Check out Part One, where we cover the importance of telling stories, leveraging the rule of three and infusing figurative language in public speaking. Part Two covers the surprising effects of dissing yourself, the power of callbacks and repetitions and the Bookend Technique. Part Three looks at stage time, present tense and pop culture references. Here are three more and final tools good public speakers use to reduce stage fright, increase confidence, and improve delivery with more examples from Hasan Minhaj's Homecoming King.
1. Speak about what you know
As immigrants, we have all this random cultural information stored in our brains that we don’t always know what to do with. Unless it comes up organically in conversation, we don’t talk about these things with Westerners. Minhaj doesn’t hold back. Maybe it’s because he’s aiming to connect with the South Asian audience, maybe he strategically referenced these things because he’s trying to pound on the theme of a New Brown America, one in which all people are more familiar with our culture, or maybe because he’s following the old adage, “write what you know.”
If you’re not too familiar with the South Asian culture, you may have missed some of these references:
- Fair and lovely world
- The Toyota Camry cliche
- Log Kya Kahenge?
- Salwar Kameez
- Fob in a Frock
- Chappals
- Biryani
- Pakoras
- Keema Roti
- Jodha Akbar
- Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham
- ZeeTV
- Sand nigger
The key is the balance. If you have enough references that people get, then you can risk including references that you know, because the reward can be worth it. You could spark curiosity in those unfamiliar, and you could build greater rapport with others that get them.
2. Use the whole stage
The use of images, typography, animations, and lighting special effects elevates Homecoming King from a typical stand-up show to a stand-up concert. These effects establish mood and tone, as Minhaj alternates between the serious and the humorous. They add clarity, depth and whimsy to each of his stories. In all, they make the experience unforgettable for everyone live in the audience, and all of us viewing on Netflix.
He walks and talks and hops all over the stage, he makes contact with the audience, and he speaks directly into the camera, and in doing so, he commands attention and focus of everyone watching for all 70 minutes.
Netflix isn’t giving the rest of us the budget to afford the special effects, but we can all benefit from using more images, videos, and sounds while public speaking.
Side note: Check out TakeLessons' public speaking coaches if you need private tutoring on giving talks.
3. Takeaways & Call to Actions
Great talks provoke ideas, questions, and actions when you go home. Days, weeks, and months later, you might catch yourself remembering, quoting, or acting on something you heard from a speaker that struck you. In the weeks and months after Homecoming King debuted, people on the web buzzed about some highly resonating topics Minhaj introduced or reiterated upon:
The New Brown America.
Hasan Minhaj went 70 whole minutes without talking or joking in the stereotypical Indian accent.
He challenged the medical career conundrum that every single South Asian immigrant kid deals with growing up. He offered us a new generational mindset for us South Asian millennials and younger generations to adapt where we don’t have to whiten our names or our skin to determine our values, our careers, and our futures.
He proposed this notion of a new Brown America, one in which we accept and appreciate our Eastern culture, and bridge it with the Western world without apology. One where we don’t make choices based on Log Kya Kahenge (what will people say?), but based on our own choices and values.
The Audacity of Equality
The idea that children of immigrants and people of color in America shouldn’t be timid about basic rights. That we shouldn’t just shut up in the face of everyday bigotry and “pay the American Dream Tax,” but that instead, we should speak up for basic rights that all Americans are promised.
