I’ve been in many plays and was often the designated spokesman for the library at large events when I worked for smaller colleges. The largest audience I’ve ever addressed is probably about 2,000 at a graduation (though that was a very brief 2 minute introduction of a main speaker). I teach about 20 classes per month, the majority of them the first and last time I’ll speak to them as a class so I’ve got to “get 'em got now” (to quote my father).
I have the opposite of stage fright. Speaking in front of dozens or hundreds of people hardly bothers me at all, and if I ever make them laugh then God help who’s following me because I’ll be there all day. (One of my favorite possessions is a letter from an ultra respected college professor/author that some Dopers have probably heard of who said “You are the only person on Earth capable of making me wipe tears of laughter from my eyes at a librarian’s convention!”; I wasn’t laughing myself when told I couldn’t use it for tenure, but c’est la vie.)
On the other hand, if I have to address one to three total strangers, I’ll freeze like some people do when facing one to three hundred. I can’t stand it. I can feel comfortable with a crowd, I can feel comfortable with a friend I’ve known for a long time, but intimate environment with a stranger- hate it hate it hate it.
I’ve played for two or three small groups as part of a band, but nothing in a long time. I wrote and acted in some radio comedy during my last semester in college. I have no idea if anyone heard it, but that was a lot of fun. Lately I’ve been doing standup comedy once a month at open mic nights, and one day I may do some karaoke. Maybe my most unique public experience was a night of “movieoke,” wherein I played a scene from The Big Lebowski in Spanish.
I’m a dancer, so i’ve been onstage loads of times in front of people. It used to be just whatever parents and friends came to the recitals, but then I joined a small company and we tour a bit and perform for people who are there to see performers, not children.
Our biggest gig so far was in Disney World. It was awesome- We do a half-hour set and I had three solos- two singing and one dancing. I was the only girl who had a dance solo and the only person with two songs. We drew a gigantic crowd and had people from all over asking us if we’d be coming to their city or if we’d be willing to.
Aside from that, I did acting competitions throughout elementary school (I was the only one from the school ever to win, and so far I still am.) and tons of community theatre. Right now I’m in rehearsal for Sweet Charity. I play Charity.
I sing at weddings. That’s not terribly public, but I do get paid for it. And I’m a cantor at church.
I do choir, which includes performance ad competitions.
I’ve done lots of announcing for various things. I’m a lector at church and at school, I did announcements in grade school and narrated plays, pageants, and prayer services, and I get to do any extra announcements at performances.
I want to do it for the rest of my life. I want to be a ballerina or an actress when I’m grown. I know very few people get to do it, and I know you have to generally be either talented, beautiful, or well-connected, but there’s still a chance for me.
Yers, almost every day. I do the of-site presentations and on-site tours at our zoo. I’ve stood up in front of groups ranging from half a dozen to several hundred people, showing and talking about the animals. It’s a hoot! I love it.
I used to be on my church Drama Team too, doing short playlets, the Christmas productions, etc.
Finally, I’ve been interviewed on TV, kind of a "Man on the Street " thing when the new Skytrain extension opened and I’ve been in the paper when I got a poem in Tony Ebert’s old column and during a protest. I’ve also had a few letters to the Editor published.
I’ve done live chess commentary, which is both technically difficult (first work out what the grandmasters are doing, then explain it to club players) and naturally unscripted. :eek:
I did a live press conference and a short spot on TV (both about chess).
I’ve busked (badly) on the pub piano, bluffed my way through a couple of church services on the organ, sung (a whole lot better) in front of many audiences (including karaoke), have something upwards of a dozen stage shows behind me almost invariably as a major principal, have given speeches as bridegroom, as best man, and as son-in-law at a ruby wedding celebration, and have done maybe twenty five-minute spots at the family service in church, usually without notes.
But the oddest has to be standing in for the preacher at a wedding. Owing to a delay over divorce papers, the actual wedding couldn’t go ahead, but they had guests, the hall, the caterers and everything else so they had to give them something so everyone could go home happy. So with great emphasis on the unofficial nature of the proceedings, we did the best we could, with your humble obedient servant presiding. (Sadly it lasted about three years, but I told the bride I didn’t do refunds.)
a few years back, I was active in a local group called Pet-A-Pup. It was a therapy dog group, and we took out dogs to local nursing homes, hospitals and schools for visits and demonstrations. I spoke several times to groupls of school kids on dog training and care, and gave breed demos, telling them all about Gordon Setters.
I also went with this group to a nursing home caretaker’s convention in Indianapolis to speak publically about the benefits of having therapy dogs visiting the nursing home. I was scared shitless !
I caught the acting bug at 11, after securing the lead in a school nativity play. I joined a local youth theatre, and performed in several productions with them till about 16, when I got a couple of professional roles with Northern Stage (in the chorus, mainly, though I did get the odd speaking part). I then left to study drama at uni, and though that helped me realise I was never going to have the guts to try and make a living from performing, I’ve kept my hand in with a number of fringe companies. In fact, tonight is the opening night of my current production - I play Anne Hathaway in a new comedy about Shakespeare’s work and the “lives” of his characters. Very excited!
Violin recitals when I was a little girl. I remember we had bright red jumpers with blue calico appliques of violins on the front. Very cute. We played for the Gov of Florida once.
When I was about six or seven I read “Crictor” to be recorded for a filmstrip of the book. They had the filmstrip, they didn’t have the narration, and apparently my little voice was cute enough (and I was good enough at reading) that they wanted me to do it. I was paid in a Nutcracker Suite album – real album! Real vinyl! I might still have it somewhere.
I was on public access TV for my high school’s show for about a year. It was sort of fun, but most of my job was interviewing various teachers/coaches/etc. “So, you’re our basketball coach. What exactly do you do?” :rolleyes:
I’ve taught at several colleges–mostly specialized courses with <50 students per class, although I lectured at Berkeley once and had it broadcast on the M-Bone.
I emcee several events per year. Usually audiences of 50 to 200.
I’ve put on a slew of seminars, participated in panel discussions, and given educational talks with audiences up to 600 or so.
I played guitar at a friend’s wedding, but I won’t be doing that again. Played piano at a bar once–that was fun. Sang in a choir for a year or so.
Oh, and here’s the big one: I post to a message board with 58,341 members!
Member of a charity where I was expected to perform a funny skit as part of the election campaign to take an seat on the Board of Directors. I wrote and performed several skits that got good reviews and laughs with an audieance of about 100. I also performed in other people’s skits to help them out when they ran for office.
Karaoke bars
Being an officer or director of various groups, every time I chime in with my thoughts at a meeting, I guess I am speaking in public. Depending on the group, the audiences can vary from about 10 people to 100.
Two or three times a year I have to present plan amendments in front of the Local Planning Agency and/or the Board of County Commissioners. Pretty dry stuff, but it gets me on the local version of c-span for five minutes.
I was a radio DJ on a volunteer basis for our college radio station.
One day I just realized I fucking hated sitting in a little tiny room for three hours on end, waiting for the phone to ring, and being involved with the annoying snobs that infiltrate college radio.
I realized just how one way the interaction is; good DJ’s make it sound like they’re connecting to you and that they’re excited and interested and always sound like they care about what they’re playing, but without feedback, that was just impossible for me.
Now I still go into the stacks to burn CD’s but I’ve stopped doing any more than the bare minimum for that privelege.
fishbicycle, the major part of it is debating, which is very formalized and has whole sets of rules that other people could elaborate much better than I. There are other forensics events that are for individuals, including original oratory (write your own speech and deliver it), drama (perform all the parts in a short dramatic scene), dramatic reading (read a short story or essay written by someone else.) At our school it was not a class, but an extracurricular. You spent time preparing your stuff, then the whole team would travel to compete with other schools’ teams.
