Doing Speeches No One Has Ever Done Before (That You Know Of)

Why is it important to us to do speeches that no one has ever done before? Well, if you've ever seen an interp on Pride and Prejudice or Little Women, then you know it's not always important to everyone to do a speech that no one has done before ever. But sometimes it is. And we like it and this post is therefore Topical. So ha.

My new LD coach told me I'm not supposed to end arguments with So ha, but then it became kind of a joke in our club (not that I was saying it). Plus this isn't really an argument. If he's reading this... ha. That's all I have to say.

Sorry. I actually have more to say about the post at hand. On the screen. I guess if you're reading this here blog on a mobile device (or caressing your laptop... never mind) it could be both at hand and on-screen, but only about 4% of you guys do. Which reminds me. If you are of that 4%, you may officially consider yourself a CHSADH, for Christian Homeschooled Speech and Debate Hipster, which is also a valid moniker for those of us who insist on doing speeches that no one has ever done before that we know of, even though it's not always important to everyone to do a speech that no one has done before ever. But sometimes it is. So ha.

Advantages of hipsterness? Well, it's certainly admirable to be original. For some of us, original means controversial, but for others, it means thinking outside the box. My first interp/speech ever was on a novel entitled "Bloody Jack." If you're wondering why I thought that would fly in the Christian homeschool community, I have no idea. But fly it did. However, judging by the title alone, I'm faiirrlly certain I was the first to run that piece by script submission. My first HI was so obscure, one judge went so far as to say it wasn't an interp at all! Talk about non-mainstream. (also, he gave me third place. Apparently he thinks non-interp interps are at least a little bit cool) My first platform was a little odd as well, but, in my opinion, in a really fantastic way. It was also quite political with lots of numbers, and not one of your typical girl OOs which tend to be on abstract and fuzzy concepts. But at the time, none of my speeches were "girl speeches." Not only because I often had more guy characters than girls in interps, but also because the nature of the pieces and speeches themselves were abnormal. What can I say? I'm a speech hipster.

Sometimes. Apparently at other times, I'm not. I realized this after selecting a platform close to my heart that had evidently been covered before, though not quite over done. Yet. And I realized this after selecting one interp and being told that it was very popular a number of years before, and then discovering a few months later than it had won Nationals many millenia before I even knew speech and debate were separate entities, let alone that I might enjoy both of them. Silly Chandler. In fact, I didn't find out someone won with my piece until last Nationals when I thought "AND IT CAN HAPPEN AGAIN" and then it didn't. But I'm cool with it.

Other advantages include avoiding the risk of the ballots telling you the person before you had the same piece or topic. That's gotta be annoying. At the last NITOC, if my calculations are correct, approximately 18 ballots could have been noted with such remarks, and 18 saying the speaker after you had the same topic. All of these ballots were in finals, by the way. It could have happened a lot more often earlier on. And whether it did, I don't know. Oh by the way, at least two of the ballot-receivers were not negatively affected but in fact won their respective events. But still. The comment would get old.

Additionally, it's fun to be weird. You're homeschooled, for crying out loud.

I don't have to tell you twice. But I will.

You're homeschooled, for crying out loud, and it's fun to be weird.