Comments on: Most Embarrassing Moments on Stage

By: Naomi

Naomi — Sat, 26 Jul 2014 10:40:26 +0000

Hi Nicole,

There are some seriously great laughs here…

But it does make me slightly more nervous to get on stage now!

Naomi

By: Mike Darling

Mike Darling — Sat, 12 Jul 2014 23:47:12 +0000

Yes I am getting out front with public speaking. I think that one of the best things I have done to get out from behind the computer and stand in front of people and speak, is to volunteer to be at first a co-organizer at a Meetup group – the Bend Web Marketing meetup group. And several months later, the organizer, who was getting ready to take maternity leave, asked if I would take over as the organizer.

Gulp! I said yes!

And it has caused me to stretch and grow. I have to find speakers. Line them up and follow up. And on meetup nights, introduce them, wrap things up, and chair the Q&A sessions that always happen at the end.

And then Sheppard the group over to a pub across the street for a Meeting After the Meeting.

Some of my biggest growth has occurred in just trying to remember names… and walk up to people and shake their hand, and make them feel welcome to the meetup group. It is not about me. It is about people.

Mike Darling

By: Pat Iyer

Pat Iyer — Thu, 10 Jul 2014 03:28:36 +0000

At the National Speakers Association Annual Conference last week in San Diego I heard some stories of unexpected nightmarish events that occurred to speakers. These are some of the things that happened to other people:

There was a sudden loss of power in the ballroom. The speaker finished his program in the dark.
The fire alarm went off; the speaker knew how to get everyone out of the ballroom and finished his program outside.
The event planner arranged for an elephant to come onto the stage. The elephant defecated and urinated and then stomped his feet, spraying everyone in the first three rows.
The speaker at the end of the head table moved his chair too far to the left of the riser, and tipped off the riser. As he tipped over, he grabbed the table cloth, which pulled everyone’s meals off the table. The speakers behind the table instinctively moved their chairs away from the table. All of them fell off the back of the riser, and disappeared from view.
At a farm equipment convention, the speaker was brought to the stage by a huge tractor, which took all of the attention away from him and focused it on the equipment.
The CEO announced to the audience of employees that he had sold the company, and most of the employees would be laid off. Then he introduced the speaker and asked the employees to pay attention to him.
The speaker tripped coming off the stage and fell into George W. Bush. The Secret Service agents went wild.
A large belligerent intoxicated man stumbled into a program and began heckling the speaker. The speaker asked for 8 volunteers who were large men. When the 8 men stood up, he asked them to surround the heckler and escort him to the lobby.

By: Kaloyan Banev

Kaloyan Banev — Wed, 23 Apr 2014 06:48:31 +0000

Glitches and embarrasing moments will always occure when you are not prepared. After all public speaking isn’t a rocket science, but not everybody can do it.

By: Tawnya Sutherland

Tawnya Sutherland — Fri, 04 Apr 2014 01:46:35 +0000

My most embarrassing moment (well at least to me as we are always harder on ourselves than we should be) was the time I had to speak to a group of VAs with a swollen face and stuffed full of tiring antihistamines (eyes almost closed, red rash on face and sniffy nose with cranky voice) trying to bandaid quickly my allergic reaction. I was in fine shape until I got off the airplane and smelled that North Carolina air LOL! Funny thing was that I was the only one worried about my looks, everyone else was thankful I hadn’t cancelled my seminar even though I was so sick and very caring. In the end I made my way through it and taught an informative seminar even though I had a few blank drugged moments which I easily blamed on the drugs I’d taken an hour earlier LOL! I find that acknowledging the embarrassment and somehow making a joke out of it to bring smiles to the audience is always a good solution 🙂

By: Rhonda

Rhonda — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 22:55:04 +0000

What a fun topic! I loved all the stories shared… the fact is, we’re just human, we all make blunders…and like Nicole, I have a bundle of them too. 🙂

By: Cathy Stucker

Cathy Stucker — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 21:42:44 +0000

There have been lots of technical glitches (e.g., mic not working, projector bulb exploding–yes, exploding, and more) but I don’t consider those particularly embarrassing, just annoying. And I wasn’t embarrassed the time that I was presenting in a room on the second floor of a hotel that had a swimming pool located on the third floor of the hotel–at least, it was on the third floor until about halfway through my workshop.

No, my most embarrassing moment on stage was when I was in Las Vegas and could not manage to pronounce “Nevada” correctly. Nevada, Nevada, tomato, tomato, let’s call the whole thing off. Someone in the audience actually corrected me, but I still couldn’t get it right. I’m not alone in this as lots of people mispronounce the name of their state, but Nevadans are rightly annoyed by it.

Maybe I’ll just stick to speaking here in Texas.

By: Nicole

Nicole — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 21:16:42 +0000

In reply to Jo Dodds. I have done that with the "Online Success Cast". Online Sex Cast? NOOOOOOOOOO... lol.

By: Jo Dodds

Jo Dodds — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 20:31:02 +0000

In reply to Nicole. Glad it's not just me then ;-)

By: Jo Dodds

Jo Dodds — Thu, 03 Apr 2014 19:50:32 +0000

I work with the Engage for Success movement in the UK around employee engagement and at the first big meeting I spoke at I managed to trip over my words and say ‘Engage for Sex’ in front of 100 people 😉