When asked about the worst fear people have, one of the most common is public speaking. Yet, we love to watch public speakers deliver an address without missing a beat. How do they do it? How can they do the thing we fear the most? The answer is, they practice.
Boris Johnson, the British prime minister, arrives late to an event, where he is supposed to speak. He gets there 4 minutes before his time with disheveled hair, joins a random table then asks "Where am I exactly?"
The people at the table are just as worried as him, they tell him he is to speak next. He asks for a piece of paper and a pen, he scribbles some notes. Everyone is just as stressed as him. "How is he going to do it?" Boris gets up and heads to the podium. He forgets the piece of paper on the table.
Boris entertains the crowd with what seem like a half-baked speech. Boris brings the house down. It's a success.
18 months later, Boris is invited to make another speech. And of course, he arrives a few minutes before his time, with the same disheveled hair, and asks "What is this?" On the table, a person who was present in the earlier speech, see's it happen the exact same way it happened before.
Boris asks for a pen and paper, he squiggles the same thing, forgets the paper, entertain the crowd with the same jokes.
What looks like chaos is a perfectly rehearsed choreography. You can read the full story here.
No one shows up to a talk unprepared. No movie is shot in one take. No one delivers an address unprepared. All videos on YouTube are shot multiple times until the speaker can make a full sentence. All audio versions of articles I record are 1 hour long, before I edit it to 10 minutes.
What seems spontaneous is well planned and rehearsed.