My aunt's advice about public speaking backfired at my cousin's wedding

My aunt told me to just 'imagine everyone in their underwear' before my toast at my cousin's wedding in Toledo. So I stood up there, looked at 80 guests including my 90 year old grandma, and immediately choked on my water because I pictured her in her underwear. I had to sit down for 2 minutes before I could even start talking.

2 comments

2 Comments

reese12417d ago

Yeah but honestly I feel like that advice actually works for a lot of people though. The problem here isn't the advice itself, it's that your aunt didn't warn you about picturing family members specifically. Like nobody tells you to exclude your grandma from the mental image or just picture them in like cartoonish underwear instead. Maybe it's just me but I've used that trick for years and it really does calm the nerves if you do it right. You gotta keep it light and silly not actually think about real people in their real underwear. That's where it goes wrong.

skylerrobinson17d ago

Is it just me or does everyone have that one piece of advice that backfired in the most awkward way possible? I tried that trick once during a job interview and ended up grinning at the CEO like an idiot because I was picturing him in a clown wig. Your aunt definitely dropped the ball on that one, sorry you had to learn the hard way.