Originally posted on May 23, from London.
“I was never a bird on the unpinioned wing,” Winston Churchill said. “When I got up to speak, I always knew precisely where every noun and adjective would go and how every piece of punctuation would bed into my speech.”
When Scott Morrison came out to give his concession speech on Saturday night, knowing precisely where every noun or adjective would go was the least of his concerns. He blustered his way through some engineered sincerity and rhetorical questions and got out of there. “How good was that?”
Then Albo, minus 20kgs, hit the stage in his sharp suit and New York Times theatre critic glasses and gave a performance for the ages. The content of Albo’s speech was always going to be great, thanks to his speechwriter James Jeffrey and team. But from an oratory point of view, Albo has taken the journey from politician-next-door to genuine leader. And what do genuine leaders look like? Comfortable. And how do you look comfortable? You’re still. In cricket, we talk about the batter’s head and feet needing to be perfectly still at the moment they strike the ball. Same with oratory. It’s hard to make a point when your whole body is in motion. Albo used to boyishly shift his body from side when he gave speeches, which might explain why he was underestimated. But that was gone on Saturday night, as was his unusual pronunciation of vowels. To be clear, this is not a piece sledging his pronunciation of vowels. He can say words however he likes. But what you don’t want as a mainstream politician is to let idiosyncratic pronunciation get in the way of your message. As soon as people go, “what did he say?” — you’ve lost.
Ancient literature was full of advice for orators. Surviving Latin and Greek texts deal with everything from how to move your hands or when to make a joke, to the rhythms, cadences and structures of effective oratory. And what they reveal is that while there’ll always be politicians born with the gift of the gab and the timing of great comedians, all the other tricks can be learned. You can speed through a vowel and lean on a consonant and suddenly the audience is yours. And on Saturday night, the audience in the room and at home, was Albo’s.
I’d like to think Albo’s improvement was less about a genie offering three wishes and more about some serious sweat in the rehearsal room — because there’s no shame in doing the hard yards in front of the mirror with a hairbrush in your hand. Churchill would spend more than 12 hours rehearsing his speeches and even longer on the impromptu responses. Oratory is like going to the gym. Training and repetition are the only ways your performance has a chance of matching what’s inside your heart.