RP Roulette: Public Speaking

[ERIK DANIEL LENOIR]

Danny checked his watch. He was a bit late for the architectural conference he had been told to attend by the firm for which he consulted, Feinstein and Fitzgerald. He rather hated these things, but he was being paid for it. He hoped that they would not encourage people to talk to each other after the presentations. He hated that . He didn't want to talk to anyone. Just to get his time in and be paid for attending.

The bloody cab had taken so long to go a short distance because the traffic was unusually horrid today. He didn't like being late even if he didn't really want to be here. He entered the auditorium and found the doors were closed already. He opened a door and the room was already dark, the first speaker was already on stage. He was talking about some kind of home and the landscaping, and pointing to a slide show behind him. Danny rolled his eyes. This would be a yawn. He barely noticed anyone who was sitting next to him.

[PENELOPE LAFONTAINE]

Penelope almost fell over herself as sh ran for the door. Of all the days for the subway wto break down...

She stopped in front of the large door of the conference hall as she bent over to catch er breathe. I hope I'm not too late for the horticulture seminar She thought herself as she straightened up her appearance adn quietly slipped into the room.

Penelope had signed herself up for the seminar, run by the Agricultural Society fo New York, in the hopes of picking up new tecniques for tending to some of the more finicky species at the Botanical Gardens.

When she walked in she noticed there weren't too many people in the room and one solitary person giving some kind kind of lecture on landscaping. Hmmm...smaller turnout this year, She pondered as she quietly took a seat beside an older gentlemen who looked like this was the last place he wanted to be.

"Plant talk not terriby titillating?" She whispered to him as smoothed out her dress and places her bag on the floor next to her...

[ERIK DANIEL LENOIR]

Danny wasn't paying too much attention to what was happening on the stage. He knew most of these seminars were boring and he started writing in a notebook. They were notes, not on the seminar, but other things he was working on. Might as well put the time to some good use. A young woman sat beside him then. She was late too and he only noticed her because she spoke to him. He glanced at her when she said, Plant talk not terribly titillating?

He frowned. "Plant talk? This is an architecture seminar. You're in the wrong place."

He kept on writing in his notebook. Then the man at the front podium ordered the lights brought up again and said, "Welcome to our public speaking exercise. My name is Fred Jamison and I'll be coordinating the exercises. I just know we're going to have a lot of fun here today. Now who will be the first to volunteer to help us out today? " At the words public speaking, Danny thought, What the hell....I must be in the wrong place... He stood up to leave just at the wrong time.

Jamison spotted him and said, "Ah, we have an eager volunteer! Come on up, Sir, and the dark haired lady beside you." Danny was caught now. He couldn't leave gracefully. He sighed and nodded to the lady beside him and walked up to the stage. This was going to be a trial, no matter what it was about. He hated being unprepared for something.

[PENELOPE LAFONTAINE]

Penelope's mouth hung open in shock as she was dragged up onstage with the gentleman she was sitting beside.

A public speaking seminar? She thought to herself as she realized she was in the wrong place. The enthusiastic host had mistakenly taken the man's getting up as volunteering, and she had gotten roped into this mess with him.

Penelope detested public speaking. She loved talking to people, but she hated scripted presentations and speeches. She was always forgetting lines and scraps of information and the rigidity and formality of it all made her ache to break off script and just adlib whatever she felt like saying. But her teachers had always frowned on this, and her grades and suffered as a consequences. She had always stayed away from speeches and presentations if she could.

And here she was, standing on stage like an idiot while some presenter was gleefully gabbing to a half empty room.

[ERIK DANIEL LENOIR]

Danny stood there on the stage awkwardly. He was really annoyed. He should have kept going when he had risen to leave. The man at the podium, Jamison, he said his name was, with the ridiculous smile that looked like it had been pasted on, greatly annoyed him.

He started in .... "Most of us know how this goes, but for anyone who's only here for the first time, here's how it goes. This is completely off the cuff...ad lib. I will get several subjects from the audience and you will both talk about one of them. It doesn't matter if you know anything about the subject at all, we just want to hone our public speaking skills. We should have time for perhaps five sets of speakers. At the end of the session, we will all vote on the best public speaker and he or she will get a little gift!"

"First of all, let's meet our speakers. You sir, please tell us your name and what you do for a living." He handed a wireless mike to Danny. Danny's face was turning a bit red, at least on the left side. "Dan Lenoir," he said. "I'm an architect." He paused for only an instant. "Why don't you have the lady speak first?" His voice was rather quiet and he didn't hold the mike close enough.

Jamison said, "We can't hear you Dan, get closer to the microphone, will you?" Danny repeated, "the lady should speak first." Jamison looked to the audience. "I'll bet those in the last rows still couldn't hear you, Dan. Say it again."

Danny was so irritated now that he practically shouted in the microphone, "Let the bloody woman speak first!" There were titters from the audience and Jamison laughed. "Well, I expect Dan is a bit shy. Let's see who the lady is. Miss, your name please, for the audience and what do you do for a living?"

This was so painful. Danny looked at his shoes. He took a deep breath. Perhaps he could get his composure back while the lady was speaking. Or maybe there was a way he could sneak out in the dark...

[PENELOPE LAFONTAINE]

Penelope shot the man a angry glare when she got shoved in front of the microphone after the gabby host irritated him into an unfriendly outburst.

So, here she was, terrified at the prospect of speaking to an audience of about eight-and-a-half people. Well, he did say she could adlib it...

"Um...hi there," She spoke as she waved tentatively at the crowd and bounced nervously on the balls of her feet. "My name is Penelope. I work at the botanical gardens. I grow and cultivate plants and flowers and stuff."

Not sure what else she was supposed to say, Penelope turned to the host with a shy grin. "Um, I think I'm in the wrong place. I was supposed to be at a horticulture seminar...?" She spoke, hoping that she'd able to get out of there quickly and find where she was supposed to go.

[ERIK DANIEL LENOIR]

Embarrassed that he had shouted and perhaps upset the lady, Danny began to think about a plan of escape. But it wasn't really his fault. The idiot host Jamison hadn't even asked if they wanted to do this. The audience seemed to like it though. Apparently they loved to see people humiliate themselves. The lady introduced herself as Penelope and said she worked at the botanical gardens. She seemed to have at least a bit more composure than Erik did.

Jamison went on. "So, I need some good subjects from the audience." His smile was still pasted on. It never left his face. What a fake! thought Danny. Hands went up in the audience and Jamison pointed, "The lady over there, in the white dress." A woman stood up and said, "Physics!" The audience laughed. "No, no, we don't expect our guests to be geniuses!" Why not? hissed Danny under his breath. "Another one?" said Jamison, looking out into the audience again. "Have one of them sing!" said a man. Danny had a wonderful tenor voice, but he couldn't ever sing in front of a crowd, especially if he didn't know them. "Good one!" said Jamison. " But that's not what we're looking for. I need something else..."

"How about a movie review on the last movie they saw?" "Well, that calls for an opinion, but still, it's a good one. Now, audience, you are not looking for whether they liked the movie or not, but how the talk is presented. That is what you will be voting on." He turned to the lady. "Penelope, since Dan is such a gentleman as to have ladies go first, you're on....give us a review on the last movie you saw. Go!"

By this time, Danny was sweating and breathing with difficulty. His hands were clammy and cold. He rarely saw any movies and in his state of anxiety and panic, he was not going to be able to speak soon. He started shaking. Glad that he was in the dark, he moved backward until he felt the stage curtains behind him. He found the end of the velvet curtain and quickly ducked behind it. Out of sight, he sank to the floor and pulled his knees up to his chest, putting his arms around them and his head on top of them. No one could hear him moaning softly.