One of the most powerful speeches I've seen given was from a former professional basketball player of the Boston Celtics in the late 90s and early 2000s, Chris Herran. Chris's professional career was cut short due to his battling addiction to drugs which began at an early age causing havoc on him and his family. In his documentary titled Unguarded, Chris speaks on his past, when the addiction started, the scares he had, and how drugs entirely ripped out his career from underneath him and cost him everything....and almost his life. During Chris's speech, he shows a great example of voice inflection, eye contact, and pauses at certain points adding emphasis to his story while also allowing the audience to sit back and soak in what he is saying. His speech is moving from beginning to end and will have you trapped for every second. If anyone is looking for a great documentary, I highly advise watching Unguarded.
I think people who have gone through traumatic experiences are some of the most effective speakers because it comes straight from their heart. Many of us will never experience some of the events that others have had, so thank you for your review on this!
ReplyDeleteWow, sounds like an amazing speech! I'm sure that it was very moving and brought a lot of people to tears. I love speeches where someone can gain some sort of insight and motivation from someone else's learned experience.
ReplyDeleteIt is also so interesting to hear about the lives of other people and how they got to where they are now, especially when they faced incredible hardships during their life.
ReplyDeleteWatching speeches or even movies that are given/played by people that are no longer alive like Robin Williams leave a sense of sadness. I once watched a lecture given by a famous professor by the name of Randy Pausch called "The Last Lecture", and it moved me to tears. He was given 6 months to live and he got to give his last lecture on how to lead a good life. He died 10 months after giving that speech. His wife was interviewed in a different video where she goes on to say that after he gave his speech the brought out a cake for her birthday and he sang to her on stage. She got on stage hugged and kissed him and whispered in his ear "please don't die". That's where I started sobbing. His lecture is pretty lengthy but so worth watching.
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