Public Speaking Tips for the use of Props

In primary school, children are often asked to ‘show and tell’, to bring an object or toy to school and to tell everyone what it is and why it is important.  It is an exercise to help boost confidence, give a focus to the presentation, while giving the children an experience of Public Speaking.
I often think that Art Historians have it easier than the rest of us because more often than not they have a painting behind them and they just need to explain what we are looking at, how it was made, and what it shows.
As long as they have good knowledge of their subject, they have a continuous reminder of what they are talking about behind them.
However, they will be susceptible to all the common dangers of delivering a PowerPoint Presentation:
- talking to the picture rather than the audience,
- speaking in a flat monotone because the gestures have become hampered by holding the laser pen,
- not engaging with the audience because the eyes are too focused on the object they are describing.

If a speaker intends to use a prop during their presentation, I would always ask the same questions as I would if they were intending to use PowerPoint:

- Does the prop add some value to the presentation?
- Is it there more to help you or the audience?
- What would you do if you did not have the prop?

The key question is therefore:
‘Is it adding anything that I could just as easily or better explain without it?’

I remember seeing a speaker explain how sometimes in life it requires a leap of faith to leave a comfort zone and to try something new, and to emphasise his point, he brought a chair out on stage and at the significant moment he got onto the chair and jumped off to demonstrate his leap of faith!
I do understand that communication is rarely about right and wrong and more often it is a matter of choice or taste, however, while on the one hand the very fact that I am mentioning this particular use of a prop suggests that it was effective as it has stuck in my mind, on the other hand I do remember when I saw it feeling slightly patronised and thinking:
‘Do I need such a literal demonstration to understand jumping - especially when the context is metaphorical anyway?’

My real objection to the use of the chair, as it so often is, is that the literal demonstration felt like a too obvious way of making a point.  
I would have preferred the speaker to first look for more rhetorical ways of imparting dramatic significance, maybe through their use of voice or gesture, and even vocabulary, and then, only if that seems insufficient, to grab for the literal example.
If the speaker had been broadcasting on the radio, he would have been forced to find a better way of expressing the ‘leap’ as the visual demonstration would not have been an option.
Maybe a more subtle vocal emphasis supported by an expressive gesture of movement might have been more effective and less blatant.
If he had painted a vivid picture of the build-up of tension and then expressed that moment of release when taking the leap of faith - that could have created a more compelling image capable of making a strong impression on the listener.
And then there is a violation of the basic rule of metaphor, which is:
‘two things that are different in nature that nevertheless have something significant in common’
because what the speaker had come up with was
‘two things that are similar in nature that are on the key level are totally different’
The significant point he wanted to make was the feeling of risk and fear involved in taking the leap of faith,
so to create a suitable metaphor it would have been better to find something from another context that expressed a similar feeling of risk and fear.
What he did instead was find two things that were similar – ‘taking the leap’ – but the message became confused because jumping off a chair is not that scary!

10 tips for the use of props when speaking

1. Am I just being lazy?

Is the prop fulfilling a function that words alone cannot?
I think my objection to the speaker jumping off a chair was less to do with the fact of bringing a chair on stage to jump off and more that I felt he could have worked harder to create tension through his words and actions that would have communicated his message more thoughtfully.
And if he had taken more time to work out exactly what he was intending to express, then he would have realised that jumping off a chair does not express the same emotional jeopardy as taking a leap of faith.

2. Will it be distracting?

If you have a prop on stage, some of the audience’s concentration will inevitably be diverted away from you and onto the prop.  Therefore, the presentation must lead up to a moment of revelation when the prop’s relevance suddenly becomes clear.  The audience should be thinking:
‘There is ‘you’ on the stage and there is this ‘prop’. - I wonder what the connection is.’
And then your presentation brings them together in an ‘Aha’ moment, and the audience thinks:
‘Now I get it!’
I remember a speaker talking about ‘life’, and next to him on a table was an egg.
While we listened to him, we were wondering the whole time:
‘Why is there an egg on the table?’
Having built up a picture of the preparation, the hard work, the goal setting and the ambition needed to succeed in life, he went to the table picked up the egg and dropped it on the floor to dramatically demonstrate how vulnerable and fragile we are to unforeseen set-backs and disasters that could destroy all the work and commitment and planning we had put in.
The speaker’s subject and the object came together in a revealing climax.
(I am not sure whose job it was to clean the stage afterwards.)
In contrast, sitting for five minutes wondering why there is a chair on stage to find that the speaker wanted to jump off it to reveal ‘the leap of faith’ left us thinking:
‘That was a lot of something for not very much.’

3. As proof

There is a reason why police constables come in uniform to speak to school students.
It removes any doubt about who they are and why they are there.
So if you delivered a speech as a volunteer firefighter, you might simply bring out a fire helmet, put it on the table, and not even refer to it.  It is there purely to underline your credibility.
An Olympic athlete might bring their medal with them on stage.
If you wanted to talk about the frustrations of breaking a limb and the wasted time spent in hospital, you could bring your old plaster cast with you on stage as a symbol of the frustration, but also to confirm to the audience that this is the proof that you are speaking from personal experience.

4. Something small that you can keep in a pocket

We can avoid the potential distraction of a prop on stage by having something small on our person:
a phone, a credit card, a train ticket, a set of keys.
These can be brought out at a significant moment and then put away afterwards.
Again, avoid being obvious: if you are only bringing out your phone to mimic a conversation you had with someone, we can already picture for ourselves what a phone conversation 'looks’ like. 
However, if the message is that your whole life and identity is contained on ‘this small piece of plastic card’
Then holding up a credit card could be visually dramatic.

5. Put it down!

One of the main challenges for speakers is to know what to do with your hands: we fiddle with our fingers, our rings, play with our hair, and scratch our heads – all of which can be distracting.  So, make sure that any prop that you bring out does not add to the distraction by being held and fiddled with while you move on to speak about something else.
Put it back in your pocket or lay it aside on a table close by.

6. Is it visible?

Small props are great as they can be kept on the speaker’s person and brought out when necessary.
However, could that mean that they are too small to see clearly?  If you have to explain in detail to the audience what you have in your hand, could you have done away with the prop and just used the explanation? 
Clearly, the size of the room will have a bearing.

7. To pass around

You may want the audience to have a chance to touch the object, in which case you could decide to lay the prop out before the presentation so that the audience can come up and feel it before the presentation starts.
In a smaller group, you could allow the prop to be handed round during the talk, but you must make sure that it does not become a distraction from what you are saying.
You could leave it on the table for the audience to look at after the presentation.
(- making sure that it remains safe and cannot be removed).

8. To tell a story

Part of the job of a speaker is to create clear imagery and then to attach their message to that image:
’ tell a story and make a point’. 
A prop can then become the focal point of the story, hence the Olympic athlete brings their gold medal out on stage.

9. As a symbol

A badge or a medal of honour could be used as a symbol the honour being discussed; a shard or a child’s burnt toy could be used as the point of focus when discussing a tragedy or loss of life

10. As a literal or metaphorical lynch-pin

I remember a speaker discussing an aircraft disaster when an aeroplane crashed into a mountain.
After much analysis, the conclusion was that the crew was so distracted by a warning light that unexpectedly came on that they lost focus on what was in front of them, out of the window.  The fault was the electrical connection, not the warning system and so the speaker could dramatically hold up ‘a five pence bulb’ as the cause of the accident.
The power of the lynch-pin prop is that it gives a vivid focus and probably a precise message to the presentation: a multi-billion pound catastrophe because of one faulty rivet; a child who lost their life because they would not leave their teddy bear behind; the thin strip of metal that saved a life.