Cristi, being the bass player, I could always get away with appearing a bit standoffish. 
In a band I was in about 10 years ago, I actually split the lead singing duties with someone else in the band. I have videotapes of gigs, and you can just see the flop sweat rolling down my face. In the last band I was in, I sang backup vocals with a few harmony lead vocal duties.
Usually, I avoided getting too shaken up by not making eye contact with the audience and looking over their heads; or by pulling the “shoegazer” band trick and looking at my hands or feet while I played. Like I said, as a bass player, I could get away with it.
I usually get the willies before I have to speak in front of a class or crowd, but I’ve never freaked or bailed out. I don’t understand it : I’m usually pretty shy, especially in front of older people. But I think being funny has something to do with it.
When I’m speaking in public, I’m twisting my hands and shifting from side to side with nerves, but I compensate by cracking jokes, whether or not they’re on my cue cards. I can’t help it, it’s automatic - I guess it’s some sort of defense mechanism. I just hope I don’t ever have to give a speech about AIDS victims or something. That could get ugly.
It works, though. People laugh, which helps me to keep going through the speech. Afterward, people are like, “That was a great speech.” Correction : it was a mediocre speech with terrible delivery; you just liked my jokes. But thanks.
Guys, if you want to get better at public speaking, join an improv club/team! You don’t have to be alone on the ice at first if you don’t want to. It’s fun, exhilerating, totally rewarding in all walks of life. It will boost your confidence and make public speaking easier, garanteed.
Another suggestion for people who would like to conquer their fear of speaking: www.toastmasters.org It’s an international organization of clubs dedicated to public speaking, there’s a few thousand clubs worldwide so there’s bound to be one near you.
I’ve never been afraid of public speaking, so I joined more to practice my skills than get over my fear, but our club has a broad mix of backgrounds. Weekly meetings include a few formal speeches from members, formal critique and evaluation and some informal impromptu speaking.
We have one member of our club who has somewhat limited english and a very heavy accent. When we do impromptu speaking, each person speaks for a minute. In that time, he sometimes barely manages to get 20 words out amidst the umms and aaahs. I’ve never been so thrilled as when he stood up in front of the group last week and gave his first formal speech. I can’t even begin to comprehend how much time he must have spent preparing and rehearsing that speech. It was not perfect, it wasn’t even very good, but he rarely stumbled or searched for words and his ideas were understandable. When he finished, the applause from the room went on for minutes, as everyone recognized the accomplishment it was.
If you’re afraid to speak in public, an atmosphere like that - full of people who’ve been where you are and understand what it’s like, and want you to succeed - is a great place to start. You have a comfortable familiar audience to practice in front of, and a set of structured materials to guide you through the process. As you get better and more confident there are lots of opportunities to get out and speak to different and larger audiences. I am, of course, incredibly biased because I am a member, but I think it’s a great program.
IBM required that we take a public speaking course (as part of the hideous Stepford Secretarial Training Program…yes, master…). It was a great course! People who looked like they might hyperventilate were just fine by the end of the week! I recommend a course like it to anyone who wants to overcome their fear of public speaking.
I’ve never had a problem with public speaking, no stage fright, no butterflies really. If anything I just get a little excited about giving a new speech to an audience. I still remember my first ever speech to. It was for my 8th grade history class. We were allowed to use notes but I utterly failed to prepare the night before and ended up doing three minutes of improv on the battle of Bunker/Breed’s Hill 
When I finished most of the class was staring at me with slack-jawed amazement and I got a standing ovation. To this day I refuse to use speaking notes for any speech less than 30 minutes. In fact I’ve gotten so used to speaking without them that on the occaisons I’ve been forced to use them
because of some inane class requirment I bring them with me and ignore them, they usually end up folded and in my pocket halfway through since I’ll fidget if I have anything in my hands. Instead I memorize what would be my notes so I remember my subject matter and the order I want to give it in. For the most part I end up improvising a good part of the speech when I’m up there, depending on how I’m doing for time and how the audience is reacting etc…
I’ve found few things as gratifying as standing up in front of an audience watching as they follow my every word and then applaud with genuine enthusiasm when I’m done. Quite a rush.
Is there a GQ here? I think the thread has been resurrected into the wrong forum.
Bumping a 3- or 4-year old thread can be pretty confusing. Also, this isn’t really a GQ. I’ll close this thread and let someone start a new thread in MPSIMS if they like.
bibliophage
moderator GQ