Gestures Should Be Born of the Moment

The best actors and public speakers rarely know in advance what gestures they are going to make.  They make one gesture on certain words tonight, and none at all tomorrow night at the same point—­their various moods and interpretations govern their gestures.  It is all a matter of impulse and intelligent feeling with them—­don’t overlook that word intelligent.  Nature does not always provide the same kind of sunsets or snow flakes, and the movements of a good speaker vary almost as much as the creations of nature.

Now all this is not to say that you must not take some thought for your gestures.  If that were meant, why this chapter?  When the sergeant despairingly besought the recruit in the awkward squad to step out and look at himself, he gave splendid advice—­and worthy of personal application.  Particularly while you are in the learning days of public speaking you must learn to criticise your own gestures.  Recall them—­see where they were useless, crude, awkward, what not, and do better next time.  There is a vast deal of difference between being conscious of self and being self-conscious.

It will require your nice discrimination in order to cultivate spontaneous gestures and yet give due attention to practise.  While you depend upon the moment it is vital to remember that only a dramatic genius can effectively accomplish such feats as we have related of Whitefield, Savonarola, and others:  and doubtless the first time they were used they came in a burst of spontaneous feeling, yet Whitefield declared that not until he had delivered a sermon forty times was its delivery perfected.  What spontaneity initiates let practise complete.  Every effective speaker and every vivid actor has observed, considered and practised gesture until his dramatic actions are a sub-conscious possession, just like his ability to pronounce correctly without especially concentrating his thought.  Every able platform man has possessed himself of a dozen ways in which he might depict in gesture any given emotion; in fact, the means for such expression are endless—­and this is precisely why it is both useless and harmful to make a chart of gestures and enforce them as the ideals of what may be used to express this or that feeling.  Practise descriptive, suggestive, and typical movements until they come as naturally as a good articulation; and rarely forecast the gestures you will use at a given moment:  leave something to that moment.

Avoid Monotony in Gesture

Roast beef is an excellent dish, but it would be terrible as an exclusive diet.  No matter how effective one gesture is, do not overwork it.  Put variety in your actions.  Monotony will destroy all beauty and power.  The pump handle makes one effective gesture, and on hot days that one is very eloquent, but it has its limitations.

Any Movement that is not Significant, Weakens