Michael Port

I wanted to like this book but ended up deeply disappointed. It is really 2 stars, but includes a couple of decent points and is an important topic so I was generous.

Basically two parts — a completely forgettable “life advice from an actor and public speaker” (which was simultaneously generic and bleh), and then a longer section on actual public speaking advice, again based on acting techniques. This was somewhat useful. Most was generic advice but with good motivation (rehearse a lot, make eye contact), but some information about improv exercises, stage blocking, and other acting specific techniques which was actually new and worthwhile.

Unfortunately, most of the book was peppered with sales pitches for the author’s speaking consultancy.

Overall, I’d probably skip this book, although it could be worth it for someone doing a lot of speaking events for the specific acting derived insights.… (mais)