The Mark Twain Prize for humor is awarded by the John F. Kennedy Center for performing Arts every year since 1998. This award is given to leading actor/comedian in the American industry. In 2011 Will Ferrell received the Mark Twain Comedy award. This is an analysis of the speech acceptance speech that he gave.
Will Ferrell upon accepting the award then dropped it and broke it on the stage. As you may know Ferrell is a highly known comedian and actor throughout the United States and across the world. The award for humor that he received could not have been given to a better candidate. Ferrell’s speech reflected the very reason that he received the award.
At the beginning of the speech he started off with a few jokes about breaking the award.
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He then moved into jokes about the speech that he was going to give and the band. He would not have been himself if he were not joking in some way shape or form; after all the award was for his humor. Something’s that he did very well was capturing the audience’s attention at the very start. It is important when giving any speech that the audience is receptive from the beginning. If the audience loses interest before you get started then you’re better off talking to yourself. Ferrell through his experience in comedy used this to his advantage to engage the audience while making them laugh at the same time. The setting for any type of awards ceremony would normally be a very formal speech.
In this case however under the circumstances that it was an award for humor there is leeway on how the speech could appropriately be delivered. He did a very good job at keeping the audiences attention throughout the whole speech even using aids such as his wife and other members in the crowd.
There were however something’s that he could improve on. While it may have been acceptable for Ferrell to take a less serious more comedic approach there still should have been some type of sense of seriousness. I felt through watching it that there was some places especially when he called out his wife that there may have been an awkward feeling in the room. You never want to give your speech where you make people in the crowd uncomfortable.
Overall, The speech was very well presented and had a decent balance of humor within it. There was a nice touch towards the end where he sincerely thanked people who had gotten him to where he is today. Whenever you receive an award it is always good to give credit where it is due as this can help you gain more respect from your audience. Speaking in to a group this large while on television is not something that everyone can do and I feel that Will Ferrell did a good job in demonstrating the message in which he wanted to get
across.
Eidenmuller, Michael E. Great Speeches for Better Speaking: Listen and Learn From America’s Most Memorable Speeches. New York: Mcgraw Hill, 2008. Google Books. Web. 4 September 2010.
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