A Banana and a Cuba Libre is not enough

Sunday. October 06, 2024 - 2 mins

If you caught glimpse of me before any of the big renditions of “Beat’s, Rhymes and Unit Tests”, you’d have seen these two hands equipped with a Banana and a Cuba Libre. This was a part of the pre-talk ritual I’d adopted to ensure enough energy and confidence was running through my veins in time for the crescendo. Whilst this isn’t true for the majority of my talks over the years, this session in particular required A LOT of confidence towards the end.

Pre-talk routines came into being to support a goal adopted early in my university journey. To become a good public speaker (the best was the goal to be honest), I controlled everything about the talk. . . including the physical and mental state. The routine was something I could recreate at home for some of the practice sessions. Ultimatly, this was to create a know state prior to the talk. Like most things in that life era, I worked really hard towards this goal, which ultimately led to a year jet setting around Europe, often with my partner.

Happy days.

Half a decade later, I’m still suffering the consequence of speaking (and rapping) on stage, the long days of endless practice, and countless evenings engaging in loud conversation in loud environments, plus life choices. The strain of all that speaking without considering voice prep has damaged my vocal chords, with one of the chords tearing mid talk during the biggest audience of my life.

Of course, they didn’t know and I carried on.

The result is nothing debilitating. Nothing that can’t be worked around. And nothing so serious that it prevents public speaking today. But it is something that needs to be addressing regularly by avoiding projecting as much as possible in the run up to any kind of talk or lecture. If the day prior involved a lot of talking, particularly in loud environments, I need a vocal warm up early the next day. . . just to be able to speak in more than a soft voice. Thankfully, this isn’t a show stoppper.

Much to the delight of my partner, the cure ultimately involves shutting up for extended periods of time. First time around, over a stretch of a few months!

In hindsight, a Banana coupled with a Cuba Libre isn’t the optimal vocal warm up.

Who knew 🤷‍♀️