Don't Read a Speech

I never believe in starting off the negative so I’ve waited a while before giving you the tips on what not to do.

But there are a few things that you really really need to go out of your way to avoid when giving an acceptance speech.

And one of them is reading.

I’d like to thank my accountant my tax attorney my hairstylist my hair color as my bubble.

That’s the worst reading because it has all the spontaneity of a state legislative meeting where there’s just a secretary reading in the minutes of a meeting.

It’s just awful.

It’s devoid of personality emotion and sincerity.

So don’t read.

I’ll tell you in a minute what it’s okay to have some notes but you certainly should not have word for word stripped it out and I really don’t think you should think more than as many people as would fit on fingers of your hand or fewer if you have more people than that to thank.

Send them a personal note.

Create your own video that you post on your YouTube channel or if you’re winning an Academy Award they have what’s called a thank you camp behind stage where you can thank those people as long as you want as many people as you want.

And now your agent can have something for their lobby to show all their other clients.

But don’t give a long long long laundry list of names and don’t read.

I mean those are the two biggest blunders that people make in the major award shows when they are receiving awards so don’t do it and don’t tell you well T.J.

I’ll be nervous.

I don’t want to miss anything.

I better have the whole script where I can right now.

Don’t do that in a moment.

I’ll show you how to use notes properly.

But you gotta get in your head.

You can’t read a whole acceptance speech you need to be looking up at people thanking people thanking the stars or whatever else you want to think.

But don’t be reading.