“You’re out!” shouts Simon at the contestants. They choke back the tears and move off the stage.” It’s the latest craze in reality TV: The Exceptional Emcee. You walk on as the next contestant, face to face with entrepreneur and personality extraordinaire Simon Cowell. How will he judge your emcee performance? Will he pulverize you with thumbs down or praise you with thumbs up?
Even though the roles of speaker and emcee are different, the speaking skills are the same. As speaker you are the star in the spotlight. As an emcee, you put the spotlight on the other speakers. As a speaker, preparation is a key ingredient to your speaking success. As an emcee, you are a key ingredient to the success of the entire event.
It’s shocking how many people fail to appreciate the presentation skills and prep time required to be a top-notch emcee. If you’re one of those dozers who equate less speaking time with less prep time then, you are in need of ‘wake-up’ whack!
Thumbs down to the gal who emceed the company’s year-end celebration! As a stand-alone speaker, I’d give you a damned good rating, but as an emcee you are strictly amateur. You not only kept shuffling your papers on the lectern in view of the audience, but you did so right beside the microphone for all of us to hear.
As for eye contact, you made more eye contact with your notes than you did with the rest of us sitting in front of you. And where were your meeting manners? Several times you left the stage and all we saw was an empty space.
Thumbs down to the fellow who was master of ceremonies at a friend’s wedding! You’re definitely a handsome dude with a fabulous voice, but where did you get the idea that you were there as entertainment, tossing the microphone about and telling jokes that should have died a merciful death years ago?
My final thumbs down goes to the emcee at a highly touted awards evening! While we enjoyed hearing the story of how you met our distinguished award recipient, we didn’t expect your introduction to be as long as the recipient’s thank you speech. And, when it came to leading the applause, you didn’t. The audience had to do it for you. Still, everyone seemed to love your humor, although they stopped laughing when the program mushroomed into overtime.
A Simon-sized thumbs up goes to the emcee who understands that the position of being an emcee is one of the most important functions on any program, and that presentation skills are a major part of that performance. When you are a prepared and practiced emcee, your notes receive only a periodic glance: eyes are directed to those sitting in the audience.
Should an unexpected program glitch occur, the audience will never suspect a thing as you move the program smoothly forward, segueing from one presenter to the next; on track and on time from start to finish.
The Academy Awards have gone through countless hosts for their awards shows and some of the biggest names bombed because being an emcee requires a different type of performance. As the master of ceremonies, you are the golden thread that ties everything together.
The scathing and self-styled critic Simon Cowell once told a wannabe singer, “If your lifeguard duties were as good as your singing, a lot of people would be drowning.” Simon Cowell is watching. Will he give you a thumbs down? Or a thumbs up and crown you as the next exceptional emcee?