Trina Hess with Naomi Rhode, RDH, CSP, CPAE Speakers Hall of Fame

Naomi Rhode is known in the industry as a spellbinding speaker.  Why?  Because she has passion for the topics she presents.  In her workshop Saturday at Pittsburgh NSA, "Alpha and Omega:  Synergistic Openings and Closings for Successful Presentations," she talked about this thing called passion.    

Speakers must ask themselves, "What am I passionate about?"  Usually we think of a positive, moral, uplifting theme or topic.  But passion can equally be something negative, something you feel you should fight against, something you want to stamp out.  It doesn't matter what it is that you're passionate about.  It is your passion, so it is legitimate for you. 

And that legitimate passion is the only thing audiences will buy into.  Audiences are savvy and will know when we are feigning our feelings.  

The world of comedy operates in much the same way.  Comedy writer and performer Judy Carter advises starting out with emotion.  Investigate which things make you angry, frustrated, bored.  From that point, it will be easier to discover the words to describe these events or things or people that make you mad, frustrated or bored.  

Only by having this passion behind our thoughts can we deliver our comedy material with any kind of emotion.  And that emotion is what will fuel the exaggeration, exasperation, and over-the-top-ness that we recognize as stand-up comedy. 

It all begins with your passion.  What is yours?  And what will you do about it today?