I used to be absolutely crippled by anxiety when I had to do any sort of public speaking - I’m sorry I discovered the solution far too late, of treating every presentation, no matter how banal, as a performance. But it’s not a single “alter ego” - and it may even be indistinguishable from my usual self from the audience’s perspective - it depends on the context. For everyday usage “confident person” does the trick, though for art purposes I sometimes had distinct personas I adopted (even if I was the only one who knew what they were). But even that’s not really necessary - just treating it as a performance as a way of distancing the speaking from myself, does the trick.
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But not really a bad one to have in your head, right?
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My inner child and my alter-ego staged a coup a while back.
I’m much happier now.
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You must be thinking of another Martin McCabe.
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Diziet Sma, good choice.
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Isn’t channeling another word for this? There are a couple of people from my past that I channel depending on the situation. In fact, it’s not just people I knew but also a few characters from TV or movies, like @howaboutthis mentioned above. This technique works pretty well in those certain circumstances.
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My 7th/8th grade Catholic school English/History lay teacher, Mr. Charles Kasper, who would always tell us to “question everything; check for yourselves”. (He later became a NYC fireman on (and instructing) Special Operations; perished on 9/11.)
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Hmmmm…I remember having to do a talk through of a results of a stupid “build a zoo out of materials you can find lying around” team building exercise at a corporate offsite thing and falling into an Australian accent for it. So, I guess Australian accent would be my go to?
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Speaking in front of people is a necessary part of my job and not my favorite one. I am terrible going off the cuff and usually need to heavily prepare myself.
I would say my confidence boosting persona is Ewan McGregor’s character in Big Fish*. Someone with supreme confidence that he won’t die at that moment. Because he already knows when its going to happen and this isn’t it. Someone who handles everything with a smile and a friendly demeanor, no matter how weird it gets.
*One of Tim Burton’s most underrated gems.
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Fair go, eh?
I’m English but when I lived in Ireland for a bit lots of people assumed I was Australian.
My usual response was to say “No worries,” because why not?
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Now I want to see a video of people from different english speaking countries/regions trying to pin down where people from OTHER english speaking countries/regions are from… Can an Irish man correctly identify a Welsh accent? Can an American spot a South African one? Can a New Zealander pin down a Scot?
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That’s just Posh Aussie.
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Yeah, but if we heard an Australian and a south African, could we spot the difference…
And of course, that’s just the general accents… Let’s not even get into regional accents! I wonder how many people could tell apart a Texas accent from a Georgia accent! Or a Liverpudlian from an East London one!
This should really be a whole game show!
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Given how few (non-southern) actors can do a good regional southern accent I bet it would not be many
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That’s where it gets more fun. I could spot Australian vs South African but could I tell Durban from Cape Town, or Adelaide from Melbourne? I doubt it.
There is a Melbourne near me, pronounced the same as the one is Australia but I have heard Aussies here pronounce Loughborough (Luff-bra) as Loo Ga Ba Rooga and that’s just ace.
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Yep.
Exactly!
Nice!
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When you come from a place that has billabongs and kookaburras I can see how that happens
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It’s more fun now because the locals have more or less adopted the new pronunciation!
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Not at all; brings back good memories…
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It’s such a useful expression. I use it all the time
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