Two minutes & 22 seconds of intensive presentation training
Raymond Crowe's shadow play of Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World" has long been one of my favourite presentations. As well as his technical virtuousity, the way he arranges the various elements is perfect.
Even if you know the clip well, it's worth analysing his structure - and applying it to your presentation.
Mr Crowe has two really powerful images in his show - the Armstrong silhouette and the emotional highpoint of the baby and adult hands. Cleverly, he separates them - grabbing our attention with Armstrong at the beginning. Then come his other elements, starting with the (relatively) weakest - the horse and the swan which most of us could attempt - and moving on through the impressive rabbits. It's clear from the audience's reaction that they love the baby hand, and he wisely saves it for the climax of the piece, shortly before the end. Then we have a little gag with the old man's tongue, before Louis reappears to close the circle.
Watch it carefully, and see how it all fits together:
This classic structure is used by rock-concert planners and stand up comedians - wowing us at the start with your almost-best effort, dropping down to move steadily up through the material before blowing us away with the best piece near the end, and concluding with emotion. I call it "Boom! Wow-wow-wow! BOOM!" and you can read about it here.
In many cases, it's how you should be structuring your presentations - and your customer experiences.
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