choose one topic for each speech. Quickly select a simple thesis and the first three unique examples that come to mind that support that thesis, and memorize the order of presentation. Finally, think of your introduction, and how you'll rephrase it for your conclusion.

Ideally, you want to have selected your topic by :10, your thesis by :30, your three examples by 1:00, and your introduction (and how you’ll initially list your examples) by 1:30.

During the speech itself, you’ll want to be done with your opening anecdote, statement of the topic, thesis statement and signposting by 1:00-1:20. You ought to have finished your first point by 2:20, your second point by 3:20, and your third point by 4:20; the remaining (over 30) seconds in the last minute should be used to briefly summarize your points, restate your topic and thesis, and tie it all back to your conclusion.

IMPACTING YOUR THESIS:

This is a very important thing to think about insofar as, if you don’t tell your judge how the content of your speech is intended to impact them, they really have no reason to pay attention and won’t take anything away from what you’re telling them. You should first give an impact after the thesis, but be sure to give a smaller one after each of your three points.

To put it in simple terms, the impact tells us what we should take away from each point.

Here’s a list of examples:
Tomato: a tomato represents the human heart. THEREFORE, just as we analyze tomatoes in order to better help them grow, we should analyze our hearts in order to better care for their development.
J.K. Rowling: she’s an inspirational figure. THEREFORE, we should study her life story and apply the lessons she has learned to our own lives.
Paper: paper represents endless possibilities. THEREFORE, we should realize that our own lives are like a blank canvas, and it is up to us to paint an ideal picture of the future.
Spongebob Squarepants: he is the ideal American hero. THEREFORE, we should follow in his footsteps.
Romance: searching for love will lead to disappointment. THEREFORE, we should not search for love and instead focus on bettering the lives of those around us.
Rap: rap music represents modern creativity. THEREFORE, we should analyze rap in order to better understand the human propensity for creativity and imagination.

It’s a bit different when dealing with quotes and abstract words, because the impact is directly connected to your thesis, and the bulk of analysis comes from your examples. Therefore, your impacting should be directly tied into those examples.
A quote about faith: yes, we should have faith. This is because faith can intellectually inspire a person to lead a better life (as you would discuss with Buffy the Vampire Slayer), faith can medically lead to miraculous recoveries (as you will talk about with The Diving Bell and the Butterfly), and faith, which is unique to humanity, sets mankind apart as a unique creature (as discussed by John Calvin).
A quote about reinvention: yes, we should constantly create new things. This is because people tend to be excited by new things (the focal point of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign), because change is often necessary to better society (as discussed in Invictus), and because people often grow dissatisfied with the status quo (as seen in The Little Mermaid).

SIGNPOSTING:

This is pretty easy. Signposting in IMP amounts to listing your points before you delve into them. You signpost after you deliver your thesis and impact. It almost always sounds like this:

“First, we’ll analyze X example, which will demonstrate A impact. Second, we’ll talk about Y example, which will show that B impact is true. Finally, we’ll focus on Z example, which will prove that C impact is indeed the case.”

The secret to effective signposting is LINKING THE POINTS TOGETHER. Use similar language to show that all of your points are related, and judges will love it. For example, if you were given the quote, “He who can lick, can bite…”

“First, we’ll analyze the character of Chomper, the minute T-Rex from The Land Before Time, to prove that ‘those who can bite can lick.’ Second, we’ll talk about a more realistic version of Chomper—Cujo, the rabid dog of Stephen King fame—to demonstrate that ‘those who can lick can bite.’ Finally, we’ll discuss Charles J. Guiteau, assassin of President Garfield, who seemed to be the ‘licking’ sort before he ‘bit’ our poor president’s head off…metaphorically.”

I hope this was helpful!

[JjulianSr]

Lots of good advice here. +1 all around.

As a novice, you should be focusing on a specific formulation... I call them the basics. The speech has the components as listed above: Intro, Topic, Signpost, 3 points, Conclusion. You should be focused on 3 things: Organization, Fluency (smooth speaking and simple gestures), and Topic Development. It should get repetitious and boring after awhile. When that happens AND you're being successful (finishing in the top half of almost every panel), then you can start experimenting and finding your own style and expressing your creativity.

I teach my novices to use one of four primary organizational patterns (I call them "game plans") for their three points:

1) Past, Present, Future - the simplest place to start;
2) Pro, Con, Balance (a variation of this is "What a Liberal would think, what a conservative would think, what an independent would think, about topic X");
3) Expanding or Contracting Spheres (as the topic relates to me, my family, and my community... or the world view, the American view, and my local community's view)
4) Separate spheres of influence - how is the topic viewed by the poor, middle, and rich classes... or by high school students, college students, and adults... by boys, by girls, and why gender stereotyping is wrong in regards to this topic... etc.

By having a game plan (or a few) in your head before you walk into a round, you can shortcut the prep time considerably. Also, topic selection is less of a dilemma - you simply look at the three topics and choose the one that best fits the strategy in your head.

Avoid the pitfall of trying to memorize three random points and then using prep time to make them fit the topic. A lot of Impromptu-ers swear by this technique. But as a judge, it hurts to have to watch a speech that clearly is memorized but has nothing to do directly with the topic (too tangential or not on topic at all). And, it doesn't do anything for you. "Canned" Impromptu is like "Canned" food - it never quite tastes right, it's all the same, and it is bad for you. Instead, using a game plan is like using a recipe - you know in advance you'll be using beef, vegetables, and soup stock... but whether you make braised beef with roasted veggies or a rich beef stew is up to you. Just make it tasty!

Coach J

[DyBry13]

Wow, this is all really good advice that I have been wondering about as well, being that this year was the first time i did impromptu at a couple local tournaments. If only I could have read this earlier! Haha, thanks guys!