Is it possible to give an entire 20-minute talk without breathing?  Of course not, but Virginia Postrel gives it a good go with her talk on glamour on TED.com.  (http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/virginia_postrel_on_glamour.html )  The talk is fascinating because it shows all the reasons why breathing is the most important fundamental of good speaking.  To breathe poorly or shallowly is to invite disaster.

Postrel’s talk is on the larger meaning of the word ‘glamour’, and she nails the content.  Glamour once meant a spell, as in, to cast a glamour – to make something appear other than it is.  It was associated with witchcraft.  From this beginning, Postrel weaves a whole talk on how glamour is essentially falsification to achieve an end.  Glamour hides the wires, the work, and looks effortless.  Glamour is graceful, mysterious, and transcendent, like Heddy Lamar and Grace Kelly.   And so on.

It’s an interesting riff on a word.  But the problem comes because Postrel never stops for breath, and her rapid-fire delivery soon grates on the ear and annoys the mind.  We want her to pause, for God’s sake.  Land on a point and shut up!  Why won’t she pace herself and the audience?

More than that, her voice gets hoarse, especially at the end of phrases, because she runs out of air.  As a result, the whole delivery becomes annoying.  The timbre of her voice suffers woefully from her lack of deep breathing, and the audience soon can’t stand to listen to it. 

So poor breathing prevents the audience from fully absorbing the talk, and prevents the speaker from delivering it well.  It puts a strain on the voice, ruins the timing, makes the voice harder to understand, and the content as well.  Watch this talk to learn, viscerally, the importance of good breathing. 

A talk on glamour has to be glamorous, and to be that you have to have a bit of mystery.  A runaway freight train is not mysterious, and neither is a runaway speaker.  Nice try, Postrel, but without breathing you can’t be glamorous on glamour.