As David Coleman, who is known as America’s real life Hitch, took to the stage my mind whirled with the ramifications that this speech could possibly entail. How could this man possibly in an hour and a half give substantial advice that would impact the crowd of almost six hundred people, who had crowded into the UC Ballroom? I would say that this speaking engagement was probably one of the best that the University of Montana – Missoula has witnessed in a long time. With all the hype that the many groups responsible for getting David here had done over the past week, it really wasn’t a big surprise that the crowd was so massive. The University of Montana – Missoula student body clearly needs dating advice, as shown by the staggering student participation, and that is exactly what David Coleman aka the Date Doctor was there to do. This thirteen time national speaker of the year has been around the block a time or two when it comes to dating and dishing out advice. Not only was he here in Missoula in front of me and the rest of the student body, to tell us how to get a girl/guy; but he was there to help us no matter where we were in our relationship and what the circumstance.
So I see you like pie, because you just made my banana cream. This line by Coleman set the stage for the rest of his performance. His obvious humor right from the start made this speech both entertaining and exciting for the audience. Never before had I ever witnessed a speaker that was so outlandish and upfront. The audience, none the less, ate it up till the very end. Colman lured his audience in, not only through the means of communication, but also through personal connection. He promised to provide the answer to many relationship faults and situations. He addressed many of these, which all of us have gone through. This made the audience sit up and pay attention.
Coleman in his delivery took the time to create a visual presentation to go along with his speech. This was beneficial to the audience, especially those in the back who could not see him. The power point presentation created organization within his speech, and gave it clarity. The down fall, was that many times I found that I was focusing my attention more on his slides that on him. Despite the clear downfalls that come with props in a speech, Colman did utilize the slideshow very effectively and fluently.
The content of Coleman’s speech is in my mind quite a bit lacking. It seems that Coleman was most intent upon really entertaining his audience and not really getting down to business. I guess that is what you get when you are a paid entertainer. His speech in its entirety lacked meat and depth. It skimmed across the narrow topics of dating and really didn’t help me as a person. What I came away from the speech was this. As a guy, I need to act like a bad boy and wear lots of cologne. My analysis of the speech was that it was lacking and could have been a lot better. As a speaker a person needs to balance entertainment with content, and finding that balance is hard.
Other specific things that bothered me with Coleman’s performance are minimal; to a trained eye that has seen a lot of speeches these minimal aspects bothered me. The first one is that Coleman talked really fast. Although his enunciation was excellent, by talking really fast I didn’t absorb some part of his speech. He also didn’t pause very much in his speech. Pausing would have helped me to understand and absorb a lot more of the content he was preaching. Pausing also would have made it easier to pick up on the really important parts. I guess when you only have an hour and a half to do a speech on relationships, you have to be fast. I would definitely recommend that he make it an hour and forty-five minute show. Vocal inflection and intonation would have also helped to emphasis certain part of the speech. This Colman also lacked. Clearly, his humor really helped to win him those thirteen national titles and not his performance. Colman also didn’t use his stage very well. He used a microphone stand, and seemed to be tied to it throughout the whole speech. Although he did break away from it once in awhile, it seemed as if he was hiding behind it. I hate being tied down, and in using the stage to its full extent a speaker gets closer to his audience.
One last downfall that bothered me about Coleman’s speech was that whenever he made an important point, he would immediately have some joke to make his audience laugh. This didn’t really help to drive home his point, as the audience would lose focus on what he had just said. I will say, he sure knew how to keep an audience happy and entertained. It also seemed that he repeated himself in certain situations. This did help to solidify the point into the audience’s minds.
The Date Doctor’s performance as a speaker is less than perfect, but his performance as an entertainer is stupendously awesome. If you want to be entertained and have a fun night, I would definitely hit up this show. But if you want to have a real conversation I suggest that you go somewhere else. Colman hit many key aspects in his speech on dating and relationships, but there is no way a healthy relationship would benefit from this man. As a performer, Colman needs to go back to Intro to Public Speaking. Not sure if he ever took that class. It may just be that my opinion of speakers is based off my previous access to renowned speaker, and that from my personality I have a bias against Colman. It is because I have seen so many world renowned speaker and regular speakers, and have competed and participated in Speech and Drama since freshman year of high school that I am able to completely tear apart Colman’s speech. I do have to say, that I personally enjoyed the show. I laughed my head off, and had an amazing time with my two friends that I went with.
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