Kari Mehr's Speeches

Info about the speaker:
 My name is Kari Mehr, and this is my Original Oratory from my senior year of high school. It championed at the 2010 AA Minnesota State High School League Tournament and earned me the nickname "Star Trek Girl" (which I think is absolutely delightful). I always had a blast performing this and absolutely loved sharing it with people; I hope you like it as well! Please feel free to comment. :)

This is NOT my State-winning performance; here I am performing it for a few individuals interested in learning more about Original Oratory. It had been several months since I had performed it, and I realize I was speaking far too quickly. This is a habit I have since corrected.

QUESTION for Kari:
Do you have any tips for memorizing the speech? Amazing job, by the way!

ANSWERS:
Hey, thanks! There are several methods that help with the memorization process, and which one you use is a matter of what works best for you. What I do is write out my completed speech by hand using extemporaneous notes. I have a strong visual memory, so I find that I am better able to remember my speech when it is in my own handwriting. The variations in letters are easier for me to remember than the uniform letters that I get from printing out the typed version.

Another method I have heard of is cutting out the paragraphs, highlighting each of them with a different color, and placing the paragraphs where you walk for each of your points. This helps with memorization via visual and spacial memory. Let me know if this was helpful! I'm planning on posting some tutorial videos in the near future, so feel free to let me know if you have any other questions so I can include them.

Kari said:
My professor really loved this speech--so much so that I made her cry! This is a particular type of speech called a "speech to inspire." It has five parts to it and does not follow the normal intro-body-conclusion format that other speeches do.