Thomas: Hello and welcome to episode 14 of season two of the Presentation Boss podcast. It is delightful to have you with us for what is gonna be another speech breakdown where Kate and I, we watch a speech, a presentation of some kind on the internet, and we pause and make comment as we go along.

And I’m a little bit excited because, Kate, this is one that you are quite keen on that you found and have suggested.

Kate: Yes. So today we are watching listening to a Commencement Speech by Tim Minchin. And I love commencement speeches because in general, you know, they’re at such a kind of hopeful time in life where people are graduating some kind of university college someone quite successful is coming and giving them some kind of advice for their career, their life, whatever it may be. I love commencement speeches. They’re a very specific type of speech, um, designed to be motivational, inspirational, that kind of thing. And also I really, like Tim Minchin, I just find him a really interesting, amusing, hilarious, you know, um, just a great person to listen to. I think he’s got some really sage advice.

So the combine those two things. And we have Tim Minchin’s commencement speech for the University of Western Australia. This was years ago. Um, it was 2013, so we’re talking 13 years ago. And yes, we will have a think about the kind of techniques that he uses. Again, it’s a very formal, very kind of specific type of speech at a lectern.

Thomas: Yeah. And um, I, I was just thinking like, who is Tim Minchin? I know we had this discussion ’cause I said he’s a comedian.

Kate: Oh, and I said he’s a mus, a musician.

Thomas: He’s a comedic musician or a musical comedian. One of the two. Yeah.

Kate: Mm. I see him first and foremost as a musician who happens to do comedy because he wrote the mat, the musical Matilda, and he is a phenomenal pianist.

Thomas: Yeah,

Kate: but you see him for his comedy. Yeah.

Thomas: Yeah, I’ve seen, I’ve seen him at comedy shows

Kate: Yeah.

Thomas: that’s my association. Alright, let’s have a listen of Tim Minchin’s commencement address to the University of Western Australia in 2013 called Nine Life Lessons.

Tim Minchin: Please welcome Mr. Tim Minchin.

In darker days, I did a corporate gig at a conference for this big company who made and sat and sold accounting software in a bid. I presumed to inspire their salespeople, the greater heights. They’d forked out 12 grand for an inspirational speaker who was this extreme sports guy who had had a couple of his limbs frozen off when he got stuck on a ledge on some mountain.

It was weird. Software salespeople, I think, need to hear from someone who has had a long, successful and happy career in software sales, not from an overly optimistic ex mountaineer, some poor guy who had arrived in the morning hoping to learn more about sales techniques, ended up going home, worried about the blood flow to his extremities.

It’s not inspirational, it’s confusing. And if the mountain was meant to be a symbol of life’s challenges and the loss of limbs, a metaphor for sacrifice, the software guy’s not gonna get it. Is he? ’cause he didn’t do an arts degree, did he? He should have. Arts degrees are awesome and they help you find meaning where there is none.

And let me assure you, there is none. Don’t go looking for it. Searching for meaning is like searching for a rhyme scheme in a cookbook. You won’t find it and it’ll bugger up your souffle.

Kate: Okay, this is a really interesting introduction. He has started with a story and so far he’s said nothing inspirational at all. He’s just trying to capture attention. is, this is someone who’s going to be easy to listen to, amusing to listen to. He’s just setting up with really lighthearted humour. Um, and I think this is a mistake that a lot of people try to do, is they try and open with like inspiration.

And today I am going to tell you about,

Thomas: Yep.

Kate: whereas this is just straight into a story, I must say I find him a little bit monotone, quite ironically.

Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. He is clearly got a bit of a script or an outline there he is referencing and it is a bit the, the safe approach almost.

Kate: It’s like, there’s like, um, no cadence. It’s not easy to listen to. It’s like you’ve gotta add your own punctuation.

Thomas: Yeah, I like the choice of that story too, is kind of just calling out that I’m here doing some kind of inspirational speech, and I appreciate that inspirational speech is sometimes a bit, what’s the word?

Kate: naff

Thomas: Yeah, tacky, mismatched. Like you said, it just makes it feel like this is gonna be easy to listen to.

This is somebody who gets what he’s been asked to do and maybe the, uh, the difficulty of that for an audience.

Kate: Yeah. And I don’t know if he’s gonna call it out. I’ve not watched this speech in like 10 years. I just know that I like it. Um, but I wonder if it’s also to call out like, I have not done this arts degree that you guys are graduating from. Like, he’s getting his honour honorary doctorate, but he’s also not done the same thing.

He’s not coming from the same path. know. Let’s see if he calls it out. Let’s keep going.

Tim Minchin: If you didn’t like that metaphor, you won’t like the rest of it. Point being, I’m not an inspirational speaker. I’ve never lost a limb on a mountain side metaphorically or otherwise, and I’m certainly not here to give career advice ’cause Well, I’ve never really had what most would consider a job. However, I have had large groups of people listening to what I say for quite a few years now and it’s given me an inflated sense of self-importance.

So I will now at the ripe old age of 37.9, bestow upon you nine life lessons to echo. Of course, the nine Lessons of Carol’s of the traditional Christmas service, which is also pretty obscure. You might find some of this stuff inspiring. You’ll definitely find some of it boring and you’ll definitely forget all of it within a week.

And be warn, there’ll be lots of hokey similes and obscure aphorisms, which start well but end up making no sense. So listen up, or you’ll get lost like a blind man clapping in a pharmacy, trying to echo locate the contact lens fluid.

Kate: You can tell that this guy writes for a living and writes poetry for a living. ’cause essentially that’s what songs are, right? The I am finding it difficult almost to keep up with what he’s saying. It’s like I just have to absorb kind of the vibe of it and not get too hung up on the words.

Thomas: Yeah. Yeah. A pause here wouldn’t go astray at key locations. Yeah.

Kate: Yeah, like, I love it. Um, I feel a great sense of inferiority because he is younger than I am now giving this speech. Um, but yeah, the, the words like it, it is poetry. I just wish it was presented like poetry and not just spoken like he’s reading out song lyrics, you know, like you read out song lyrics and it doesn’t have the same effect as when they’re sung.

I feel like it’s the same mismatch. I could just be projecting what I think of him probably as a musician too.

Thomas: Keep going.

Tim Minchin: Looking for my old poetry teacher. Here we go. Ready? One. You don’t have to have a dream. Americans on Talent shows always talk about their dreams. Fine. If you have something you’ve always wanted to do dreamed of, like in your heart, go for it. After all, it’s something to do with your time chasing a dream.

And if it’s a big enough one, it’ll take you most of your life to achieve. So by the time you get to it and are staring to the, into the abyss of the meaninglessness of your achievement, you’ll be almost dead. So it won’t matter. I never really had one of these dreams, and so I advocate. Passionate, dedication to the pursuit of short-term goals.

Be micro ambitious. Put your head down and work with pride on whatever is in front of you. You never know where you might end up. Just be aware. The next worthy pursuit will probably appear in your periphery, which is why you should be careful of long-term dreams. If you focus too far in front of you, you won’t see the shiny thing out the corner of your eye.

Right? Good advice, metaphor. Look at me. Go. Two. Don’t seek happiness. Happiness is like an orgasm. If you think about it too much, it goes away.

Keep busy and aim to make someone else happy and you might find you get some as a side effect. We didn’t evolve to be constantly content contented. Homoerectus got eaten before passing on their genes. Three, remember, it’s all luck. You are lucky to be here. You are incalculably, incalculably, lucky to be born and incredibly lucky to be brought up by a nice family that helped you get educated and encouraged you to go to uni or if you were born into a horrible family.

That’s unlucky and you have my sympathy. But you are still lucky. Lucky that you happened to be made of the sort of DNA that went on to make the sort of brain, which when placed in a horrible childhood environment would make decisions. That meant you ended up eventually graduating uni. Well done you for dragging yourself up by your shoe laces, but you were lucky you didn’t create the bit of you that dragged you up.

They’re not even your shoe laces. I suppose I worked hard to achieve whatever dubious achievements I’ve achieved, but I didn’t make the bit of me that works hard and more than any, more than I made the bit of me that ate too many burgers instead of attending lectures when I was here at uwa. A understanding that you can’t truly take credit for your successes nor truly blame others for their failures will humble you and make you more compassionate.

Empathy is intuitive, but is also something you can work on intellectually. Four exercise, I’m sorry, you pasty pale smoking philosophy grads arching your eyebrows into a Cartesian curve. As you watch the human movement mob winding their way through them, the miniature traffic cones of their existence, you are wrong and they are right.

Well, you’re half right. You think therefore you are, but also you jog therefore you sleep. Therefore, you’re not overwhelmed by existential angst. You can’t be can’t, and you don’t want to be. Play a sport, do yoga, pump iron, run, whatever, but take care of your body. You’re gonna need it. Most of you mob are gonna live to nearly a hundred and even the poorest of you will achieve a level of wealth that most humans throughout history could not have dreamed of, and this long, luxurious life ahead of you is going to make you depressed.

Kate: Wow. Okay. So what are we up to? Uh, rule four. He’s really smashing through these kind of notes. I think I’m now a little bit annoyed that at the rate of speech, because. I feel like it’s really taking away from the words, it’s monotone, it’s fast. I, I want to sit in it, to think about it. Um, I’m just struggling with the speed of this, which again, he’s known for, he’s known for like fast song lyrics, and maybe this is kind of something that you are meant to go back on and, and think about and watch later.

Thomas: Yeah, it’s definitely a type of thing. I like, wanna read the transcript of it? There’s really clever lines in there.

Kate: Yeah.

Thomas: you, you think therefore you are, but you sleep there for, uh, sorry. You, you run, therefore you sleep so you don’t, and it’s like, you can’t be can’t. I was like, oh, that’s a really good philosophical like reference.

And I noticed, I dunno who the guy in the background is. He looks like boss of the uni or something.

Kate: I think he’s some kind of dean. I’ve not been to university for 20 years. Um, I think he, yeah, he’s some, Tim keeps looking back to him for like I don’t.

Thomas: But, but he’s certainly playing along. He is enjoying this speech as

Kate: He is.

Thomas: watch the, you know, the boss of the uni, um, enjoying it. But yeah, there is really clever lines in there that I, yeah, they need a moment. And I wonder, is, is nine lessons too many for the time he’s given? It was the time he was given not enough. Um, he’s, yeah. Really shifting through it. Um, yeah, it’s kind of the same comment. Yeah.

Kate: Hmm. All right, let’s keep going.

Tim Minchin: But don’t despair. There is an inverse correlation between depression and exercise. Do it. Run my beautiful intellectuals run. Five, be hard on your opinions. A famous Bon Ma asserts that opinions are like assholes in that everyone has one. There is great wisdom in this, but I would add that opinions differ significantly from assholes and that yours should be constantly and thoroughly examined.

I used to do exams in here.

It’s revenge. We must think critically and not just about the ideas of others. Be hard on your beliefs. Take them out onto the veranda and hit them with a cricket bat. Be intellectually rigorous. Identify your biases, your prejudices, your privileges. Most of society’s arguments are kept alive by a failure.

To acknowledge nuance, we tend to generate false dichotomies and then try to argue one point using two entirely different sets of assumptions, like two tennis players trying to win a match by hitting beautifully executed shots from either end of separate tennis courts. By the way, while I have science and arts graduates in front of me, please don’t make the mistake of thinking the arts and sciences are at odds with one another.

That is a recent stupid and damaging idea. You don’t have to be unscientific to make beautiful art, to write beautiful things. If you need proof twain Douglas Adams VT McEwen Sagan, Shakespeare Dickens for a start. You don’t need to be superstitious to be a poet. You don’t need to hate GM technology to care about the beauty of the planet.

You don’t have to claim a soul to promote compassion. Science is not a body of knowledge nor a belief system. It is just a term which describes humankind’s incremental acquisition of understanding through observation. Science is awesome. The arts and sciences need to work together to improve how knowledge is communicated.

The idea that many Australians, including our new PM and my distant cousin Nick, mentioned, believe that science, the science of anthropogenic global warming is controversial, is a powerful indicator of the extent of our failure to communicate. The fact that 30% of the people in this room just bristled is further evidence.

Still, the fact that that bristling is more to do with politics than science is even more despairing. Six.

Kate: Wow, okay. way that this was just done, I was beautiful and don’t think it was any better words wise, but it’s like he’s like calmed down and remembered that he knows how to be on stage because the pause that was used then was so effective. It actually looks and feels like he’s gotten comfortable and like.

Thomas: which, which pause are you looking at there? The one we, before the six?

Kate: It was this one about the, the science. It was, I make this statement, people have it for a few seconds. I make another statement. It was, um, uh, “climate change is not attributed to science”. Pause. Your bristling is a result of” pause. It was letting people actually think and absorb each of those statements, which I wish was earlier in the piece as well.

’cause it’s really effective.

Thomas: I really like e we had sort of this uh, deeper content we were just talking about, about the politics and he was getting quite serious toned. And then the six we’re into the next one is a really cheery tones like, oh, right, we’ve talked about the sort of dark thing. Add lightness back in Nice contrast.

Tim Minchin: Be a teacher. Please, please, please be a teacher. Teachers are the most admirable and important people in the world. You don’t have to do it forever, but if you’re in doubt about what to do, be an amazing teacher. Just for your twenties, be a teacher. Be a primary school teacher, especially if you’re a bloke.

We need male primary school teachers. Even if you’re not a teacher, be a teacher. Share your ideas. Don’t take for granted your education. Rejoice in what you learn and spray it. Seven, define yourself by what you love. I found myself doing this thing a bit recently where if someone asked me what sort of music I like, I say, well, I don’t listen to the radio because pop song lyrics annoy me.

Or if someone asks me what food I like, I say, I think truffle oil is overused and slightly obnoxious, and I see it all the time online. People whose idea of being part of a subculture is to hate Coldplay or football or feminists or the liberal party. We have a tendency to define ourselves in opposition to stuff.

As a comedian, I make my living out of it. But try to also express your passion for things you love. Be demonstrative and generous in your praise of those you admire. Send thank you cards and give standing ovations. Be pro stuff, not just anti stuff. Eight, respect people with less power than you. I have in the past made important decisions about people.

I work with, agents and producers, big decisions based largely on how they treat the wait staff in the restaurants we’re having the meeting in. I don’t care if you’re the most powerful cat in the room. I will judge you on how you treat the least powerful. So there,

nine, finally, don’t rush. You don’t need to already know what you’re gonna do with the rest of your life. I’m not saying sit around smoking cones all day, but also don’t panic. Most people I know who were sure of their career path at 20 are having midlife crises now. I said at the beginning of this ramble, which is already three and a half minutes long, that life is meaningless.

It was not a flippant assertion. I think it’s absurd. The idea of seeking meaning in the set of circumstances that happens to exist after 13.88 billion years worth of unguided events. Leave it to humans to think the universe has a purpose for them. However, I’m no nihilist. I’m not even a cynic. I am actually rather romantic.

And here’s my idea of romance. You’ll soon be dead. Life will sometimes seem long and tough, and God, it’s tiring and you will sometimes be happy and sometimes sad, and then you’ll be old and then you’ll be dead. There is only one sensible thing to do with this empty existence, and that is fill it, not fill it, fill it, and in my opinion, until I change it, life is best filled by learning as much as you can about as much as you can.

Taking pride in whatever you’re doing, having compassion, sharing ideas, running, being enthusiastic, and then there’s love and travel and wine and sex and art, and kids and giving and mountain climbing. But you know all that stuff already. It’s an incredibly exciting thing. This one, meaningless life of yours.

Good luck and thank you for indulging me.

Kate: And that’s it. Wow. Okay. This is, um, this is a really interesting structure. I think I was expecting, because again, I have not watched this in a long time. I think I was expecting it to all kind of culminate in one overarching lesson.

Thomas: Yes, exactly what you mean. Yes.

Kate: And it felt like it ended reasonably abruptly. Which I don’t think is necessarily wrong, it’s just different to what I expected. Um, I mean, he did give nine quite clear points. It’s not like it was a 10 minute long ramble. It was nine very structured

Thomas: You know what this all reminds me of, kind of the cadence and that structure is the Mary Schmich poem, uh, wear Sunscreen, which Baz Luhrmann had his way with,

Kate: Yes.

Yes. It was just kind of a barrage of advice.

Thomas: Yeah, it was that, you know this from memory in the intro she says like, of this life, I have all this advice and inspiration, which we, I will dispense of now. And the big thing is like where sunscreen, it’s like this small thing that makes a big difference, but there’s a lot of like, almost like the, this list of nine lessons that Tim Minchin has just run out.

Um, but what Tim Minchin, I think does differently is it’s not just advice. He does mix it with comedy. I stand by, he’s a

Kate: Hmm.

Thomas: uh,

Kate: He actually, did you, did you hear him refer to himself as a comedian?

Thomas: I missed it.

Kate: Oh yeah.

Thomas: vindication was there

Kate: Yeah. I was like, oh damn.

Thomas: So that’s, that’s really what it reminds me of. And I wonder if there’s a, an element of inspiration from Tim Minchin from, from that poem or what, but certainly when we are thinking about the structure, the cadence, the kind of vibe of it, that’s what I was just thinking this whole time. Um, I’m curious, and I think this brings up the interesting question that we get posed, Kate, which is, which is more important, ss it brilliant script writing or brilliant delivery? Like, which is

Kate: Mm.

Thomas: more important?

Kate: Oh, this is so hard because I, I actually quite like your analogy with, uh, uh, you are likening it to the Wear Sunscreen because that poem, song, whatever it is, is designed to be listened to over and over again. And as I said before, I feel like this, Tim Minchin this 10 minute piece should be listened to over and over again to really absorb everything that he’s actually saying.

I feel like one listened through is not enough. Um, and it makes me quite concerned. It’s a strong word. Um, but at the beginning he says you won’t remember it after a week, but you know where sunscreen is something that we all remember. All of us remember that 20, 30 years later. Um, and I wish that this was similar because it is really poignant advice and it is good advice.

It’s not something that should be forgotten after a week.

Thomas: What, what’s the fix there? Is that, do you, would it be worth him saying like, um, you know, you’ll probably forget a bunch of this in a week, but I encourage you to watch it again. Listen to it again. I don’t know. There’s a handout.

Kate: Yeah, sorry, I, I kind of forgot your question. Um, because it, it comes back to is script or delivery. I think in this case the script is so good, but I think that the delivery let it down. But again, if you listened to it over and over that fast paceness, you would get used to, and then the delivery would not be an issue in this setting, I think the delivery is more important.

Thomas: Yep.

Kate: But in general, like if this was something that he released as, you know, a Spotify track, the words would be much more important. Does that make sense?

Thomas: Does, because ordinarily in day-to-day life, people to your presentations, meetings for your message. That’s, they’re constantly asking is what can I get out of this? I know we discussed this with Katrina in a bit of depth, is they just looking for what can I get out this? What’s the message?

And in that case, the script matters and the delivery kind of less so. But when we’re looking at somebody who is a performer and Tim mentioned is a performer of comedy and or music, and certainly in this case in front of, as a commencement, address, he is performing something kind of hunting for a bit more delivery, not, you know, a perfect sort of stadium filling, um, delivery.

But I think you’re right. I think it, the delivery on this, let down the brilliance of that script writing just a bit.

Kate: Hmm.

Thomas: What do you give it outta 10? What’s your score?

Kate: Oh, this is so hard. I wanna give it, I think I wanna give it a six because I love the script, but I was really disappointed by the delivery and, I want to like it more than I do. ’cause I really love Tim Minchin.

Thomas: Yeah, I love some of his work. You’re so right. Um, I’m probably not a big Tim Minchin fan, but I’ve certainly, of what I have seen of his, I have enjoyed, I would like to give it more. Six was the number I had in mind too. I should have written it down just to prove it, but.

Kate: Yeah, I think he almost felt, um, like not worthy to be there or something. That’s the feeling that I got from it was like, I shouldn’t be giving this kind of speech. I don’t know.

Thomas: Which is interesting. Like I, I had a look, you know, he graduated from that same university, um, in English and theatre. He got his honorary doctorate, which happened just after this, this speech, like the same event. I believe he certainly worthy of being there. And we talked about that in the start where he sort of made that comment about the mountain climber speaking to the salespeople.

Like there’s a, there’s a mismatch of, um, there’s a mismatch of inspirational speeches to audiences. It sometimes doesn’t land. It felt like he was addressing that and calling it out, but in retrospect now it feels like maybe an admission of, he didn’t feel like he should be there. Just,

Kate: Yeah.

Thomas: I think that’s just based on his delivery. kind of just

Kate: Yeah. Yeah. ’cause the advice is so good.

Thomas: Okay. Is there anything more to say about Tim Minchin’s 2013 commencement address.

Kate: I don’t think so, but I am going to go and watch it myself probably at least one more time, maybe two times, depending on how well I absorb it the second time.

Thomas: That’s fair and I’m probably gonna go watch the Baz Lurhmann’s Everybody’s Free to Wear Sunscreen

Kate: Of course. Yeah.

Thomas: so long. Yeah. Alright. Look, if you’ve enjoyed this episode, we like to talk about what makes good speeches and presentations and what can be improved. Um, come and hang out with Kate and I I’m gonna put a link to our online community. It’s called the Influential Analyst Academy. I’ll put a link down in the, uh, the show notes. Otherwise, that’s been Tim Minchin’s commencement address to the University of Western Australia back in 2013. That’s like we said, 13 years ago. Thank you very much for hanging out with us.

Kate: Yes, of course. If you have any kind of presentation, any speech that you’d like us to break down, please send us the link. We love suggestions, love different types of speeches. Send it to us at podcast@presentationboss.com.au

Thomas: for sure if you’d like to find more resources and other episodes from this podcast and you should subscribe if you enjoyed it. Uh, head to presentationboss.com.au/podcast.

Kate: Have a great week.