The thing is when you're... well-enough known, you get asked to speak places, and they don't really think about whether or not you're qualified. They just want somebody that will be a drawing card for the audience. So it's up to you to decide whether or not it's foolish to get up and speak to these people.
I am involved in minor league baseball. I go around the country speaking to troubled youths, trying to help them understand that whatever path they choose, they'll need to really pay attention to it.
Most people's fear of being in front of an audience can generally be conquered by being completely on top of what it is they've got to do.
I have lectured at Town Hall N.Y., The Library of Congress, Harvard, Yale, Amherst, Wellesley, Columbia, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Louisiana State University, Colorado, Stanford, and scores of other places.
In the end, through simple illustrations I believed I had accomplished my purpose. A dozen invitations to speak to similar groups were proffered. The conversation went on and on, and when we were finally through it was too late to return to New York.
In Hollywood, as I've often said, if you don't sing or dance, you end up as an after-dinner speaker.
This is unusual for me. I have given readings and not lectures. I have told people who ask for lectures that I have no lecture to give. And that is true.
What I'm doing when I'm doing my speaking engagements is that I'm delivering serious material with humor. So, instead of delivering humor without a particular point other than to entertain people, I'm delivering comedy in a serious way.
I speak for a lot of church groups, youth groups, schools, colleges and do personal appearances. I've done conventions and trade shows. A lot of different little hats.
I don't do much public speaking. I did a lot of stuff for Bones, and then ended up having said yes to a lot of things that kept me on the road for a while for that, but then I pretty much stopped. I'm touring for this book, but when the tour is done, that'll be the end of it.
I will go and speak at rotary clubs. I will go and speak at schools. I'm so much in the community, but in a way that I love. It's been such a positive thing.
A career public speaker is not what I'm called to be. I'm called to be a critic.
Preachers prepare with this fear: 'Am I going to be able to fill the time?' The audience never worries about that.
I spoke at a number of conventions, like for pharmacists and cosmetologists, so I've done a lot of public speaking in my life.
I've been on national TV since 1994, and I can communicate in a compelling and decisive way.
Recently I've been participating in radio and television talk programs doing broadcasts and conferences, and shooting my mouth off and really going to town.
I travel all over the country speaking to young people, and I am always amazed at how engaged in environmental conservation they are.
I was always drawn to standing up in front of people.
During five whole sessions I spoke every night but one; and I regret only that I did not speak on that night too.
Explaining the secret of his oratorical success in the House of Commons:
I happen to have given lots of free speeches.
During my teen years, I just really started to get anxiety. I would get stage fright when I would do certain speaking engagements and I always would get through them, but it was a really nerve-racking and hard thing to do.
Apparently, I'm very, very popular in jails. They often ask me to come and speak.
Yes, after some time spent last year on other commitments, most of them speaking engagements, I am now about halfway through a novel that I hope will come out in 1998.
My main income is from speaking.
I enjoy any chance to get in front of a microphone in a role. I'll do it.