Thursday, October 27, 2022

A teleprompter worst moment for an introducer

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When she was asked about the worst moment in her career, actress Abigail Breslin replied it happened back in 2009. She was just thirteen, and was supposed to introduce her idol Jane Goodall at an event in Washington D.C. Abigail described it in an article by Nina Metz in the Chicago Tribune on July 27, 2021 titled My worst moment: Abigail Breslin and the time she mistakenly impersonated Jane Goodall.

 

Abigail read the introduction from a teleprompter. But she didn’t stop until coming to a passage about going to the rainforest in 1972. Then Abby (who is dyslexic) finally realized she had read almost half of Jane’s speech. Whoever prepared the teleprompter script forgot to annotate it to show where the introduction ended and the speech began. Abby was so mortified she ran offstage and cried in the bathroom. Luckily when she went to apologize to Goodall, Jane just laughed it off.

 

At her Knockout Presentations Blog on March 9, 2022 Diane DiResta has a post titled 10 Tips to speak with a teleprompter. The sixth says:

 

“You’ll know the end is coming because it will be color coded. Usually the script will be in white and the final message will be in yellow.”

 

The cartoon of a teleprompter was adapted from one at Wikimedia Commons.

 


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