You may have seen or not the Britain’s Got Talent show on telly. This year it was won by a formidable act called Attraction.
They come from Hungary and what do they do? You can see it for yourself and trust me it’s really worth watching. This is their audition.
Now shadow theatre group is not a brand new idea, look around and you will find many other good acts (Pilobolus is the first one to spring to my mind). I am not here to compare them but I would like to underline three great things Attraction did, amongst many other. Those are three points we can learn embrace in our acts, including delivering presentations.
The first one is storytelling. The use of the shadows is surely spectacular but what glues our attention to the act is the story. The storytelling brings the act to another level: from clever dancing to highly entertaining. And the use of emotions, real ones, pulls heart-strings.
The judges put them through the next round, the semifinals. This is their next performance. If you enjoyed the first one you will not be disappointed by this one.
It is the same story but since the audience it was mainly the same one as the audition they polished it more and offered new elements to it. For new viewers it was exciting. People who saw them before are still hooked to the screen because there is a different twist to it and curiosity kicks in. Again the story, again emotional (and by the way it’s a real story related to the choreographer). This time it was up to the public to decide who’d make it to the final and they won their semifinal.
In the final they could have used one of their previous performances or polish refine even more the last one. Rather they decide to thank the British public for their votes and do something else. Here it is, it looks as good as the other ones but I believe you have to be British for a deep emotional impact.
It is now the story of a country, but still a story. Even more, it is perfectly targeted at the audience, to make sure that it will strike a cord and resonate with their emotions.
Again it was up to them, the audience, to decide and this Hungarian shadow theatre group came up on top ahead of other act also very talented.
What are the three lessons we can embrace and use for ourself?
- One of the most effective way to convey a message and conquer audience attention is through storytelling. If you can incorporate an emotional story in your presentation even better.
- If you deliver often the same presentation try to improve it and polish it every time. It will become better over time and you will not bore people who has already attended a previous speech of yours.
- Research your audience. Who they are? What will resonate with them? What references will they understand and trigger their emotions?
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