I said 7. I’m OK with smaller groups, and I suppose I’d do OK with a packed auditorium. But I need to feel really prepared. I don’t do off-the-cuff well, but when I know my material, I think I come off as a pro.
I’ll never know, tho. There aren’t that many people in the world interested in anything I have to say. 
One of my Dad’s friends was a professional organist. When I was just starting out as a lawyer he asked me if I was nervous in court. I said I always was, but I always got through it and enjoyed it.
He laughed and said that after 40 years, he was still always nervous before starting, even just as an organist in his church, a steady gig. «If you’re not nervous, it means you don’t realise just how badly it can go wrong!»
He added that if if he ever stopped being nervous, he would stop performing, because it would mean that he didn’t care any more about his performance.
Certainly made sense to me then, and even more now.
Yeah, I loathe small talk with one person. 2-5 people is brutal, because I can’t manage 2-5 conversations or manage 2-5 people talking in one conversation. But a presentation before hundreds is easy-peasy.
That’s why I went with 10. As a barrister, I like going to court and get worried if I don’t have anything on the horizon. Sitting in court, waiting for the learned friends to finish their bits, really irks me. I want to be up there, dammit! 
9 for me. I would have said 10, but there are those initial butterflies. I’ve given many, many presentations.
For some reason I’ve never been nervous about speaking to a group of any size, whether friends, co-workers, strangers, random collections of dogs, seagulls, cattle, etc. Don’t know why.
I absolutely loathe it. I’m not incapable of public speaking: I’ve done it any number of times, not to thousands but to hundreds at least, and it’s gone just fine. People laughed politely at my jokes and mostly didn’t fall asleep from the material. Knowing the material certainly helps in having an effective presentation.
But comfort? No; I’d rather have the stomach flu. One problem is that I am constitutionally incapable of viewing a crowd as a crowd instead of a collection of individuals. And I know there are a few individuals out there that think my presentation is shit, and that I’m a moron, and are bored to tears. I know this because probably 30% of presentations that I’m an audience member of, I think the presentation is shit.
And they’re the ones whose opinion I care most about, because the rest are just nodding along like dipshits and going with the flow. They’d be nodding along even even I said complete nonsense. It’s the critical ones I care about. I can’t just pretend they don’t exist.
Another aspect I hate is that I find myself going into kind of an autopilot mode while doing it. Aside from sensing the vibe of the audience, there’s no actual feedback, so it’s just me shouting into the wilderness. There isn’t any *thought *required, so my consciousness decides to take a little nap. I can present for an hour and remember almost nothing afterward. It’s really unpleasant. There’s a mild sense of “snapping out of it” after.
I do one-on-one interviews all the time; they’re mildly annoying, but I’m as comfortable with those as anything. Small talk: also annoying, but only uncomfortable in mixed company.
Recently I was on jury duty, and the prosecution spent several minutes interviewing me. Maybe 100 people in the room, all strangers and a number of “serious” people. But that actually didn’t bother me at all, because it was really a one-on-one conversation with a person asking me interesting questions, but that happened to be overheard by a number of others. If instead I had to give a little mini-presentation in front of the same crowd? Ugh.
Millions of people suffer loneliness. I have unlearned the art of speaking.
Born in 1970.
In 1970-'71, I learned to talk in Russian.
In 1980-'83 took English as second language. By 1981, knew some insults in English.
In 1983-'84 learned speaking English in USA.
In 2005-2020 unlearned to speak due to loneliness.
My comfort is a 5.49 so I rounded down to 5.
Once upon a time I would have said 2 - I am an introvert, after all. But then I got a promotion and training people became one of my tasks. For the first six weeks I felt like throwing up before every training. And then I got over it. It’s fine now. I have never had to do any public speaking in front of more than a hundred people, however.
I do it a lot, I’m pretty good at it. Nowhere near great, but pretty good. Audiences have ranged from a few dozen to a few hundred. I rated myself as an ‘8’.
I teach for a living. My classes are 22-35, but I’ve had lecture halls of 500 before. Generally I’m better with smaller groups but I prefer them to be bigger. The bigger the better, really.
Anytime, anyplace. I regularly get asked to speak before groups as large of several thousand. I’ve delivered speeches at industry conference and political rallies.
Hell, at this point I barely prepare if it’s a subject I know well.
I’ve been to candidate school AND clown school. You’d be amazed how similar the two can be.
I delivered a speech to a group last Wednesday via Discord, somehow. It was schedule and, well, you know. So the organizer asked if I’d take a shot at that and then answer questions. No worries. I can hold an audience.
I love public speaking. 10 all the way. It’s literally the thing I am best at. Like Jonathan, I can fire off a really good speech off the cuff.
This isn’t my best speech but it’s the only speech I have on Youtube.
[quote=“RickJay, post:33, topic:853727”]
I love public speaking. 10 all the way. It’s literally the thing I am best at. Like Jonathan, I can fire off a really good speech off the cuff.
This isn’t my best speech but it’s the only speech I have on Youtube.
[/QUOTE] Bravo! That was great!Being autistic spectrum, it’s an odd area. Normally, I won’t open my mouth if there is someone in the room I don’t know. But people told me I could make a living talking in radio/tv, and sure enough, there was a payday in it. As long as I could read a script and not see my audience.
The variance came when I had a chance to teach English to adults, and I went for it… Strangely, I felt immediately comfortable with my class, and it was the most enjoyable job I ever had. Days off, I looked forward to getting back in front of my class. But that’s an anomaly, and I still avoid attention.
[quote=“RickJay, post:33, topic:853727”]
I love public speaking. 10 all the way. It’s literally the thing I am best at. Like Jonathan, I can fire off a really good speech off the cuff.
This isn’t my best speech but it’s the only speech I have on Youtube.
[/QUOTE] Nice!Given the option, I’d rather not do it. But if I do have to do it I can handle the nerves and do it okay. I chose 8.
When I was young I was extremely shy and nervous about speaking in public, and that still manifests in a lot of ways occasionally, mostly being the quiet one in a group setting. But at High School we had to do Speech competition every year and I kept getting chosen to represent my class, eventually winning the School Cup one year, and through that I gained a lot of confidence with it.
Also I acted on stage in Community Theatre for several years during my 20s and that helped a lot, though having six weeks of rehearsals each time and other people on stage with me helped there.
Nice options with nice questions
[quote=“RickJay, post:33, topic:853727”]
I love public speaking. 10 all the way. It’s literally the thing I am best at. Like Jonathan, I can fire off a really good speech off the cuff.
This isn’t my best speech but it’s the only speech I have on Youtube.
[/QUOTE]Loved it!!!
I give myself a ten. I’m not going to say I’m a great public speaker, but it’s certainly not something that bothers me and I enjoy doing it. As others have said, I’d much rather do public speaking than small talk about the weather or football with someone I don’t know.
I thought public speaking was the number one fear, what’s with all the hams on the Dope?