If you’ve got the jitters and you wear glasses, sometimes not wearing them helps. Just make sure not to squint.
I was forced to do this for the first major role I had in a play b/c I didn’t have contacts at the time. I found it made it a lot easier when the crowd was a big technicolor blur. I could still see everything on stage, though.
Good Luck!
I’ll 10th the notion that you will need to slow yourself down when you talk. A 2.5 minute speech will be over before you can blink, no matter how slow you talk. Try to relax as much as possible. As others have said, smile a lot and don’t be a statue. Show some signs of life and the audience will respond in kind.
My only additional advice would be for you to try and picture yourself as an expert in whatever you are going to say. Pretend you are passing along a story and instead of memorizing a bunch of words, pass along the sequence of events.
Well, if you’re in a choir chances are you know a lot about posture, breathing correctly and generally using your voice. Those are good starting points for making a loud, clear presentation. Especially the breathing part - if you start feeling nervous take the time to breathe deeply and activate your abdominal muscles, just like when you’re singing. When I do this, the familiarity of something that I’ve rehearsed thousands of times and trained for helps me feel more in control.
Like everyone else said, just relax. Know what you’re saying. And try to enjoy it - it can really be a kick, just like singing/performing to an audience.
What about controlling a wavering voice? Sometimes it happens and sometimes it doesn’t. Anyone else experience this? One time I was giving a speech and the speaker just before me had this very problem. I was so interested in wanting to reassure her (by my thoughts) that there was nothing to be nervous about that I somehow gained the confidence to sustain a solid, even voice throughout my own speech.
However, on another occasion I was the one with the wavering voice. It was odd because I knew the subject matter very well, practiced the presentation, felt confident, and then was surprised to hear that very shakiness when the first words came out of my mouth. I was so self-conscious about the wavering that I became unable to think clearly and may have delivered a presentation on the not so eloquent side. In retrospect, the shakiness may have abated two minutes into the presentation, but how do I eliminate it altogether? Now my confidence is in the direction of, “I know I can deliver a speech well because I’ve done it before but what if happens again? What if the shakiness presents itself, I lose my train of thought, and ultimate look bad in front of people I want to impress?” :eek: Any ideas?
Like I said, learning to control the body parts you use to produce sound, primarily chest/abdominal muscles and throat (and ultimately all of the rest of your body), much like singers do, is the way to go. Wavering voice is usually caused by tensions in your throat that you’re not aware of and which in turn are caused by insecurity.
One approach is to try ro address the insecurity; a good way to do this is learning to speak loud and clear properly and know what it feels like. Get familiar with your voice. That way, you know exactly what you’re doing when presenting. By focusing on the tensions you can make them go away. After a while this should come completely naturally and you can focus on what you’re saying instead of how you’re doing it.
A sure way of getting wavering voice, cold sweat, memory lapse etc problems is by fearing them too much. It’s sometimes a question of self-fulfilling prophecies/fears - if you don’t have confidence in yourself and you’re sure you’re going to fail then that’s probably just what’s going to happen.
I agree with the suggestion to speak slowly.
Don’t count on your jokes- if any- being laughed at. That way your confidence won’t be undermined if no one gets it.
I always start with the words, “First, a few housekeeping matters…” Tell the audience where the toilet is, to turn off their mobile phones, that there is written material they can refer to, whatever. I tend to think it establishes your control, but more importantly helps you relax by extemporising about mundane stuff. If you aren’t the first speaker and can’t get away with this, then talk about the person who spoke just before you did - how you first heard of them, or met them, and that you are pleased to be in their fine company. Start off with something which will get you relaxed.
Take your keys and loose change out of your pocket. A lot of speakers nervously stick their hands in and start jingling, without knowing it.
I think it was Aristotle who suggested that you should divide your speech into three parts:
Tell them what you’re going to tell them
Tell it to them
Tell them what you told them.
Read up on Toastmasters. Check out there PDF file on their home page, Ten Tips for Successful Public Speaking.
Practice in front of “adult” friends, assuming you are younger. Friends your own age, unless they have had extensive public spoeaking won’t help you here.
You have your speech memorized. Good idea! You might want to have a couple of 3x5 cards with only dot point hightlights and not your complete speech. Otherwise, you will end up relying too much on your written words than what you have committed to memory.
Don’t recite your speech from memory verbatim. If you do, a distraction while you are giving it may break your train of thought and you will struggle trying to find your place again.
Do not talk to everyone in the audience. As you start your speech look at your audience and select at least three people in the front of the audience who are paying attention to you and providing subtle encouragement feedback to you. Talk to those three folks and occasionally extend your view throughout the audience. It’s much less daunting to speak to three people than 3,000 people, even though you really are doing the latter.
Make sure you never put your hands in your pockets, or clasp them in front of you or behind you. Subtle hand gestures to make a point are fine. Just keeping your arms relaxed at your sides is fine.
Make sure your speech has a defined beginning, middle and end. Slithy Tove’s three points are very important. Too many people just start speaking without a defined beginning, wander their thoughts too much and never really finish - they just stop.
Forget contrived jokes. It takes time, practice and experience to tell a joke and get it to work properly.
Before going on stage, take a spoonful of honey. It will prevent your throat from drying out.
Relax! The world is your stage – literally!
Don’t worry. You will have thousands silently cheering you on as you speak. That you manage to actually do it, and do it as best as you can will get you the “approval” you need.
When I did public speaking as a major part of my job, I used to give as many as a dozen speeches a day! I had several one-three minute speeches, three 30-minute speeches and a one-hour speech at the ready all the time. In those five years I gave more than 10,000 speeches to about 500,000 people. Even today I still get a bit nervous when I speak.
Good luck. 
Tells us how you did.