This picture is important, so look at it very closely. This is what it looked like in the back row of the Amarillo Civic Center auditorium. This place seats 2,000 cowboys and cowgirls.
I can’t even believe I’m about to tell you this…
I started my day by doing a talk for 1,800 high school juniors for there annual “Are You Ready For The Real World” conference. I LOVE speaking for big crowds. Their energy catapults mine to another dimension. I started off strong. Really strong. They were laughing hard, like they didn’t know if I was a speaker or comedian. I even had ANOTHER heckler…but handled him like a champ.
Then it happened.
Half way though my talk, I smelled something terrible. I checked my underarms, wondering if I had forgotten to put on deodorant. I looked down and the first four rows of kids from left to right all had their noses in their shirts. I thought, “Oh great, some joker let off a stink bomb during my talk.” But I’m The Gangsta Named Sprinkles, so I kept going. I couldn’t help but notice that all the energy had completely drained from the room. As I was speaking, I had another, completely separate dialogue going on in my head (this is something most speakers do after we’ve been doing the same talk for a long time). I tried to figure out what was going on, but couldn’t stop and ask because all of the kids would have been focused on what was going on in the front. I jumped down off the stage to CONNECT with them and I realized what the problem was…
A kid had THROWN UP in the front row! During my talk! It was all over the place. Ew gross! I won’t even tell you what it looked like. Just know that I was sounding more like The Gangsta Named “Get Me Outta Here!” I couldn’t say anything though because the kids in the back were so far away they were oblivious to the problem. Alerting them to the issue would have been the equivalent of yelling fire.
I kept on, conveniently directing my comments to the other side of the room. As soon as I finished, the kids bolted. I thought they were standing up to give me an ovation. They stood up to get away from the smell!
Wow.
What would you have done? Write your comments below…
Filed under: public speaking tips
First off, please clarify something for us mere mortals (Jersey folks). What is a heckling? I googled the word using the “urban dictionary” and was given a very vague definition, to provoke. As far as the kid throwing up, at that age I would have been the kid to throw up. I’m glad you didn’t draw attention to it. If you had you would have quickly lost your audience and demoted to a substitute. If there were other teachers present their reaction most likely would have been, “we’re paying you, and you’re the “expert”, deal with it”. As a teacher kids come up to me all the time, with their eyeballs in their hands like, “Ms. Wallace, fix it”. Next time something like that happens make sure you check to see if the student is okay after everything dies down, this way they’ll know they weren’t ignored.
I’ve seen you speak so I can understand why even a foul smell wouldn’t be enough to make students leave the room during your presentation. It speaks volumes about your ability to hold your audience’s attention.