Memory Tips- Nelson Dellis on How to Memorize a Speech or a Script

Hello and welcome to another episode of Random Memory Tips.

And in this episode, we are going to talk about something that I get asked about all the time.

How do I memorize text?

To be honest it’s hard.

It’s very hard.

Why?

Because there are so many little words and on top of that, you have to say it, deliver it with intention and fluidity and all these things.

Make it seem like it’s naturally coming out of you.

That you don’t have to think about it and try to access information.

I was in Boston this past weekend.

Go all historical.

And I thought about the Declaration of Independence.

I thought it’d be a great piece of text that we could practice together to show how I would go about memorizing something like that.

So you can apply this to your speeches.

You can apply this to learning lines.

You can apply this to just memorizing some passage or quote or whatever you want.

And so without further ado, here we go.

I have the first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence in front of me.

Do you read through it a few times just to kind of get the gist?

And it’s okay if you don’t memorize it at that point.

The next step is to use that memory palace.

Again, I’m using that memory palace.

It is a go to thing to use when you have to memorize something.

And memorizing text is no different.

Among memory athletes, a lot of us kind of battle back and forth.

What’s the right way to approach memorizing texts?

Is it one, memorize every single word by putting them all in memory palaces or memorize the general phrasing of a poem or text and place those ideas into a memory palace and then rehearse it enough so that you know the filler words?

On one hand, this will guarantee that you get everything because your putting everything in your memory palace.

Whereas this one is more the idea and then you get to use that repetition rehearsal to fill in the words.

The memory part is a lot easier.

I believe that if your goal is to get something across, very fluent and natural, then this option is the way to go.

Because you’re going to have the ideas in your head and the rest will be rehearsed.

You can use your memory palace as a guide to help you through what you memorize but the other something is super internalized.

All right, so I’ve broken up that first paragraph into 11 different phrases.

They vary in size and length and complexity.

I split up where it felt right.

With a poem, this would be easier because there’s going to be a certain beat to it.

With text, maybe if the sentence is short enough, that’s your phrase.

If it’s like a conjunction, you can stop ‘til the end and or whatever feels right.

Each of those phrases are going to be turned into a picture or a series of pictures that we put in our memory palace.

Like we’ve done before.

To do this with you, I want to choose a memory palace that we can do together.

What I was thinking is we could use a map or journey through the United States using the more familiar cities as the locations for our memory palace.

So children, 11 cities around the country and since I’m from Miami, will start in Miami.

That will be our first location.

And so, what we’ll do is we’ll kind of make our way up the East Coast, across the country and to the west coast.

It’s easy to remember that.

Each city, we’ll kind of choose something that reminds us of that city to find it anchored.

So we’ll be in Miami.

Next could be Washington D.C.

then Philadelphia, New York City, Boston, Buffalo, which is where Niagara Falls is, it’s the middle of the country, then Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, L A.

and if we go up little bit, we have San Francisco.

Got it?

So we’re starting in Miami and we have our first little segment which is going to be when in the course of human events.

Now remember, I’m not doing it word for word.

That’s going to be a different approach.

I’m trying to go for the one that’s quicker and I think this is the quickest.

When I look at that sentence, I got to choose kind of the key words, key features, and in my head, I see course of human events.

So, I kind of string those words into a little image and I’m going to attach it to Miami.

When I think of course, I think of like a boat on its course.

You can imagine a boat is on a course arriving at Miami Beach and there’s a lot of human events going on right there.

Maybe a lot of those events are very bizarre and of a particular taste.

There’s a course to all of these human events.

Boom.

That’s it.

That’s the first one.

We got it.

When you’re trying to remember this, you’re going to say, okay, that’s our Miami beach course human events.

Of course you’re not going to say course human events because that’s not line.

But, once we finish this step, you’re going to start filling in the words.

So then, all you have to add to that is when in the and of.

All right.

Let’s move on.

Next up, we are moving to Washington D.C.

Okay.

My picture for that was the Declaration of Independence.

So the next phrase is it becomes necessary for one people.

So I can picture one person and I’m just going to imagine that it becomes necessary for that one person to have this done.

Like he’s breaking in to this museum where the Declaration of Independence is.

Just overcome by how necessary it is for this one person to have this done ‘til becomes necessary.

Next stop, we’re moving up to Philly.

Philadelphia.

And we have a bell, right?

That’s what that city is famous for.

The next line we have is ‘to dissolve the political bands’.

Dissolve and bands, political bands.

So those are kind of the three words that I’m going to put together.

So, I can imagine political band.

If I take those two words and just literally picture a band, like a headband or an arm band that’s very political.

Maybe it has the person you voted for.

Let’s say, if I put it on this bell, it dissolves.

Picture that, dissolving political bands.

So after that, we move up to Central Park, New York City.

That’s our next location.

For the next phrase is ‘which have connected them with another’.

I’m in Central Park, that’s my location and there’s a witch which is that first word of the phrase.

Connected with another.

So I’m going to picture this witch running around Central Park connecting them.

Let’s just imagine that them is kind of old people in the park.

So, I’m going to picture this witch going up to people and connecting them.

Maybe, she literally creates some sticky glue that connects them all together.

After New York, we go up to Boston.

That’s the next city up.

And our picture from Boston was Harvard which has a beautiful campus and a very good story.

The next line is ‘and to assume among the powers of the earth’.

Powers of the earth.

That’s kind of a nice little chunk, I can picture that and assume.

I’m going to say assume even among your work, you might want to include that.

Assume among the powers of the earth.

When I hear the word assume, I think of a big ass.

And then, among kind of sounds like a monk.

So, I’m going to picture an ass on top of a monk.

As this ass touches the monk, he suddenly has all the powers of the Earth.

Earth around and vibrates and suddenly powerful because of this ass touching this monk.

We have to tie this to Boston somehow.

We’re using Harvard.

So, imagine this monk is studying at Harvard.

Somewhere on campus, you can picture a generic university and ass touches this monk and yes, [inaudible] All right, we’re getting there.

The next one is Buffalo, which was the Niagara Falls, the famous waterfall on the border of US and Canada.

And our next line is the ‘separate and equal station’.

I’m going to think of separate and equal and a station.

So I’ll think like a train station.

Imagine, next to this waterfall, separate to this waterfall but equal, right?

They’re both equally regarded as interesting things to see, right?

You have this massive waterfall and you have this separate but equally cool train station.

Okay?

And maybe that transition goes right over the cliff just like this waterfall.

It’s separate, but it’s equally interesting and it’s a station.

Next up, we move west in our little mental map of the United States.

And when in Chicago, I think of pizza, right?

Or maybe, deep dish Chicago pizza.

That’s going to be my anchor for the city of Chicago.

And the line I have to remember is ‘to which the laws of nature’.

Again, I have the word which, and two which so I might think of two witches.

Let’s imagine them inside a pizzeria.

These two witches, sitting across from each other.

And they are bending the laws of nature to create the most amazing pizza in front of them.

And they’re just scarfing it down.

They love pizza, they’re having a chat, banter back and forth, that witches do.

To which the laws of nature.

We’re getting to the end.

Here we’ll give them, keep going west to Denver where our picture was a mountain because Denver is known as the Mile High City.

It’s near the Rockies, so mountain.

The next line is ‘and of nature’s God entitle them’.

In this one, nature’s God and entitle them really are what stick out.

The picture on top of this mountain is nature’s God.

Not just God, but nature’s God.

So maybe, to make the difference, imagine that nature’s God is just like covered in grass and twigs and very treelike.

And he’s giving titles to everyone, them.

Nature’s God, top of the mountain, above everyone, handing out titles to everyone, to them.

Now we move on to Las Vegas, bright lights, casinos, the strip, everything.

And our phrase here is ‘a decent respect to the opinions of mankind’.

I’m going to remember decent respect and opinions of mankind.

You know, we’re in Vegas, we’re in Sin City.

So, imagine you’re in casino.

People are just drinking and gambling.

People that are dressed to the nines.

Some are very inappropriate.

Whatever, it’s Vegas, right?

You walk into this casino.

You try to give a decent respect to everyone.

You’re not judging anyone, everything happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas.

So you have a decent amount of respect to people.

Not complete respect, a decent amount.

Just enough because you’re there too, after all.

And you’re just thinking to yourself as you have this decent respect of the opinions of mankind.

You’re thinking of all the different opinions that mankind would have on what you’re seeing in this casino.

So we have a decent respect and about these opinions of mankind in the casino.

We’re in the last two.

Now we move to L A or the West Coast.

L A, I think of like these really tall palm trees that they have in L A

Think of Beverly Hills and our line here is ‘requires that they should declare’.

You’re going down Beverly Hills with all these fancy houses, you’re seeing celebrities, there’s palm trees.

You also see a lot of people from other places.

Who are all these people?

They should require that they should declare, like you do at the airport.

You have something declare or not?

On this boulevard in Beverly Hills, you’re going to require that they, everyone, that they should declare.

Maybe declare their intentions or maybe declare what they brought from their other country they came.

You’re going to require that.

You’re suddenly the police of that.

You require that you should declare.

And lastly, we finish up in San Francisco.

I think San Francisco, I think Golden Gate Bridge.

The line here, the last line of that paragraph is ‘the causes which impel them to the separation’.

What sticks out there is causes, impel and separation.

Let’s imagine that the bridge is going to separate.

This is very sturdy bridge but suddenly it’s just alive and it wants to separate one half from the end.

And so we’re thinking, as outsiders, we’re looking at this bridge and saying what are the causes of this separation?

But we want to get the word impel.

So when I look at the word impel, I see it imp.

Imp instantly reminds me of Tyrion Lannister from Game of Thrones.

He’s often referred to as the Imp.

So why is this bridge separated?

The cause is because of this imp.

He’s making them separate.

Okay.

So we’ve done 11 lines.

I’m actually trying go through it myself and you can try it along with me.

Course human events becomes necessary for one people.

Dissolves political bands.

Which connected them with another.

Assume among the powers the earth.

A separate and equal station to which the laws of nature.

Nature’s God entitled them.

A decent respect for the opinions of mankind.

Something like that.

Requires that they should declare.

Causes which impel them to the separation.

There you have it.

That was pretty good actually.

Okay, so now you have them in your mind.

What you have to do now is slowly add the pieces back.

And this is where you study those filler words.

Some of those lines, we have perfect.

Some of them we have, maybe, 50 percent and some where we have in between that, right?

What’s nice is now I can look at it with this text map out of my mind with this memory palace.

And remember we use the United States as memory palace.

You can use your house, you can use a video game, a movie, whatever you want.

Any place you know well that you can navigate through.

You can store those images on locations through that journey.

That’s it, we just memorize first paragraph of the Declaration of Independence.

If you want to get really good at it, you just got to rehearse in your head.

You get those filler words.

It might take another 10 minutes.

That’s it for today.

Please subscribe, like, share and I’ll be back with another video very soon.

Thanks for watching.

Love you, guys.

I’m out.