Cue the Teleprompter!
Have you ever wondered how newscasters and hosts of your favorite television shows manage to remember what to say with such apparent ease? All of us have wondered the same thing at one point or another. When growing up and watching TV we were in awe of their ability to speak with such fluidity. They seemed so smart!
These days we are not as naïve. We have seen films (“Anchorman” comes to mind) that depict characters involved in the media and have watched parody after parody of how it is done. In the old days a person stood beside the camera and held huge cue cards with the words to be spoken by the host. It was a challenging method – many cue cards were needed and the speaker had to depend on the timing of the person holding said cue cards.
For comic effect, David Letterman often seems to lose his place during the monologue. Tony Mendez, who holds the cue cards mixes them up or changes them too fast or too slow as part of the schtick.
Still others refer to hand held note cards or to printed notes. And those truly desperate, Sarah Palin comes to mind, write crib notes on their hands and are silly enough to think no one will notice when they look.
And so, what about those who speak flawlessly in front of the camera without any visible aid? They are the ones who keep up with technology and make use of it. Use of the Teleprompter is the answer!
