Once in a while, I get to see a real pro at work, and it helps makes up for all the painful speeches I’ve had to sit through.  Benjamin Zander’s 20 minutes on TED.com demonstrates how good a public speech can be when you do everything right. (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/benjamin_zander_on_music_and_passion.html)

Or almost everything.  He does start off with a lame joke, and I got out the red pen to start making critical notes – but he quickly moved on from that slightly inauspicious beginning.  And to his credit, he did weave the point of the joke in the speech later on so that he avoided the worst sin a public speaker can commit in the first 3 minutes: telling an irrelevant lame joke.  This one Zander made relevant. 

Everything that happened after that was so good that I put down the red pen and just enjoyed the ride. 

Zander first demonstrated something profound about music in a very simple way.  What makes (classical) music powerful is that there is a long-term journey the composer takes you on during the course of the piece.  In formal terms, you start on the root or tonic chord, and move to the dominant.  By the end, you come back to the tonic.  It’s a simple journey, but a powerful one.  And, as Zander demonstrated with a Chopin prelude, a great composer makes you wait for that return as long as possible so that, when you get there, it’s like opening the door to your own home after a long, emotional journey.  There’s that relief and upswelling of emotion you feel to be back on home ground.

To make this point, Zander weaves in stories of children, audiences worldwide, and Holocaust survivors, so that by the end his audience has laughed, cried, and finally smiled through the tears.  As he says, he knows he’s doing well when he sees ‘shining eyes’ in his audience, and we forgive him for going to the audience in the room and pointing out some eyes that are shining.  He’s earned it.

To be sure, Zander could control his ‘happy feet’ – random, adrenaline-induced movement – a bit more, but on the whole he works the audience well, so the movement is for the most part purposeful.  After watching so many speakers stay within their own self-absorbed bubble, moving aimlessly around the stage, wandering toward the slides and back again, it was wonderful to see someone make the speech about the audience.

Finally, he does one thing that only really great speakers do.  He risks making himself the joke on occasion.  By allowing the audience to laugh at him, just occasionally, just a little, he opens himself up, which is why the audience opens up to him and sheds real tears.  Only the best speakers ever seem to understand this secret. 

For a great performance by a real showman, check out Ben Zander on TED.com.