08/22/2026
FOUR PROVEN ACTING SKILLS
GREAT SPEAKERS USE
Tension Reduction
Vocal Authenticity
Vocal Clarity
Vivid Storytelling
Welcome to the first of the 4 Proven Acting Skills (Skills that move you towards becoming a great speaker and a terrific actor). I’ve spent a great deal of time researching the tools that are being offered speakers for greater satisfaction and results. And after 27 years of teaching actors, and coaching speakers, it is clear to me that acting skills provide the tools needed to each and every speaker wanting more. So let’s start with the first skill needed to become great speaker and that is Tension Reduction. I have three exercises I’d like to offer for Tension Reduction. And just so you aren’t overwhelmed with too much information, the other three covering Vocal Authenticity, Vocal Clarity and Vivid Storytelling will be arriving within the next few weeks, a week apart from each other. So many speakers today don’t take care of the vocal part of their speaking and once you realize how really important it is and take care of it, you will gain a confident and attractive voice.
To make sure you get everything you can from this series, so I suggest you find a quite place to focus on the work to more fully incorporate it into your practice. It will make a difference in your progress.
Focus and Concentration are essential to your speaking success. It keeps you present and if you don’t stay present with your audience, you lose them. Every actor is vitally aware of this fact. Actors practice many different exercises learning to stay in the moment. So if you focus on being present, not only will you more deeply embrace and understand this work, but you will receive the added benefit of learning to be an audience magnet.
So let’s get our focus and concentrate on a Tension exercise. Tension whether from anxiety, fear or just nerves is one of the biggest barriers to communication. Although, as you know, some excitement running through your body is necessary before speaking so you can be energized. But I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about the kind of tension where your body tightens and you end up looking stiff, making the audience uncomfortable. Your voice constricts and (becomes squeaky) – you strain making the listener stop listening. Tension causes us to lower the energy we need to connect to and influence and audience.
Some of you may not have anxiety at this level, but I bet, just like me, you some times feel the tension that gets in the way of a terrific presentation. So here is the exercise highly trained actors practice before going on stage.
It will ground you, open up your voice, embrace your audience and make you feel good. It’s breathing. Yes, breathing. I’m sure you’ve heard this before. But have you taken a close look and really incorporated it into your practice? I guarantee, as does every singer and great speaker, that it really will make a difference. Every actor always does a full warm up before going on which always includes a breathing exercise.
Here’s my favorite.
A deep breath is the best way of feeding your spirit and body and connecting to the audience. Are you ready? Do you have 5 minutes and a quite place to focus? Then let’s start. You’ll first have to stand up and place your feet parallel to your shoulders, knees slightly bent. Then you will take a deep breath in all four areas– your belly, your chest, your back and your diaphragm. To locate your diaphragm, place your hands on both sides of your waist just that two inch area above your belt and when you breathe in remember to push against your hands getting them to move (I make fists and put the tops of them against my waist).
You’re going to take a deep breath in through your nose– filling ALL FOUR AREAS like a balloon – for the count of FOUR and HOLD ON SEVEN and OUT ON EIGHT through your mouth. The 4/7/8 is a yoga meditative breath exercise allowing for deep calm and creativity. We’re going to do it three times.
I’m going to say AND IN TWO THREE FOUR. IN IS THE FIRST BREATH OF THE FOUR. So IT’S GOING TO BE - in through your nose into all four areas (belly, chest, back and diaphragm) and out through your mouth.
Here we go - AND in 234, hold 234567, out 2345678 and in 234, hold 234567 out 2345678 and in 234, hold 234567 out 2345678.
Do this acting warm up before you walk onto the stage to do your speech. Do it whenever you’re feeling stressed or anxious. Do it throughout the day to ground yourself and connect to your body and your energy. It also forces you to be PRESENT which is essential for every great speaker.
And as a bonus let me add that you can breathe from your chest or move to the next level and FOCUS ON THE breath from below your belly button and yet another level – FOCUS ON breathing from the center of the earth – breathe through your feet. More focus, energy and presence.
In my book, THE INVISIBLE SPEAKER, I go more deeply into the magic of breathing and on how many more levels it are available to change your speaking to so much more. I deal with energy flow, deeper connection to the audience, listening fully, adjusting to their needs, open to your and their vulnerability – a real give and take, connecting to your gift and more.
The second exercise addresses the tightness in your body. It’s simple but very effective.
Broadway actors get massages before a show to relax them. I can’t afford that but I can do the next best thing. This exercise before I go on. So if you would please stand up and remember to keep breathing – yes the deep breathing we were just doing – and raise your shoulders to your ears, keep breathing, past your ears, another inch, another inch, keep breathing and hold it there while continuing to breath. Hold it for a count of 1 2 3 4 5 and let go and now with a big sigh let go even more. Do this 3 times before going on and see the change it will make in your voice, your rhythm, your presence and more, much more.
Write to me a let me know how it has worked for you.
And here’s the third exercise and the easiest – LET GO OF YOUR JAW before you go on and stay that way for 20 seconds allowing the tension to leave your body. The theory is that when you let go of your jaw, the rest of your body follows. It works for me.
FEAR and EXCITEMENT LIVE IN THE SAME PLACE IN YOUR BODY but not in your head.
More information about tension, connection, energy, passion and your gift is included in THE INVISIBLE SPEAKER. You can purchase all three or individually order LOVING SPEAKING, THE SPEAKER PREPARES or THE INVISIBLE SPEAKER.
I WANT TO LEAVE YOU WITH ONE IMPORTANT MESSAGE AND THAT IS THAT INVOLVEMENT IS THE ENEMY OF TENSION.
VOCAL AUTHENTICITY
This is the second of the 4 Proven Acting Skills and it is the most subtle of the four. It is also difficult for some of my clients to wrap their heads around. It can require quite a bit of practice. And for some of you this one is a cinch. When I first started acting, I had my “Acting Voice”, which is similar to the “Speaking Voice” I discuss here. Ah, the speaking voice…
Do you know this speaker? “Good evening. I’m going to tell you all about how you can market your business in a more efficient and profit producing way. The three major elements to this program are your elevator speech, the social media and knowing your niche”.
Their voice is not connected to their body. They drone on. They’re boring. This is the speaker everyone dreads and I’m hearing about them much too often. This voice comes from habit and sometimes from fear. Some speakers (and actors too) feel that if they do their idea of the ideal speaker and imitate what they have heard great speakers do, it will make them sound good. I understand that it is scary being open and somewhat vulnerable, and honest. And yet that is the most appealing person to be – YOU. The most interesting person is YOU not your idea of you. The authentic you. You have to STOP watching, checking, judging, directing and anticipating yourself while you are speaking.
The authentic you is what the audience wants. They won’t trust your message until they trust you and they won’t trust you unless you are authentic. So you have to trust that you’re enough. Once it happens you will feel an ease and a freedom that will surprise you. It’s what I get told by every actor who breaks through this level. There is a story about Robert Redford when he was at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, my alma mater. He finally GOT IT and went running through the halls yelling it at the top of his voice. What he GOT was that he let go of watching himself. There is a specific exercise in LOVING SPEAKING that you can do that will make it all clear in a very real and organic way but the simple answer is to stay present with your audience and stop watching yourself.
Another obstacle to authentic speaking is that people write their speeches and then read them and that’s exactly what it sounds like – someone reading a speech they wrote. It’s not the way they speak and so they don’t really connecting to the audience. And the audience recognizes this disconnect.
So how do you get to speak authentically in front of a group of people? Practice at Toastmasters? I suppose you could do that and it will take you part of the way. Unfortunately they don’t have the skills for training speakers beyond pointing out what should be done or not done. They don’t know how it can be done.
Imagine talking to a friend. It is the easiest way I’ve learned to be authentic as an actor, especially in TV where the camera picks up everything and I mean everything. So I suggest you practice by having a conversation with your friend and taping it and writing it out augmenting it with whatever small important parts you missed. Then read your speech. Tape the reading of the speech as well. Now listen to the taped conversation with your friend and the speech your read. Hear the difference? One has you connected to your body. It’s got its own authentic rhythm and pace. It’s real. The other sounds like you’re reading.
Have that conversation with a friend explaining everything about your product or service in your speech. Better yet, have your friend interview you and make it casual. And if you can’t find someone to do it with you, do it yourself. Start by recording your speech the way you would if you told a friend about your topic – really, drop the technical stuff, just talk like yourself.
“I have worked with so many actors and I’ve found it’s easy for me to adjust their energy and connection to the material, fellow actor or audience. The results have always been dramatic, no pun intended. So the same goes for speakers. A small adjustment in their presentation makes a world of difference and I have a lot of skills and exercises that have worked to make this happen.”
You don’t need to memorize your speech – just write the key words down and practice with that. It will make it sound more authentic. Although I know of one great speaker who memorizes his speech, and then he forgets it. He talks in his own words with his own voice. So the lesson really is it has to be of the moment and real and conversational and authentic.
Practice all the time. If you do it 30 times before your speech, it will take care of itself. And practice visualizing being in front of that audience when you’re doing it. Do it to your dog or your cat. DON’T DO IT IN THE MIRROR! You don’t want to watch yourself - ever..
There is more information on the three cd series THE INVISIBLE SPEAKER DVD SERIES and in particular the 2nd cd A SPEAKER PREPARES. But before I sign off let me remind you that involvement is not only the enemy of tension but the core of true connection. Get involved with your message and your audience and take the attention off of yourself.
More information and practices are available in A SPEAKER PREPARES, one of the 3 CD set available for purchase.
Please let me know if you have questions.
VIVID STORYTELLING
Kushner, Wilson EXAMPLE
OPB hosts
Every speaker knows that the story is the most important part of the speech. The audience will always walk away remembering the story – much much more readily than the facts and figures. So the story has to do two things - support your main theme and be memorable. A memorable story has a number of components – all of which I get into in detail in the THE INVISIBLE SPEAKER DVD SERIES. In particular the third one (same name as the series) THE INVISIBLE SPEAKER. The one major component I’m going to address in this audio is to make sure that the audience sees what you are talking about. In fact, I want them to smell, taste, touch, and hear what you are talking about but I’ll settle for seeing it.
Actors all study Sense Memory. It’s a basic acting tool. I go into detail with Sense Memory Training in THE INVISIBLE SPEAKER. Today I’m going to give you a quick summary of that particular exercise.
Actors know that if they see it so will the audience. But you can’t be sloppy. You need to understand that details are extremely important. Acting is simple, specific, personal, clear, important and immediate. Here I want to emphasize specific and clear. The Sense Memory exercise requires again that you find a quiet place to focus and concentrate on the task. I will be talking you through it so you don’t have to look down and read instructions, just listen to me. I’m going to keep it short but you should know that in the Actors Studio in New York this exercise can take up to three hours. That’s the kind of focus, concentration, detail and exploration that brings the best results.
I’m going to outline some information before we get started and if you want (and I suggest you do) read the information one more time just to get clarity. Let’s pretend that your story involves a place, a person and a thing.
My grandmother’s house was located in the middle of nowhere in Texas. One summer I was visiting her. Her house was poor and she did her best to keep it clean. Four of my cousins had joined me as they did most summers. We were all 10 to 12 years old. One day a wind storm was coming up and we were told it was going to be bad and that her tin roof might be blown off. She instructed us to hold on to the roof while the storm came through. The roof started shaking soon after.
If this was the beginning of your story, I would suggest you write down what your grandmother looked like, sounded like, and felt like. What did her food smell and taste like. What was the hot summer day like, the sound of the tin roof in the wind, and on and on. I would ask you to focus on all your senses.
Write it out in detail. This means pages and pages of details about everything.
My grandmother was short and wide. She had a smiled that had a few teeth missing and she smiled often because she was always happy. She was always in the kitchen with a yellow stained apron. On her feet were brown worn shoes with broken laces. Her hair had streaks of white, but it was mostly black. When she hugged you she smelled of onions and she would squeeze so hard you couldn’t breathe.
When you do this you will not need to describe your grandmother in this detail. You will just need to say “my grandmother” and you will be there with her and with all that is real surrounding you and react to it in a way that makes it clear to the audience how you feel about her.
If you see it, so will the audience.
You must do this with every element of your story IN DETAIL. PAGES AND PAGES. Then when you say “tin roof” or “grandmother” or “Texas”, you will have a detailed picture arise that will fill your imagination with the world you’re talking about and it will be seen by the audience. You will no longer be focusing on yourself but on the world you are describing.
Try it. Let me know. It’s never failed me.
VOCAL CLARITY
Actors understand the importance of their voice and yet I find speakers more often than not, taking it for granted. They don’t realize that they need to be exercising this important instrument regularly. Lawrence Olivia would work his voice daily, knowing it was his livelihood. Isn’t it yours? When Ralph Finnes realizes he’s going to play Hamlet, he starts months in advance working on his voice. He wants variety, control, depth and richness, vocal muscle, staying power and so much more. Great Speakers need to realize like actors do that their instrument – their body and voice – need careful, constant and tender attention.
The skill I’ll be touching on involves Tongue Twisters. And no it’s not just being able to clearly and quickly pronounce words - It’s so much more than that. If you include breath and giving each word its proper value, you will be adding to the clarity of your voice and your message. It is important to remember that the muscles in your face and the muscle that is your tongue need a work out before you go on and that they need constant attention with regular practice.
To sit in solemn silence
On a dull dark dock
In a pestilential prison
With a life long lock
Awaiting the sensation
Of a short sharp shock
With a cheap and chippy chopper
On a big black bock
You’re going to perform a number of vocal acrobatics on these words.
But first let’s open our voice – Yawn and say AHHH at the top of that yawn and realize what an open throat feels like.
AND remember to support your voice with your breath. Speak on your breath. That means take a deep breath (see Tension Reduction – the first audio lesson) and before you start speaking make sure your words surf on the steady release of the and take a breath as soon as you need it. Don’t wait to run out of air.
Read the tongue twister over a number of times.
The first part is to work on over articulating like this.
Practice overarticulaton of a few days
�THEN INCLUDE
Giving value to each word. Don’t smush words together. And make sure you say the whole word from beginning to end like this…
SO FOR THE NEXT FEW DAYS OVER ARTICULATE AND GIVE VALUE TO EACH WORD.
AFTER THAT
Read out loud every night. Find a book you like and read for clarity and crispness and respect for each word. In A SPEAKER PREPARES I focus further pace, pitch, power, pauses and on the feel of the words in your mouth and listening to the music of the phrases and more. But for now this kind of clarity will put you ahead of most speakers you have not exercised their lips and tongue to be crisp, clear and understood.
If you have questions please contact me.
If you’ve found value with the exercises in this audio series, please consider the THE INVISIBLE SPEAKER DVD SERIES.
IN LOVING SPEAKING I talk about your purpose, the obstacles that get in your way and the skills needed to get past them.
